Today we’d like to introduce you to Belon Hill
Hi Belon, so excited to have you with us today. What can you tell us about your story?
Back in 2021 I joined a local community group that worked to connect minority owned businesses to training and resources. During this time the group received a grant from United Way and I mentioned to the group’s president that we should start hosting local networking events because the Middletown community was not aware of most of these amazing small minority businesses. Surprisingly the president loved the idea and gave me the free range to plan multiple networking events around the area. It was during this time that I brought my close friend onboard (Joslynn Pretty). We have been friends since elementary and had a history of planning events. We put our brains together and came up with the concept of hosting these networking events at the businesses that actually had a physical location, and we hired other small businesses to provide the services we needed. This included the DJ, caterer, decorator, bartender, photographers, videographers, photo booth owners, even down to hiring a minority entrepreneur to help with marketing. During these events we allowed each business owner to introduce themselves and briefly talk about their business. With Joslynn and I being in our late 30’s and loving a good party we always made sure there was great food, music, interactive activities, and a positive environment. During this time we hosted 4 networking events and even a gala to highlight the local businesses success stories. The word was getting out that our events were a great time but more importantly people were getting more business. Unfortunately, the grant was not renewed for the 2022 year so we did not have the funds to continue hosting these events. People were constantly asking when we were going to have another event but we had to explain that we did not have the funding to do so. In the Spring of 2023 Joslynn and I sat at my dining room table and made the decision to continue these efforts on our own. We came up with the name Happy Hangouts because the feedback we got from participants was that our events made them feel happy, connected and gave them a reason to get out the house. With us being in our late 30s at the time a lot of people in this age that we knew explained feeling alone and isolated since Covid. We wanted to bring these events back no only to help small business owners but to give adults a positive outlet. We created a sponsorship letter, mission statement, goals, and social media page and got to work. We really wanted to focus on improving the mental health of adults because we could see with the local statistics that the adult populate was struggling with anxiety and depressions with little to no guidance on how to get help. We connected with mental health professionals and ask them to be at our events and promote their services. We had our first event in September of 2023 and it was a success! We partnered with Steven Hartman owner of a venue called the “YARD” and stuck with our formula of hiring all local small business owners to provide services. So far we have had 4 events which are made possible due to sponsorships, donations, and our own investments. And during this time individuals have been connected to mental health services, businesses have increased their exposure which led to more bookings or clients and adults are finding a place where they can have fun, meet knew people and feel more connected.
I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
Oh goodness! It started off smoothly because we had a grant which provided us funding but with planning events we ran into your normal struggles. The real issues came once we did not have the funding and decided to continue. Since we were knew we could barely get sponsorships which is still an issue. We are continuing to brand and market ourselves. We have had issues with trying to get potential doners or sponsors to understand what it is that we do. We aren’t just “event” or “party” planners. We are very intentional with the purpose and outcomes of our events. Joslynn and I both have full time jobs and are mothers so trying to balance that plus Happy Hangouts which is our passion has been difficult. We have invested our own money and time because we believe in it. Lastly, we want to expand so we are working strategically on how this will work. We are looking to partner with other organizations and businesses to make Happy Hangouts known and successful
We’ve been impressed with Empowerly LLC, but for folks who might not be as familiar, what can you share with them about what you do and what sets you apart from others?
By profession I am an Ohio Credentialed Prevention Specialist. I am the creator of Empowerly LLC. Empowerly provides contract prevention services and trainings for both youth and adults as well as adult development for professionals. I also work with communities to identify root causes and barriers, and work to provide solutions and strategies to create access to resources.
I specialized in youth-led prevention where I worked with teens all over Ohio to empower them to advocate for themselves and work to provide them with trainings, experiences, and leadership roles where they can use these skills to provide peer to peer prevention to combat substance use and suicide in youth.
I also develop workshops and trainings to for adults where my goal is to improve the cultural disconnect which will result in healthier relationships between adults and youth or teen specifically.
My methods are nontraditional where I allow youth to lead while I serve in a guiding capacity and I also work with professional adults to get them to be fluid in their thought process to better support the youth they are working with. With the current climate our youth are suffering mentally and turning to substances to cope. My goal is to continue to work to use the tool of prevention to combat these issues. Our Country tend to be very reactive when we can work to get ahead of the problem and apply the resources needed to decrease these numbers rather than wait for the problem to happen and work to treat.
I also train my youth on how to advocate for local policy change and educate local legislature on issues that are happening in their communities and strategies that need to be applied to improve. Local policy around substance access and mental health resources really need to be improved.
Any big plans?
We are looking to grow Happy Hangouts! We want to host events all around Ohio and work to connect with those local small businesses and mental health professionals to work to improve the mental health of adults in those communities as well. We are also looking to host events for youth as well. We want to have at least 4 events in 2024 and bring back our gala.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/happyhangouts513/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/happyhangouts513/
