The Urban League of Greater Madison Young Professionals (ULGMYP) will host their second annual Health and Wellness Fair on Sunday, May 4, at Madison College’s Truax Campus.
The event, which will run from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., is designed to give community members tools and resources to better their health across multiple dimensions — physical, mental, and financial.
“What this event hopes to accomplish is not only allowing our members as a part of the young professionals organization to learn more about their health and their wellness and how to find tools to really lean into practicing better healthy practices, but it also wants to encourage our community to do it as well,” said Bobbie Briggs, ULGMYP personal and professional development chair.
Briggs said this kind of event is especially important for the population ULGMYP serves.
“We are an organization that serves the population of 21- to 40-year-olds. That younger end, you’re literally only, what, three years old in adult years for real. You’re really starting to figure out yourself,” Briggs said. “You’re wrapping up your college years … literally jumping into your career or heading into next steps, … That is a very stressful time in your life. And a lot of those things that we talk about and address at the Health and Wellness Seminar kind of sit at the bottom of your list of priorities.”
Briggs said the organization is hoping to attract 100 people to the event — triple last year’s attendance — and will have space for 150.
The keynote speakers include Afra Smith, founder of the Melanin Project, who will speak on financial health, and Myra McNair, founder of Anesis Center for Marriage & Family Therapy, who will focus on mental health.
Other speakers include Dr. Anna Mirer, Family Medicine Physician at Presence Primary Care in Milwaukee; Dr. India Anderson-Carter, OB/Gyn at UW-Health and Assistant Professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Medicine and Public Health; and Dr. Keven Stonewall, Family Medicine resident physician at Northwestern Medicine in Chicago.
There will also be breakout sessions and health screenings. Local clinic 360 Wellness will offer casual health surveys and body screenings during the registration hour, and participants will have a chance to win a free consultation in a raffle.
Following the keynote addresses, attendees will have the opportunity to attend breakout sessions focused on men’s health, women’s health, and gender-affirming care.
“Our participants will get to choose which one they would like to attend,” Briggs said. “We will have note takers in the space to gather good gems from each of those breakout sessions that we will share with attendees, so that way they’re not missing out on the good gems that are even talked about in the sessions that they couldn’t sit in physically on as well.”
Ultimately, organizers hope participants leave the event ready to take action.
“I want folks to walk away with an action plan of how they can better live their lives honestly, whether that is in the realm of mental health, physical health or financial health,” Briggs said. “I want them to walk away saying, like, Oh, that was a good tool that I can immediately implement into my life that will help me on my journey of wellness.”
Tickets for the ULGMYP Health and Wellness Seminar are $10 for students, $25 for ULGYMP members and $35 for all others, and are available at this link.
