Mental health challenges have come to the world’s attention more in the last three years than at any other moment in history. The isolation created by the COVID-19 Pandemic has caused a 21% increase in anxiety and depression in the last year alone. According to NAMI “1 in 5 adults experience mental illness each year. 1 in 20 adults experience serious mental illness each year. 1 in 6 youth between 6-17 experience a mental health disorder each year.” (1) Suicide is the second leading cause of death for children between 10-14 and adults 25-34.
Communities Voices is a peer-run female and BIPOC-led nonprofit organization whose mission is to provide emotional support, non-clinical counseling services, and community navigation services. We aim to build a network of community organizations throughout the state of California. Our peer professionals have lived experience in mental health and substance use disorders. Our goal is to provide free to anyone in need 24/7 on chat and warmline. We will conduct individual counseling sessions, support groups, and skills-building groups via Zoom. Our vision is to help people cultivate resiliency, and access the tools they need to become self-sufficient and thrive in their journey of recovery.
We know how challenging the holiday season can be and while we wait for our funding to come in, the founder and co-founder will be providing limited services. Our chat hours, support group information, contact information, etc. will be provided on our website. In the meantime, we are collecting surveys to guide our services to meet the needs of our communities. As we receive funds, we will begin hiring staff to join us in supporting our communities. Stay tuned!
Sounds good.
Keep up the good work. 🙂