Promoting Resilience and (W)Holistic Wellness in Low-Income and Low-Access Communities
Lighthouse Therapeutic Community Outreach Foundation is committed to addressing the mental health needs of marginalized communities by providing comprehensive, culturally responsive, and (W)holistic wellness services in their natural environment.
Lighthouse Therapeutic Community Outreach Foundation (Lighthouse TCO) is a manifestation of the belief that every individual should have the opportunity to experience physical, mental, and emotional wellness in a way that is meaningful to them.
Low-income and low-access communities have historically been impacted by states of poverty resulting from systemic oppression founded in institutions and the policies and practices that continue to target and traumatize minorities and people of color. Accessing services to treat racialized trauma can be burdensome to families with limited mental, emotional, physical, and financial resources. The penalty for situational poverty should not be further trauma and emotional, physical, or financial poverty.
Lighthouse TCO Foundation provides low and no-cost education, resources, and skills to help minority and low-access communities continue their journey of resilience and holistic wellness in a way that honors and respects their culture.
Community Impact
In 2022, Lighthouse Therapeutic Community Outreach provided therapy to 14 families and 15 individuals in the Topeka community.
Over 1800 children and approximately 140 families were touched by the outreach events sponsored by Lighthouse TCO in the Topeka community in 2022.
In 2023, Lighthouse Therapeutic Community Outreach provided the Art of Yoga therapy groups to over 150 youth in the Topeka Community at Deer Creek, Boys & Girls Club, and YWCA Kids Quest summer camps. A random selection of youth were asked to provide feedback.
In 2024, Lighthouse Therapeutic Community Outreach shifted to more education, policy, and programming focus to better serve the community. The year began with a grant from the Stormont Vail Foundation to continue providing social-emotional groups to high school students, invitations to discuss issues facing families in the community (homelessness and maternal mental health and morbidity), and training to improve parent/child relationships.
We will continue pursuing opportunities to provide community education focused on intimate relationship abuse, ACEs, trauma-responsiveness, and the importance of (W)Holistic wellness in the community.
“There is a strength, a power even, in understanding brokenness, because embracing our brokenness creates a need and desire for mercy, and perhaps a corresponding need to show mercy. When you experience mercy, you learn things that are hard to learn otherwise. You see things you can't otherwise see; you hear things you can't otherwise hear. You begin to recognize the humanity that resides in each of us.” -- Bryan Stevenson