Training Seminars
Community Projects
Public Appearances
WHO WE ARE... Blaquesmith Inc
What We Do... Blaquesmith Consulting
Blaquesmith,inc is comprised of two companies:
Blaquesmith Consulting and Unspeakable Truth Publications
Ramel Smith (The Blaquesmith) provides a wealth of innovative approaches. He utilizes a skill set honed through years of specialized practice in varied and diverse settings. At Blaquesmith Consulting, our motto is intelligence with a heart. This core maxim runs through every thing we do. Providing practical solutions and tools, to take you, your team,your organization to the next level. Next Level innovative approaches to help you navigate through life’s roughest terrain. Dr. Smith is well published and cited; yet, he brings a high level of compassion and empathy to his craft. A blend of intelligence, humor, grit, and optimism...the Blaquesmith is here to serve you!!
Staff Training/ Organizational Support
Dr. Smith offers workshops and training seminars for organizations in need of internal support . Organizations seeking to train and support both its clients and its employees: sports teams, governmental agencies, corporate entities, community organizations. small businesses, professional sports teams and educational institutions. Each session is individually crafted to meet the specific needs of the organization.
Saturday Morning's @7 on Channel 24
Unspeakable Truth dares to approach some of today’s most pressing issues. The show’s content is centered around mental health and social justice in areas of education, incarceration, foster care and human trafficking and policy. Fulfilling Blaquesmith's commitment to uplift and will provide valuable information to help heal our community.
In our personal lives and in the professional arena, we at Blaquesmith Consulting, Inc; sincerely value the relationships we've made along the way. These are a few of our clients and associates.
Saturday Morning's @7 on Channel 24
Advertising on Unspeakable Truth is a unique opportunity to reach the Metro Milwaukee and outlying area audience in a creative and compelling way. We provide a highly visible platform to present your brand’s message. Deliver a powerful television message to your demographic and let your viewers discover your business anew.
A Conversation with the Legendary
Marques Johnson
The Blog
In The News
Leaders Performance Institute
Ramel L. Smith is a Licensed Psychologist and President of BLAQUESMITH Psychological Consultative Services. Between 2014 and 2016, Smith also served as the Team Psychologist of the NBA’s Milwaukee Bucks and was warmly received as a speaker at the 2015 Leaders Sport Performance Summit in New York City. Here, he addresses the stigma of mental health and suggests ways in which sports organizations can turn what many consider to be the last stone in high performance.
Men Empowering Men
The Milwaukee Community Journal
In the Spring of 2015, Dr. Smith was tapped to write a twelve-part series of articles that would focus specifically on the men our community. These articles of empowerment and reflection served to inspire, uplift and spark conversations that centered upon the struggles facing our African American men.
Community Involvement
Charitable Commitments
Service
Community Empowerment
The Building a BETTER Man Project
About The Building a Better Man Project
Our goal at The Building a Better Man Project – an admittedly ambitious one – is to reduce violence in our culture. Our distinctive take on this issue involves an examination of how young men (who are responsible for the vast majority of violence) are socialized in that direction from boyhood onward, regardless of skin color or background, and that the key to prevention lies in changing that socialization and, ultimately, the American definition of what it is to be a man. When we consider the problem of violence, we ponder the question: “Why is there a seemingly never-ending flow of boys and young men who need intervention?” If we think in an “upstream” manner about violence, we need to work outward from the intimacy of the family circle, to the influence of the surrounding community, and then to the over-arching sway of the culture. When we consider as a goal violence reduction and an increase in pro-social behavior among our boys and young men, we need to consider a gradual and sustainable shift in this ecology, which is focused on protecting, educating, and connecting these vulnerable young people.
Book: “Building a Better Man: A Blueprint for Decreasing Violence and Increasing Prosocial Behavior in Men” published by Routledge
http://www.routledgementalhealth.com/books/details/9780415708272/
Feature article: The American Psychological Association’s national magazine “Monitor"
http://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/apa/monitor_201206/#/68
Television: The Building a Better Man Project is featured in a special on Milwaukee Public Television
http://www.mptv.org/localshows/black_nouveau/latest_episode/?v=fsDVey8UnW4&e=2222
Radio: Lake Effect (National Public Radio affiliate WUWM)
http://www.wuwm.com/programs/lake_effect/lake_effect_segment.php?segmentid=8246
Special Education Practices: Personal Narratives of African American Scholars, Educators, and Related Professionals (Education in a Competitive and Globalizing World)
by Festus E. Obiakor (Editor), Ramel Smith (Editor)
Book Description:
Special education is a vibrant, complex, and controversial field that continues to garner widespread attention from policy makers, researchers, practitioners, and educators. It is a field whose primary goal is to provide an appropriate education for students with special needs, a disproportionate number of whom are from culturally and linguistically diverse (CLD) backgrounds. In this book the authors bring together critical perspectives and historical viewpoints on special education by a group of distinguished and well-recognized African American scholars, educators, and related professionals. These authors raise important questions, challenge assumptions about traditions and conventions in special education, and provide insights into how to reach and teach underserved African American children and youth in special education. (Imprint: Nova)
AsQue the BlaQuesmith answers a need ...
The WCM Quarterly Thursday, October 08, 2015
By 2007, licensed psychologist Dr. Ramel Smith had come to the realization that there was a great need to get more mental health information out to the public. Too many people with mental health issues were not walking into a doctor’s office. For some, it was a transportation issue. For others, the cost was prohibitive. Still others did not want the stigma of mental illness.
Then Dr. Smith learned about MATA Community Media and he got an idea for a monthly show. At first Asque the Blaquesmith stuck solely to mental health issues, covering depression, anxiety, sleep disorders, and the importance of exercise. Over the last eight years, the half-hour show has evolved to talk about issues that affect people’s everyday lives such as managing money, building relationships, and communicating effectively.
Asque the Blaquesmith also goes on-location to events happening around the city. Dr. Smith has interviewed the cast of Clybourne Park (a sequel to Raisin in the Sun) at the Milwaukee Performing Arts Center and talked with candidates for the Milwaukee School Board.
Perhaps the relationship he cherishes most is the one with the Milwaukee Public Schools. Asque the Blaquesmith has promoted and covered the flag football fundraiser for MPS and has started a scholarship program that rewards eighth graders, seniors, and college students for academic achievement and involvement in activities.
Asque the Blaquesmith can be seen on channels 14 and 96 in Milwaukee on Wednesdays at 7 pm, Thursdays at 1 pm and Saturdays at 11:30 am. It is also carried on AT&T’s channel 99, a clickable web-based platform on the line-up.
A Blueprint for Decreasing Violence and Increasing Prosocial Behavior in Men
Authors: William Seymour PhD, Ramel Smith PhD, Hector Torres PsyD
Building a Better Man presents a theory and science based discussion of masculinity in modern America, but it also does much more than that―it interweaves a diverse group of compelling personal stories with an exploration of aggression and masculinity in the socialization of boys and men. Where other programs tend to subtly denigrate men as perpetrators and focus on stopping the problematic behavior, Building a Better Man tries to understand the external forces that impinge on the developmental experiences of boys/men and broadens the scope of inquiry into their behavior by reviewing a range of external societal forces that contribute to the problems. Clinicians and group leaders will find that the approach laid out in Building a Better Man leaves clients feeling understood more than judged, which provides a different motivation for change and can set treatment on an entirely different and infinitely more productive path.
Editorial Reviews
"Building a Better Man offers a practical and evidence-based program that will be a lifesaver for men caught up in the downward spiral of masculinity-driven violence. The authors’ approach leaves clients feeling understood and accepted, even though they might have committed violent acts. This book is a must read for every therapist working with such men."
―Ronald F. Levant, EdD, ABPP, professor of psychology at the University of Akron and editor of Psychology of Men and Masculinity
"Building a Better Man challenges men to rethink what it means to be a real man. It is a highly readable and practical guide that reveals the many costs of tough, aggressive masculinity. Building on the positive features of masculine power and assertiveness, the authors provide a roadmap to develop the insight and skills of a new, socially responsible masculinity that accepts and works with strong and powerful women in constructive ways."
―Stephanie A. Shields, PhD, professor of psychology and women’s studies at Penn State University and author of Speaking from the Heart: Gender and the Social Meaning of Emotion.
"This book, written by three outstanding psychologists, provides the reader with a powerful comprehensive model of masculine development and explains how timely, constructive interventions can reduce and prevent the violence that affects American society at all levels."
―Joseph L. White, PhD, professor emeritus of psychology and psychiatry at the University of California–Irvine
"These authors from diverse backgrounds are to be applauded for their work with men and for developing a model that specifically addresses male violence. This needed contribution to the field has practical utility for mental-health providers, organizations, and parents, as well as men who want to have better lives."
―Jay C. Wade, PhD, associate professor of psychology at Fordham University
"Building a Better Man is a valuable and timely contribution to the literature on the psychology of men. Through personal stories, analysis of male socialization, and a variety of practical methods for helping men change, the authors offer us a blueprint for how men can reduce aggressive and violent behavior and attitudes and form a more positive concept of masculinity. I highly recommend this book for anyone who works with men in clinical or community settings."
―Holly Barlow Sweet, PhD, editor of Gender in the Therapy Hour: Voices of Female Clinicians Working with Men
Publications
Projects
Presentations
MISSION
Warriors have a mission and only death prevents them from accomplishing their agenda. Only when we see the life or death option do we push ourself beyond the limits. If it is not worth dying for, then the mission is trivial. Find your purpose and go after it with great ferocity.
October 28, 2015 by The BLAQUESMITH
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