Justin came to LSF’s Oasis Youth Shelter in February 2020 after being released from the Juvenile Assessment Center with pending criminal charges and no place to live. Today, he is flying home to Turks and Caicos, leaving Oasis as a proud high school graduate, criminal charges dropped, and a bright future ahead. Justin was frustrated
With mental health challenges on the rise in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic, LSF Health Systems recently applied for and was awarded an $800,000, 16-month suicide prevention grant from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA). LSF will partner with healthcare, housing and domestic violence providers in Duval County to implement emergency
The Nonprofit Center of Northeast Florida, The Community Foundation for Northeast Florida, and the Jessie Ball duPont Fund awarded their annual “Local Focus. Lasting Impact.” awards the week of June 14 in Jacksonville. Changing Homelessness and the Mayor’s Taskforce on Homelessness won the Collective Power Award while Gateway Community Services took home the Social Innovation
While the coronavirus pandemic has brought new challenges, it has also given behavioral health providers the opportunity to find new ways to reach out to communities and hear from stakeholders on how to provide community support. The Community Coalition Alliance and its network of partners across the state hosted their first-ever tele-town hall to provide
Executive Director Tina Kinney describes how her chapter quickly pivoted to a new way of doing business in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic. “Social distancing, isolation, quarantine – all these words flooded our minds as news and social media began reporting on the COVID-19 epidemic. Unemployment, homeschooling children, fear of contracting the virus and
LSF Health Systems Director of Training and Development Samantha Lawson was recently recognized during a statewide Wraparound gathering as leading the state in teaching the most wraparound trainings. Lawson received awards on behalf of the Statewide Wraparound Initiative, including the Visionary Leadership Award for her involvement in the statewide Wraparound work group, a regional Champion
LSF Health Systems (LSF), Mental Health Resource Center (MHRC) and the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office (JSO) recently implemented a co-responder program to help police provide timely assistance to individuals in crisis and deescalate challenging situations. A full-time mental health clinician from MHRC, funded by LSF and the Florida Department of Children and Families (DCF), accompanies a
Lesley Hersey, LSF Health Systems’ Community Engagement Specialist in Circuits 3, 5 and 8, was recently elected vice chair of the North Central Florida Human Trafficking Task Force. The task force’s reach covers the counties of Alachua, Bradford, Baker, Union, Gilchrist and Levy. The task force began in 2013 as a coalition with a mission
The COVID-19 pandemic, paired with the systemic issues of racism as well as economic distress in our country, have compounded to result in unprecedented levels of stress for Americans who are now experiencing what psychologists are coining “crisis fatigue.” This phenomenon presents when our bodies become overwhelmed by the cortisol and adrenaline associated with our
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