Together, Dignity Health and UniHealth are providing $4 million in community grants and mental health trainings over the course of three years to bring much-needed mental health awareness training to Southern California School Districts for the benefit of at-risk youth. The Cultural Trauma and Mental Health Resiliency Project (CTMHR) is designed to support adults who regularly interact with young people, particularly youth of color, to identify mental distress, address the impacts of trauma, reduce stigma, and increase resiliency.
Year one community grant funding of $759,000 has been awarded to nine organizations that will train 80 staff, who will then train 7,200 individuals who regularly interact with youth throughout Los Angeles and San Bernardino counties. The year one community grant recipient in San Bernardino is Making Hope Happen Foundation, San Bernardino.
“We know mental health challenges hinder success for our students, and we are grateful for partners like Dignity Health who invest in solutions to these challenges. The Cultural Trauma and Mental Health Resiliency Project is providing important resources to ensure the kids in our community will get the help they need to thrive,” said Dr. Dale Marsden, Superintendent, San Bernardino City Unified School District. “It squarely aligns with Uplift San Bernardino – our community’s effort to ensure the youth of our city will be successful here.”
The project participants will use Mental Health First Aid (MHFA) curricula and Question, Persuade, Refer (QPR) curricula, which are skills-based training courses that teach participants about mental health, substance use, and suicide prevention that have been proven to be effective. According to UniHealth Foundation President Jennifer Vanore, “UniHealth is proud to partner with Dignity Health on the Cultural Trauma and Mental Health Resiliency Project by providing $1.9 million of the total project cost – which will support grants, training and evaluation – with Dignity Health contributing the remainder of the $4 million total.”