A Massachusetts nonprofit that teaches mental health literacy says it will expand its work with young people in Chelsea and Charlestown with money from the Richard Voke Charitable Fund, a fund named for the Chelsea native who represented both communities in the Massachusetts House.
Mental Health Collaborative announced the grant in a statement published November 6 in the Charlestown Patriot-Bridge. The announcement does not give the dollar amount or the length of the grant.
What the money pays for
According to the announcement, the organization plans to hire a program manager to lead the effort, build local partnerships and fit the programs to each community. The work is aimed at students and at the adults around them: educators, coaches, parents, caregivers and staff at organizations that serve young people.
Mental Health Collaborative says its programs teach participants to understand mental illnesses and their treatments, to keep up their own mental health, to push back on stigma, and to know when and how to seek help. The programs can be taught directly, taken as self-paced online courses, or passed on through a train-the-trainer model in which local educators learn to teach the material themselves.
“Stigma and a lack of understanding about mental illnesses can prevent people from recognizing when they or someone they love needs help,” Abbie Rosenberg, the organization’s founder and chief executive, said in the announcement.
The Voke name
The announcement says the grant honors Richard A. Voke, who was born in Chelsea, represented Chelsea and Charlestown in the House for two decades, and stayed involved with the Boys & Girls Club of Chelsea until his death.
Alyssa Wall, the fund’s director, said in the announcement that the fund is committed to education, opportunity, public service and the well-being of young people, and called Chelsea and Charlestown central to that commitment.
What is not yet known
- Which Chelsea schools or youth organizations will take part. The announcement says the group will work with local partners to decide which programs fit, and names none.
- When the program manager will be hired and when classes or trainings would start.
- The size of the grant.
Mental Health Collaborative posts its programs at mentalhealthcollaborative.org. Anyone in crisis can call or text 988, the national Suicide and Crisis Lifeline, at any hour; the Massachusetts Behavioral Health Help Line is 833-773-2445.