MANKATO, Minn. (KEYC) – Community partners came out to Mankato Youth Place for a ribbon cutting for its newly established Mental Health Program on Wednesday.
The program was funded with $100,000 from MY Place’s community partners at the City of Mankato, Mayo Clinic, Mankato Clinic and Blue Earth County.
The funding will help MY Place pay for a new mental health specialist, Belle Koser, who has four years of experience working as a social worker for children from a variety of complicated backgrounds.
Koser’s new responsibilities will include providing free mental health services for the 95 children that MY Place currently serves with its existing programs.
That will involve developing one-on-one relationships with clients and working with local schools and community mental health professionals to support coordinated and accessible approaches to care.
“There are a lot of kids who are comfortable here and that is huge, they come here and kids have some similar situations, they have similar conversations and they can have trusting adults,” Koser said.
Director of My Place Erin Simmons says these are services she has wanted to offer for a while.
“I think the community has been talking a lot over the past few years about the mental health crisis for youth. One of the things that we see here at MY Place across all areas is an issue of access,” Simmons said.
Simmons said, in addition to the new program, MY Place has been working to add increased green space for kids to play and expand its programs to give kids more opportunities to prepare for their future life and careers.
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