Pictured: The first Dragonfly Mental Health Community Champion Training Cohort at UC Berkeley celebrates after three days of intensive programs, coming soon to Ringling College of Art and Design. Provided photo.

Dragonfly Mental Health, a Bradenton-based nonprofit focused on mental health in higher education, recently received two $5,000 grants: one from Gulf Coast Community Foundation and the other from the Zella I. and Junius F. Allen Fund of the Community Foundation of Sarasota County. The funding will support a new, sustainable mental health education program at Ringling College of Art and Design–the first of its kind at an arts college, tailored to creative students. The grants also fund Dragonfly’s Community Champion: Train-the-Trainer program, a peer-led model that equips faculty, staff and students to deliver and expand mental health education within their institutions.

At Ringling, the first cohort will include a diverse group of faculty, staff and students certified as Community Champions. They will lead programming on topics such as mental health literacy, burnout prevention, impostor phenomenon and active listening, all key issues in academic and creative settings.

"The Community Champions workshop will have ripple effects in promoting a holistic understanding and compassion for mental health within our community and have far-reaching impacts for all," explains Associate Dean of Students/Director of Health Services Ringling College of Art and Design, Dr. Erin Robinson Carroll, Psy.D., L.P.

"Students are struggling in silence with untold stressors and too much pressure to keep pushing through when they should be seeking help. Dragonfly's Community Champion Train-the-Trainer workshop empowers students, faculty and staff in universities to say "no" to the silence and raise their voices in support of their own and their peers' wellbeing," adds Dragonfly Mental Health’s CEO and co-founder, Wendy Marie Ingram, PhD.

Support from both foundations represents an early investment in a model with broader ambitions, positioning Sarasota as a potential leader in innovative, prevention-focused mental health solutions.

On May 22, Dragonfly Mental Health is hosting a Lunch and Learn. Click on the link below to learn more.

Pictured: The first Dragonfly Mental Health Community Champion Training Cohort at UC Berkeley celebrates after three days of intensive programs, coming soon to Ringling College of Art and Design. Provided photo.

For more information click here.