Suicide Prevention Education with a Social Justice Twist
Springfield, Mass. - It could be a barber, or a nail technician or a massage therapist. Professionals who interact every day with people and hear their challenges may know if someone might be overly stressed or feeling suicidal.
That’s exactly where Ysabel Garcia hopes to help.
Garcia founded Estoy Aqui in 2020, providing suicide prevention education with a social justice twist, specifically for the Latino / Latinx and African American community. One segment of Estoy Aqui is La Cultura Sana Project, through which she offers free support skills and resources for those whose interact with clients every day and might have insight whether someone is in distress.
“We have all these professionals in our communities doing the (mental health) work,” she said. “They have their own form of counseling, they have their own style, their own approaches.”
These professionals include healing practitioners, massage therapists, barbers, hair dressers, nail technicians, librarians and doulas. For anyone who has close interactions in the community, Garcia’s goal is to share a conversation with these professionals to learn how they might know when a person is in distress, and how they can respond.
She recognizes that these professionals are already providing emotional support by having these day-to-day conversations, but some might not feel prepared or comfortable conversing about mental health issues with clients. Her goal is to learn from them, then provide tools and resources if they’re open to a peer-support approach in these situations.
“It’s so nerve wracking to talk about suicide in a community that might not necessarily talk about this at all, not even depression,” she said. “I’m learning so much from these mental health ambassadors.”
Garcia shares how depression, anxiety and suicidality might appear in a client, then what they can do to help if they notice those cues.
The Cultura Sana Project is one piece of all that Estoy Aqui does. The organization conducts training, professional development and workshops pertaining to social justice, mental health and suicide, primarily with therapists and advocates.
“My work overall is really about how people can talk to someone who is suicidal, or how to apply this mental-health-from-a-social-justice lens approach,” Garcia said.
She stresses that the connection between mental health and social justice are continually linked. “I cannot talk about mental health without talking about oppression,” she said.
A Standout Opportunity
Garcia is promoting La Cultura Sana Project on the Standout Truck after first trying marketing on social media. She believes a grassroots approach targeting neighborhoods will be more effective for her goal of reaching these Springfield communities.
She learned about the Standout Truck while attending a Marketing and Cupcakes event at Venture X Holyoke, something that Standout Truck founder Mychal Connolly hosts to share marketing principles and ideas with other business owners.
“Doing outreach has been really hard for me because I’m only one person,” Garcia said. “I wanted to experiment with different forms of advertising.”
Advertising in the community also connects with her belief in “community care” and that we are all interconnected. Ultimately she hopes that we can reach this social justice and mental health awareness by working together and moving forward with compassion.
Any businesses interested in learning more about La Cultura Sana Project can contact Garcia at 413-351-0596.
Want to learn more about marketing your business? Join the Marketing and Cupcakes Think Tank group on Facebook. And hear about different promotion options with Standout Truck: www.standouttruck.com/contact
