Empowering Minds: Navigating Mental Health through Workshop based learning

Luna Y Sol is an organization located in Santa Cruz county, specifically in Watsonville. The organization serves youth with the ages ranging from 12 to 17 and their families. Luna Y Sol supports youth with Mental Health, Trauma and those who are exposed or have direct involvement with violence. The program offers youth a safe place and community for them to visit when needed. The project implemented at Luna Y Sol consisted of a four part mental health workshop for youth. The purpose was for youth to become more aware and familiarized on the topic of mental health which included, what it is, finding healthy coping mechanisms and where to seek help if needed. Finding collected from pre and post surveys showed a majority of youth showed an increase in knowledge from the first workshop to the last. The project partially met its expected outcomes. It was partially met because plenty of youth showed an increase in mental health knowledge and resources which was the goal. The organization did notice the consistency was not there from everyone which impacted the results for some. The next steps Luna Y Sol could take to address the issue is creating and having weekly workshops for the youth. A recommendation would be to survey and take suggestions from youth who go on what they would like to see from the organization on the topic of mental health and what resources they would like to see more of.