- Tom Bodett said, "a person needs just three things to truly be happy in this world.

Someone to love, something to do and something to hope for."

While our Hope Giver Giovan Bazan hasn't found his perfect partner yet.

He sure has found something to do and something to hope for.

This week's episode takes us to Chicago to catch up with our good friend G. (upbeat music) (techno music) (crowd shouts inidstinctly) - Mental health matters because I know what it's like to live in a prison, a prison in my mind.

Because of what society has told me about what it means to have a mental health challenge.

So mental health matters because there's people who don't know it's okay to have gone through what they've been through.

As a child, I grew up in the foster care system.

I went from placement to placement growing up in the foster care system.

When I was five and my foster mom passed, they started putting me on psychotropic medications.

And everyone just believed that they were doing the right thing.

In the movie Get Out, they talk about the sunken place.

And that's how I felt being on medication that I was constantly engulfed in this, in this sunken place within myself.

And so their intentions were good, but the long-term impact of the psychotropic medications weren't conducive to my recovery.

When I was at the Georgia General Assembly, and I was saying you know, "we need to stop medicating foster children as the only and first response to their trauma."

My foster brother he was like, you know Giovan you're the only person out there who's actually saying this.

Everyone has always said, be obedient and obey the authority.

And the authority is telling me that I'm broken and this pill will fix me.

And I didn't understand how relevant, how meaningful that was until I got the phone call that he took his own life.

That's when it became real.

That's when it became, this is no longer about me being passionate and sharing my personal story.

This is about us changing legislation that will save lives because it is that serious.

Advocacy isn't about, I'm speaking for you.

It's about I'm sharing what I've learned from my journey, and I'm inspiring you and holding space open for you so that you can share your journey and find healing and power in that yourself.

Like most people who have been through traumatic experiences, we know what that pain feels like and we don't want other people to feel it.

Because I was that little kid, that little kid who was in a Gwinnett County Courthouse, who was standing up in the wall with all his belongings in a small little suitcase.

While adults in the courtroom decided the entire trajectory of my life, who didn't even know me.

And that little kid who had decided that no matter where they were going to put me, I was going to kill myself because I was tired of the pain.

In the past, I would always cover up my scars, I'd never talk about them, I'd never share those experiences.

But because someone told me and held space for me, an adult held space for me to say, what is your story?

What have you gone through?

What have you learned?

Then we were able to to collaboratively say what works, what doesn't work and how can we improve this?

Being able to look at myself as the person I was before my foster mom died before I was molested before I was physically abused.

Before all of that, I was curious, I was compassionate and I had an insatiable thirst to just explore the world around me and connect with people.

I'm not an expert on anyone's mental health but my own, but because I've gone through so much trauma and because I've stood and stared that trauma in the face, I choose for this experience to cultivate me into this person.

And not to make me bitter and not to make me turn away from my passion and my purpose in life.

It's necessary for you to share your story.

It's necessary for the young people who will come after you.

Society doesn't move by you being quiet.

The status quo remains the same kids fall through the cracks.

Challenges become a death sentences to people.

And that changes when we share our story.

When we stand up and say, we will no longer accept this reality.

- PSA crew - [Student Sitting On Chair] Positive.

- [Russell] Sarcastic.

- [Student In The middle] Animation!

- Maybe a practical demonstration will make this more clear.

Drugs can fry your brain like you know a fried egg.

- But what exactly are you trying to say?

- Just say no to drugs.

- Aspirin, Ibuprofen, cough syrup.

- Yes to those.

- The medical profession is constantly researching and reclassifying substances.

- That's why they call her Wikipedi.

- Nobody calls me that.

- Calls you what?

- Wikipedi.

- It's catching on.

- Some medical drugs were formally considered illegal.

Well other drugs that are now illegal, were once sold in department stores.

- Yes, to legal drugs, no to illegal drugs.

- What about over the counter drugs purchased without a doctor's consent?

- Drug should only be used in the appropriate... You should understand the risks that they can have on your brain development.

- So when it comes to drugs overall, you just say?

- Maybe?

You're not recording me, are you, Russell?

- Teacher tells kids to say maybe to drugs goes (singsong voice) viral.

- I certainly hope I can teach you something before I get fired.

- Hey my name is Jace.

I do sign language for self care.

The reason why I do it, it's just a good thing to do in my spare time.

It relaxes me and it's a good ability to have to help deaf people around the world.

And here's a little snippet.

♪ Picture perfect you ♪ don't need no filter ♪ ♪ Gorgeous make 'em drop ♪ dead you're a killer ♪ ♪ Shower you with all my attention ♪ ♪ Yeah, these are my only intentions ♪ ♪ Stay in the kitchen ♪ ♪ Cookin' up got your own bread ♪ ♪ Heart full of equity or an asset ♪ ♪ Make sure that you ♪ don't need no mentions ♪ ♪ Yeah, these are my only intentions.

♪ ♪ Shout out to ya... ♪ - Today's Youth Across America, we're heading over to Phoenix, Arizona.

(upbeat techno) - Last year was a turning point in my life.

I started 2020 with wide eyes and friendships stronger than they'd ever been before.

This was the year I finally figured things out.

Well it was supposed to be until spring break lasted through the end of the school year.

What at first seemed like a blessing morphed into a sense of dread.

When I knew I'd experienced the same thing tomorrow, next week, next month.

School is optional?

That's awesome.

But I don't get to see the people I care about anymore.

What happened to wake up, go to school, go to clubs, go to sports, rinse and repeat?

In my new quarantine lifestyle, I had more than enough time to think about how these changes affected me.

It made me wonder what can happen when I allow myself to break free from the repetition of life?

The friendships I'm in because it's all I know.

The pressure of trying to figure out who I am and want to be.

Ironically when I let those things go, that's exactly when I started to figure it out.

In May, my school's announcements adapted to an online show that was more ambitious than anything we'd ever done before, I directed it.

In September, my teacher entered my work into my first ever film competition I won six awards.

In December, my best friend told me he wanted to start producing music.

I made an entire Christmas album with him.

There's no doubt I missed out on a lot in the last year we all did.

But I didn't let life struggle stop me from pursuing my passions and becoming who I was meant to be.

Life's like a river, yeah it'll bend and turn but if you follow it downstream long enough, you're bound to end up at an ocean of possibilities.

- In referencing Giovan, I have to say one thing, society doesn't move by you being quiet.

I mean that's all I need to say.

I mean that's what a great line.

One of the most powerful things we can do is tell our story.

He's talking in a motivational concept about what he's endured.

Just because you're in the foster care system does not mean you're broken.

Additionally just because you're in the foster care system does not mean you have a diagnosis.

And it also doesn't mean you need to be medicated.

Listen, I have the ability to prescribe, so it's not like I'm completely anti meds or anything like that.

But I do think we need to be really careful who we expose to medications.

They can help us, but they can also cause side effects that can also cause this kind of feeling of being medicated and that feeling in itself creates a dependency and it creates our own internal stigma.

And when I talk about stigma, I always feel like there's a dual stigma.

There's a societal stigma and then there's a personal stigma.

And societal stigma might cause us to hide whether that's bullying or it's oh, well I've been labeled a person with depression or I have a trauma.

I have PTSD.

And so storytelling is the most powerful thing you can do.

And if you're a teacher out there, if you're an educator, if you're a parent, what is the individual you're working with?

What is their story?

Learn their story, their origin story, and how that origin story is influencing what they're doing now as your student or as your child?

It's amazing what you'll find and it'll be a great way to connect with them.

- Do you know someone we should highlight?

Send us your suggestions and keep holding on.

- A lot of people have gone further than they thought they could because someone else thought they could.

It's necessary to share your story.

Society doesn't move by you being quiet.

Performing his new hit song, Do It Like Me.

In the loft today this is Locs (Intro to Do It Like Me) Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, Yo!

Its Locs ♪ Hit like 1, 2, 3 ♪ ♪ Can nobody do it like me ♪ ♪ I wonder how I move this sweet ♪ ♪ I'm gonna just do a Nike ♪ ♪ Haters wanna take my seat ♪ ♪ They gonna have to catch some Zs.

♪ ♪ Hit it like 1, 2, 3.

♪ ♪ Can nobody do it like me ♪ ♪ Can nobody do it like me ♪ ♪ Can nobody do it like me ♪ ♪ Can nobody do it like me ♪ ♪ Can nobody do it lik me ♪ ♪ Can nobody do it like me ♪ ♪ Can nobody do it like me ♪ ♪ Can nobody do it like me ♪ ♪ Can nobody do it like me ♪ ♪ This is not a dance that I drew up ♪ ♪ Living for the city that out do us ♪ ♪ Riding through the ♪ city and they knew us ♪ ♪ Could of got the coup but they flew us ♪ ♪ I was number one since I grew up ♪ ♪ Trying to keep it down but I'm tow up ♪ ♪ Yes right now they put the crew up ♪ ♪ Swimming through the ♪ money like (indistinct) ♪ ♪ Gotta whole city on lock ♪ ♪ Count 10 million like a knockdown ♪ ♪ You can hang anytime but its not now ♪ ♪ I could probably pull ♪ it off the line now ♪ ♪ Tape it to the game I'm a show it ♪ ♪ They ain't gonna say but they know it ♪ ♪ Talkin' bout the game ♪ don't you blow it ♪ ♪ You was on the scene I didn't notice ♪ ♪ Hit it like 1, 2, 3.

♪ ♪ Can't nobody do it like me ♪ ♪ Wonder how moot this swing ♪ ♪ I'm a just do it Nike ♪ ♪ Haters wanna take my seat.

♪ ♪ They're gonna have to catch some Zs.

♪ ♪ Hit it like 1, 2, 3 ♪ ♪ Can't nobody do it like me ♪ ♪ Can't nobody do it like me ♪ ♪ Can't nobody do it like me ♪ ♪ Can't nobody do it like me ♪ ♪ Can't nobody do it like me ♪ ♪ Can't nobody do it like me ♪ ♪ Can't nobody do it like me ♪ ♪ Can't nobody do it like me ♪ ♪ Okay ♪