05/29/2026
🎥 This Mental Health Awareness Month, listen to someone who's lived it, like LIUNA Mason Tenders' Training Fund Instructor Jamal Fowler, who knows:
"My Union was pivotal, was instrumental in my recovery. I had the resources. I had the people.
"When you're able to speak honestly and candidly about your addiction, when you when you're able to speak with confidence and tell people about your shortcomings, people recognize that. And people understand that. And that resonates with people.
"We're pushing out the narrative that it's okay not to be okay. It's okay to have the conversation.
"A lot of times you subscribe to the school of thought like, it's not cool to speak about that. And you can kind of like correlate that with the construction workers. You know, that macho, 'I'm tough. I'm strong. I have the fortitude.'
"But nah. You need that support system to show them and say, ‘Hey, listen brother, sister. I went down that road. I understand what it is to suffer. You don't got to suffer alone. You go head, we could speak. Let's try to figure this out together.’
"And we're trying to change the narrative where it's not weak to speak. Right? It's important that we do that."
