Westside Story Newspaper – Online The News of The Empire – Sharing the Quest for Excellence
SAN BERNARDINO, CA—” I’m very happy to have been promoted to being an instructor by the Inland Empire Men’s Mental Health program,” says Yamileth Monarrez, “because the courses address issues that I’ve personally experienced and now I feel I can do something to make things better.”
The Making Hope Happen Foundation’s Inland Empire Men’s Mental program offers free classes that educate people on how to recognize signs of mental distress in people they know and love and teaches them how to get friends and family members to be willing to talk about what’s going on.
Program manager Gerzon Ceseña says, “Men—especially minority men—tend to be very reluctant to talk about problems they’re having. Instead, they often shut themselves off, which can make things worse. Our program is all about getting rid of the idea that real men don’t need help and instead, that real friends can help friends when things are tough.”
“Promoting Ms. Monarrez to our training staff allows us to accommodate more students for our suicide prevention and mental health first aid classes,” says Ceseña.
Yamileth Monarrez is a senior at UC Riverside and will be graduating in December. She spent a semester abroad at London South Bank University, taking a variety of courses, and psychology is an area she has been interested in for some time. The exposure to a different culture broadened her horizons while at the same time, showed how people everywhere often need to deal with the same problems.
Monarrez says, “At UCR I’ve served as a mentor to freshmen. I really enjoy helping people and I wanted to work for IE Men’s Mental Health because the program emphasizes the need to de-stigmatize mental health issues so that people can get the help they need.”
For more information or to sign up for a course, visit. https://www.mhhfmentalhealth.org/dult.htm or call (909) 347-7234. Class schedules are updated monthly.
About Making Hope Happen Foundation
Making Hope Happen is a nonprofit foundation linked with the San Bernardino City Unified School District. The nonprofit is based on the philosophy of Gallop Senior Scientist Dr. Shane J. Lopez. Hope allows people to envision a better future, design a path toward that future, and take purposeful steps toward it. As a result of a deep commitment to this quest, the San Bernardino Community and School Alliance (CASA was reorganized and renamed the Making Hope Happen Foundation).
The Foundation’s Inland Empire Men’s Mental Health program offers free mental health training for people who would like to be able to help friends or family members that would like to learn effective ways to approach friends or family members who seem to he has emotional or mental health problems but aren’t sure about what to say or do.
For more information on The IE Men’s Mental Health Program, go to the group’s web page at IEMensMentalHealth.org or call (909) 347-7234.
