Mental Health Awareness Month: speakers, programming & vendors for ERGs services for ERGs.
Mental Health Awareness Month is the annual U.S. observance held throughout May that raises awareness of mental health conditions and the structural workplace changes — benefits, manager training, workload — that support them.
Mental Health Awareness Month runs the full month of May. For ERG leaders, it's the most cross-cutting observance on the calendar — every community ERG has members affected, and every program has to balance honesty with care.
ALKU ERGs Celebrate AAPI, Jewish Heritage & Mental Health
More than a calendar moment.
Mental Health Awareness Month is not a wellness-week add-on. It's the moment in the calendar where ERG leaders can push past surface-level ‘wellness' content — meditation apps, smoothie recipes — and into the structural conversation about work, stigma, and care.
May was chosen by Mental Health America in 1949 to elevate mental health from a private struggle to a public health issue. Seventy-five years later, the work is the same: surface the realities, name the barriers, and resource the support.
For ERG leaders, the work is threefold: normalize disclosure without forcing it, equip managers to respond well, and connect members to actual benefits — EAP, therapy stipends, mental health days — most employees don't know they have.
What follows is the planning architecture: speakers, vendors, programming ideas, and a 6-week timeline — for ERG leaders who want a month with substance and care.
The MHA pitfalls.
What sinks MHA programming isn't usually a missing speaker — it's a misread of the moment. The three misses worth naming out loud.
Treating it as a wellness campaign.
Meditation apps and step challenges don't address the structural causes of workplace burnout. Pair self-care content with honest workload, scheduling, and management conversations that actually move the needle.
Asking members to disclose for ‘visibility.'
Storytelling-as-programming pressures people into disclosure they may regret. Build opt-in formats with trained facilitators, and never make ‘sharing your story' the price of representation.
Ignoring intersectionality.
Mental health doesn't show up the same way across race, gender, immigration status, or sexuality. Co-program with community ERGs so the month reflects the actual membership.
Curated for Mental Health Awareness Month.
Speakers, facilitators, and vendors filtered for MHA programming. Pulled live from ERGs.io — every profile is one click away from a full bio, rate, and inquiry form inside the platform.
Brooke Shapiro
Daniela (dani) Herrera
Discover Live
Dr. Angela Holliday-Bell
Elaine Carroll
Emily Honor Hubbard
Real MHA programming ideas from ERGs.io.
A few of the most-favorited Mental Health Awareness Month ideas ERG leaders are running this year. Open ERGs.io to browse the full library — filtered, saveable, and bookable with vendors.
Other observances in the calendar.
Every observance gets its own planning page — speakers, vendors, programming ideas, and a timeline.
Stop scrambling. Start planning the month that lands.
ERGs.io pulls every speaker, vendor, and programming format into one workspace — so planning MHA takes one afternoon, not one month of late nights. Free to start.