We recently connected with Leslie Casey Blake and have shared our conversation below.
Leslie, sincerely appreciate your selflessness in agreeing to discuss your mental health journey and how you overcame and persisted despite the challenges. Please share with our readers how you overcame. For readers, please note this is not medical advice, we are not doctors, you should always consult professionals for advice and that this is merely one person sharing their story and experience.
My life was full of challenges, but I finally faced my fears and created a positive from a negative. For most of her adult life, my mother, Eunice Casey, struggled with schizophrenia. It was something I didn’t want to talk about for years. I thought that her mental health issues represented a part of me. Because of this, I didn’t want to accept that my mother was sick. So, as a young adult, I would always shy away from the topic of my mother. However, when my maternal grandmother passed away, and my mother followed her 11 days later in September of 2000 from leukemia, my views changed. At 30, an only child, I was all alone. For years, I thought about what I could do to best honor my mother, and then, in 2010, I founded the nonprofit The Eunice Casey Foundation, which supports families dealing with mental illness and homelessness. Over the years, the nonprofit has added helping disadvantaged students in Baltimore City.
Thanks for sharing that. So, before we get any further into our conversation, can you tell our readers a bit about yourself and what you’re working on?
As the Founder and Executive Director of The Eunice Casey Foundation, Inc., the foundation brings awareness to mental illness, homelessness, and disadvantaged youth. As a young child, I witnessed first-hand the struggles of mental illness and homelessness while growing up with my mother. The struggles impacted me so much that they fueled my passion and commitment to make a difference. Some service campaigns initiated through ECF include supporting the Baltimore Station by providing meal donations, clothing, and water to homeless vets. This year, ECF was excited to hold our first Mental Health Summit in September 2023.
Additionally, ECF has spearheaded a yearly campaign for the past three years to give book bags and supplies to students in several Baltimore City Public Schools. In 2022, our bookbag drive raised over $200 in donations and over 100 bookbags filled with school supplies for students. We also received meal donations and school supplies from Nando’s Peri Peri Restaurants because of our work in the book bag drive. ECF will also support students with a scholarship program to help High School Seniors in their college journey.
ECF also sponsors fun events to raise money for our mission. During my birthday month, we have a fundraising event that includes entertainment and music. Lastly, we have sponsored our Atlantic City Day Bus Trips for six years. In 2024, we plan to host an overnight bus trip. These events bring people together to have fun for a worthy cause. Our future endeavors are establishing a mental health therapy group to support families and individuals and a theatre summer camp to bring the arts back to students in Baltimore City. The latter idea was created when I initiated a theater program at my school several years ago. The plays that I directed were The Wiz, The Lion King, Annie Jr, and The Little Mermaid Jr.
Finally, along with my nonprofit work, I am an accomplished singer and actress. I have performed in New York City, Washington, DC, Los Angeles, and Baltimore for several years, including releasing two albums, an EP called Take a Chance in 2006 and Let’s Play in 2010.
Throughout this process, my husband Brian Blake has been a tremendous supporter and helps keep me grounded when I pursue my many endeavors. I cannot do what I do without his undying love and support. These are the type of loving individuals you need in your journey.
Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?
The three qualities or skills you need to pursue your journey are determination, belief in your project, and patience. In my experience, not everyone will support or encourage you at the beginning of your journey. However, when you get that core group who believes in your project, you must be willing to nurture it and stay the course; eventually, you will begin to see your project come to fruition. My motto….Always believe in yourself.
One of our goals is to help like-minded folks with similar goals connect and so before we go we want to ask if you are looking to partner or collab with others – and if so, what would make the ideal collaborator or partner?
As this nonprofit continues to grow, I would love to connect with other organizations to work on various projects. Businesses can work together and promote each other simultaneously. I’m looking for other nonprofits with similar missions, entertainers for our multiple functions, and people who would love to join ECF. If interested, please visit our website, www.eunciecaseyfoundation.org, or email us at theecforg@gmail.com. I look forward to connecting with you.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.eunicecaseyfoundation.org
- Instagram: The Eunice Casey Foundation
- Facebook: The Eunice Casey Foundation
Image Credits
Enhanced Visions Photography VySyn Photography
