Imagining Mental Wellness 2024 Giving Day

In partnership with The Orange County Community Foundation, Human Options will be joining nineteen other non-profit organizations on May 8th to participate in Imaging Mental Wellness, a giving day to invest in mental health in Orange County.

Human Options is participating in this Giving Day to bring awareness to the intersection of mental health and relationship violence. Relationship violence has devastating physical, psychological, and economic consequences for victims and their children. In addition to physical injuries, relationship violence is associated with PTSD, depression, suicide ideation, and substance abuse. The potential consequences of childhood exposure to domestic violence include serious trauma, anxiety, programs at school, aggressive behavior, as well as short-term and long-term health problems.
Your support will help inspire others to provide life-changing mental health services to survivors and their children, like John and his family.

On the outside, John looked like your average 10-year-old, but his life behind closed doors was flooded with chaos. He spent the last three years of his young life protecting his mom and siblings from abuse. Fortunately, safety was on the horizon as John and his family would soon be connected to Human Options.
While the family received a warm welcome when they came to Human Options, it was evident that John had lost his spirit; he was very self-conscious, quiet, and kept to himself. Working with our counselors and children program advocates, he began to feel empowered and relearned how to be a kid again after years of playing the protector role for his family.

If you have any questions, please reach out to Katie Szymczak at [email protected] or 949-259-0316.

Additional information about Orange County Community Foundation’s Imagining Mental Wellness Giving Day can be found here.