Three Ways to Make a Difference for Mental Health Awareness Month
Mental Health Awareness Month occurs each May. Founded by Mental Health America in 1949, Mental Health Awareness Month was created to raise national awareness about mental illness, while also providing resources to promote mental well-being and reduce stigma. This year, the theme of Mental Health Awareness Month is Take Action.
At Sparks for Success, we have a similar approach towards helping children who suffer from trauma due to parental separation. We provide marginalized communities with helpful resources, raise awareness of their unique challenges and provide them with mental health services. We also find that a stigma often follows children of inmates, leading to an unfortunate lack of community support. If you’re interested in learning more about this stigma, we touch on it while serving as a guest during the Hogg Foundation’s podcast episode about music therapy.
We approach these challenges through early intervention, providing social-emotional learning programs for at-risk youth throughout Central Texas to ultimately put an end to the school-to-prison pipeline. This is done through music therapy, a powerful tool that opens the door for learning and healing. We’ve seen some incredible results from group therapy and the private lessons we provide. In fact, we recently conducted a survey with our board-certified music therapists and students to get a better idea of their progress. We found that of the 64 students who responded, roughly 2/3 said that music therapy helped them feel better on hard days.
We know that music therapy is making a positive impact in the lives of the students we work with. That’s why we celebrate Mental Health Awareness month each year. In honor of this year’s theme, we’ve identified three ways you can take action and help us make a difference:
Get Involved Online
At Sparks for Success, we have several ways you can connect with us online. In today’s world, numbers matter. Taking a quick moment to follow us on social media accounts can help our program become more attractive when we apply for grants and form new partnerships.
In addition, liking or commenting on our posts regularly helps us reach new audiences. It’s a simple act that can take seconds but makes a big impact. Sharing our posts to your page is even more powerful as it helps spread our news further. To get started, you can find us on the following social media platforms:
We also have a newsletter that you can sign up for to stay in touch.
Share Sparks with Success with Friends and Family
Our nonprofit aspires to expand our geographical footprint so that we can work with even more schools in the state of Texas. There’s no better way to help us grow than to share about our music program with friends of family. Referrals through word of mouth or online platforms like social media are a quick and easy way to champion our work.
This not only breaks the negative stigma that is sometimes associated with children with incarcerated parents, it also helps us build a stronger community of support for the families that need it most.
Make a Contribution
We’re proud to say that we provide music therapy sessions to students in need at no cost to them or the Title 1 schools we work with. We have plans to not only expand this program but open up private music lesson opportunities in the near future. However, this wouldn’t be possible without the help of our amazing donors. Throughout the year, we host multiple fundraising events to support our efforts. However, we accept donations at any time to help us further our mission.
The biggest way you can make an impact for Sparks kids is to commit to a monthly or one-time donation this year. Every dollar helps us provide more sessions for more students.
So, how will you make a difference this May? Follow us on social media all month long to learn more about us, hear success stories and gain new mental health tips that even you can use.
