The Family Center/La Familia creates Bridge to Healthy Minds/El Puente Hacia Mentes Sanas to raise behavioral health awareness in Latinx community

The Family Center/La Familia has served working families and the Latinx community in Northern Colorado since 1995 and is currently the only early childhood and family resource center in Larimer County.

The organization provides early childhood education, and family support services with an emphasis on cultural attunement with the Latinx community, as well as leadership development and community advocacy and engagement.

The Family Center/La Familia received funding from the Larimer County Behavioral Health Services (BHS) Impact Fund Grant Program for a multi-faceted effort to reduce stigma and raise awareness around mental health among Latinx community members. The BHS Impact Fund invests in community organizations that provide behavioral health services/programs for Larimer County community members.

The organization created an advisory group made up of community members who are passionate about mental health and family wellbeing to identify gaps in culturally responsive behavioral health programming for the Latinx community and also the barriers to seeking mental health support with the funding.

The Family Center/La Familia developed the Bridges to Healthy Minds presentation series from this effort. Bridges to Health Minds offers classes and training on topics related to mental health including:

• Strengths and Opportunities to Grow: Support for people who have left their place of origin and are facing difficulties getting established.
• Optimal Self-Care: Recognizing the signs and symptoms of burnout, prevention, and strategies for self-care.
• Children Coping with Grief: Learning about the fears of children, perceptions of death, stages of grief, and strategies for coping with grief
• Assertive Communication with Partner and Family: Improving communication with children and partners when trying to express feelings and ideas.

Since the start of the program, 45 families have participated in classes on self-care, parenting adolescents, trauma, and how to talk about the loss of loved ones with children. In addition, 16 community members will complete Mental Health First Aid training in Spanish gaining the skills to support mental health needs in their community.

"The goal of the Bridges to Healthy Minds series is to normalize the conversations around mental health and reduce the stigma associated with mental disorders among the Latinx community. Mental health needs to be seen as a priority in our community!" said Gloria Kat, The Family Center/La Familia Executive Director.

The Family Center/La Familia is planning more classes as a part of Bridges to Healthy Minds. "We strive to ensure that our programming meets the needs of our Latinx community, without their voices and lived experience we would not be able to offer sessions with topics of their interest. Our future programming includes subjects such as “Attention deficit disorder and Hyperactivity ADHD”, and a “Meditation and Yoga” series in Spanish," said Kat.

To learn more about the services available through The Family Center/La Familia, please visit: thefamilycenterfc.org