I Could Not Imagine My Life Without It
Thursday, June 26, 2014
At Youth Go and Friendship Place, people find a place they can be themselves and a second family.
Contributors: Kelly Hicks, Executive Director at Youth Go and Lori Hill, Executive Director at Friendship Place
On Wednesday, July 9th from 12:00 to 1:00 p.m., United Way Fox
Cities is hosting an educational tour starting at Youth Go (213
Nicolet Blvd., Neenah) and ending at Friendship Place (220 N.
Commercial St., Neenah). Learn more about how United Way is working
in the community to improve the education, health and socialization
of youth and adults in our community through these nonprofits.
Sign-up for the United Way Experience Tour by sending an e-mail to our Resource Development
team.
To get a sneak peek of the programs you will learn about on the
tour, keep reading…
Youth Go provides a safe and supportive
environment for youth in grades 5-12 in Neenah and Menasha. Many of
the youth we serve describe themselves as "alone." They feel
that they have few people in their lives that they can turn to.
They get discouraged frequently, are easily influenced and are
seeking acceptance. Youth Go gives them outlets to express
themselves, positive and healthy adult role models, a connection to
their community and a second home where they can be themselves
while working through the challenges of adolescence. One former
participant writes, "Youth Go holds a special place in my heart. If
I ever need advice or an adult's perspective on a problem I have, I
feel comfortable talking to any of the staff at Youth Go about it.
I am truly grateful for having a place like this to go to and could
not imagine my life without it."
Friendship Place is a non-profit social,
educational and recreational outreach program for people with
mental illness. Since our beginnings in 1991, the principal goal of
Friendship Place (FP) has been to provide programming to minimize
isolation of adults with mental illness and encourage them to be
more active, contributing members of our communities. We provide
supplemental services to the existing mental health service
network. Although most of our members receive traditional mental
health services, a significant amount of members engage in
unhealthy behaviors from poor diet and exercise practices, to poor
financial decision making, and lack of social skills that
traditional services do not have the time and resources to address.
Lifestyle-related disorders are costly to our community. Recent
research shows that changes in lifestyle behaviors can have a
significant impact on an individual's overall mental and physical
well-being. FP takes an active role in developing programs to
specifically address this problem.
