A Right To Heal

Meet Dr. Juan Garcia, Executive Director and co-founder of the Integral Community Solutions Institute (ICSI), as we discuss ICSI’s two community-rooted approaches to mental health - pláticas y atención plena - that support healing and resilience in Latinx and immigrant communities. 

Meet Yolanda Randles, Executive Director of West Fresno Family Resource Center. Her organization created The Sweet Potato Project, a community initiative that aims to empower youth through education and hands-on experience in sustainable agriculture.

Yolanda joins our host, Kekoa Lopez-Paguyo, for a discussion tracing the origins, data insights, and funding strategies sustaining The Sweet Potato Project. They also explore its impact on youth education and mental health, driven by its dedicated program leaders in Fresno County.

Meet J Kho, a non-profit strategist and mental health disparities researcher, as we trace the history of the Mental Health Services Act (MHSA) and The California Reducing Disparities Project (CRDP) Phase 1 and Phase 2.

Meet Stacie Hiramoto, a mental health champion and advocate with deep expertise on Community-Defined Evidence Practices and The California Reducing Disparities Project. 

"Bleeping Demo" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
 Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License
 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Episode #5: California lawmakers vote on whether to put changes to critical mental health funding on the March ballot, but not before advocates have one last say. And a Karuk tribal member in Humboldt County uses the power of storytelling to help people find their voices.

Episode #4: In the battle over mental health funding in California, an advocate takes a stand for kids. Then, woman in Stockton starts to see cracks in the system when a third-grade teacher moves her son’s desk outside the classroom. Decades later this same woman is a social worker committed to ending the school-to-prison pipeline. 

Episode #3: Two providers in Southern California work to break through the walls of systemic racism. With major changes likely coming to California’s Mental Health Services Act, funding for their organizations is uncertain. Still, they’re each finding ways to push forward. One is working to legitimize traditional practices within the mainstream mental health system. The other is getting political. 

Episode #2: This episode looks at peer support services and the critical role they play in community-driven mental health care. The state government was late to adopt this essential model, and now advocates and providers are pushing to professionalize peers across California. We hear one provider’s journey from hopelessness to helping others.

Episode #1- This episode drops us in the middle of a political showdown in the state capitol over mental health funding in California. Two advocates break down the arguments, what’s at stake, and whose lives hang in the balance.