For October, the WCS Team has selected a member who graduated from Goodwill E-Works this month as a volunteer. This member is extremely grateful for Wellness Center South. They grew up on the East Coast of the United States, and they made their way to California as an adult. After working successfully in the retail industry for many years, they began to experience bouts of anxiety and depression. This caused them to lose their job and sense of self-worth. Homelessness soon followed. Earlier this year while participating in the Friendship Shelter’s outreach program, they were referred to WCS and became a WCS member on 3/28/24. Although they were new to WCS, this member was from the beginning always eager to help with events, and they participated in several groups. Soon, they became one of WCS’ most active member facilitators. This member is very grateful for WCS helping them to improve their socialization skills and well as building up their self-esteem. We look forward to the continued success of this individual as they will be referred back to Goodwill E-Works in the month of November as they have expressed interest in returning to the workforce and finding a job that would be meaningful and purposeful in the Peer industry of Orange County.
For the month of September, the WCS Team has selected a member who started an exciting new job this month. This member has overcome a lot in their life. They immigrated to the United States and Orange County as a 5-year-old in 1980. As a young person growing up in Irvine, they dealt with many instances of abuse, racism and bullying. This led to bouts of social anxiety and depression. Life had its ups and down, but they made the best of it and graduated from a University of California. While searching for a fulltime job, and a place to participate in peer-to-peer support groups, they joined Wellness Center South on June 24, 2024. This member has positivity contributed in several groups and activities. They have been a good friend and mentor to several other members. They offer kind words and encouragement to all. With the support of WCS’ employment specialist, this member found a fulltime administrative assistant position. The member is eternally grateful for the support WCS has provided.
For the month of August, the WCS team collectively selected Eric P. Luton that lost his mother in February. Eric showed vulnerability and resilience attending support groups at both Wellness Center South and Central to cope. He modeled the behavior of coping through his loss in a healthy and graceful way with positivity and gratitude. Eric enrolled at WCS on July 29, 2022 and started to consistently attend support groups at WCS and worked very hard on his recovery. Eric quickly signed up for the California Yellow Cab transportation services program offered through OC HCA, and have used the service appropriately to access mental health support in OC as he is a resident of San Clemente and has many transportation barriers. In the month of August, with the assistance of New Lung he reported that he is free from smoking cigarettes for over a year. Recently, Eric has reported that he will be moving to the City of Irvine and has made statements that he is truly grateful for the Wellness Centers in Orange County. Now Eric is connected to the Wellness Centers and feel like he can better handle situations like grieving through a loss, moving, and quitting smoking. We are truly grateful for Eric’s participation in our program, he has been an inspiration to our community of wellness.
For the month of July, WCS staff collectively agreed to highlight one of our members that enrolled at WCS on October 11, 2022. Since this individual became a member they have demonstrated that the are a helper to the core. This person has spent many hours volunteering at WCS as well as the OC Public Library – El Toro location. This WCS member has experienced a lot of success in their recovery from graduating from Goodwill EWORKS and being featured in their monthly newsletter for their commitment to volunteerism and inspiring others to volunteer. This individual is using this momentum to help them progress in their recovery and accept new challenges. They recently completed a Wellness Recovery Action Plan in the month of July. This person has not experienced Mountain Respite Camp in the past and was selected to utilize one of the WCS camp sponsorships. We know that they will bring a lot of positivity and assistance to making the 2024 Mountain Respite Camp a success. Along with all of this success, they have been invited to join the WCS Member Advisory Board. Not only the staff has recognized them for being an outstanding individual, they have been recognized by their Peers as being a terrific WCS member through their consistent volunteerism and co-facilitation at the center. They model excellent behavior to the other members at the center and remain to be a shining star in our community.
For the month of June, WCS staff collectively agreed to highlight one of our members that enrolled at WCS on November 13, 2023. This individual entered the program after being laid off from a job, and wanted to attend some support groups to start working on improving their mood. This member started attending support groups at the Wellness Center every day and saying that the groups helped them feel better about their situation. Staff started to see this person grow and develop while attending groups with their consistent participation. With the Recovery Culture this member experienced at WCS, they decided that they wanted to pursue an opportunity as a Peer Support Specialist. This person demonstrated that they were ready to re-enter the workforce. In the month of April, 2024 our WCS Leadership Team decided that this member would be a great candidate as a referral to the Goodwill EWORKS program. This member quickly found a full-time position as a Peer Support Specialist in June, 2024 using their lived experience to support Peers through the process of finding employment and volunteer opportunities in South Orange County. We have the privilege of staying in regular contact with this individual and they have returned to the center to share their journey through co-facilitation of Community Meeting. They shared how WCS helped build their self-esteem and confidence and they used that to go into this next stage in their recovery to start giving back. This person is the newest addition of many great success stories in Orange County.
For the month of May, the Wellness Center South staff selected a member that has been attending support groups and events at WCS since August of 2019. This person has shown tremendous growth since enrolling at WCS. Prior to becoming a member at WCS this person reported that they have never been able to make friends and spent most of their life isolating at home. We are thrilled to report that this individual has many recovery relationships in the WCS community and regularly attends support groups and community activities at WCS and reports to staff that they have a strong sense of belonging at WCS. This member has also reported that their mood always improves once they arrive at WCS and they have a more positive outlook because they learned healthy coping skills while attending groups at WCS. This member submitted poetry to the Orange County Mental Health Services Act Art Fair at Wellness Center Central for consideration to appear in the 2024 MHSA Calendar. Their poem was selected and is featured in the 2024 MHSA calendar. This member is very creative and displayed their creativity at a recent Community Meeting in the month of May. They recently discovered a website that uses Artificial Intelligence (AI) to supply a singing voice and music to create a new song, and the user supplies the lyrics. Our member explained that this was a very empowering process where they got to add a voice that they wanted to sing the song they wrote as well as select the style of music. Our member shared their musical creation and creative process at the May 29th Community Meeting, their participation earned them recognition as a Community Meeting Co-Facilitator for their contribution to the meeting. Our WCS membership and staff were very impressed and we all think that we will be hearing the song our member produced on mainstream radio in the future, it was that good.
In the month of April, Floree McFadden explained that she would be leaving their current role to be accepting a new job as a mental health clinician for youth. Floree demonstrated resilience as she overcame a lot of adversity over the past year. Not only did she use Wellness Center South’s support groups to grieve through the loss of a family member, but she also inspired other WCS members to work on their wellness, and always remained positive despite her challenges. Her success was also recognized by Goodwill EWORKS, she was asked to be the keynote speaker at the EWORKS Graduation ceremony on May 15, 2024. Floree remains an active participant at WCS to share her recovery story to others in their community of wellness. Floree has developed many deep recovery relationships in the WCS community and has really added to the recovery culture that encourages other WCS members hold onto hope.
In February the Wellness Center South staff nominated a member for the Courage and Hope Award at the 2024 MHA Community Services Awards Luncheon and Gala. On February 29th Wellness Center South sponsored a table and invited the Member Advisory Board and some additional WCS members to support our nominee. Our nominee felt very special seeing all who had come out to support. Much to our surprise our WCS member won the 2024 Courage and Hope Award. They were a co-winner and shared the award with a member from Wellness Center West. We were all very impressed that our WCS member went onstage to accept the award and gave a very heart felt speech. In their speech they gave the WCS staff recognition for the support they received while attending groups and participating in activities at the center. The support has helped them gain full-time employment as a Peer Mentor. Now they are helping others heal from their mental health challenges.
In the month of March one of our MAB members experienced a number of positive experiences. First, they were ecstatic to report to our community that they learned they were going to be a grandparent for the very first time later this year. Second, this member is part of MAB and credits the support groups at WCS, as well as the recovery relationships that they have developed at the center, for helping them improve their mood and repair some of their relationships with their family members. Lastly, we were happy for this individual when they self-reported that they obtained gainful employment in March as a sales rep for Triton Air Conditioning. They initially started working part-time four days a week and after experiencing success working those days, their supervisor approached them to add a fifth day to their schedule and they accepted. WCS staff has observed a noticeably improved self-esteem and overall positive mood of this individual.
Cody Vote Healey is a member at WCS for 7 years. During this time, he has made friends from the center and has learned new techniques to cope with his depression. He graduated the WRAP program and went on to join the MAB board where he served as president for a year to help advocate for member’s needs. He also is the 2022 Hope and Courage award recipient. He resigned from MAB to focus on education to become a Peer Mentor. Although he battles with depression and anxiety every day, the people at the center give him hope that he can make it through.