Mental Health Awareness Month 2025

The Connection is excited to, once again, recognize Mental Health Awareness Month. This year, we have expanded on a previous theme of our “Resource Rich Community” to highlight culturally relevant mental health services and supports for our many communities that make up the Fox Valley. Over the past many months, we have been working to improve MyConnectionNEW.org to make it easier for Fox Valley residents to find mental health supports that UNDERSTANDS them.

As our work at The Connection has evolved, we have humbly learned that mental health services and supports must be culturally relevant to be effective because individuals’ backgrounds, identities, and lived experiences shape their mental health needs and how they engage with care and support.

BIPOC communities can face barriers like language differences, stigma, or distrust of medical systems due to historical injustices, while LGBTQ+ individuals may seek providers who understand their identities and the unique stressors they face. A white, middle-aged man, on the other hand, may experience different social pressures that discourage seeking help, such as expectations around stoicism or self-reliance. Or a new parent experiencing postpartum depression, for example, may be eager for peer support to reduce social isolation.

With these different needs in mind, we’ve developed additional resource pages targeting these populations. You can easily find them on the MyConnectionNEW.org landing page, and they include an LGBTQ+ resource page; resources pages for the BIPOC community; and a page for new parents. We’ve also made it easier to find our other popular resource pages, including our Need Help Now, While You Wait, Healthy Teen Minds, and Strong Minds 4 Men, pages.

Throughout May 2025, we are leading a social media campaign to promote these resource pages, as well as raise awareness about mental health disparities experienced by these different population groups. We remain committed to making to easier for EVERYONE in our community to connect to mental health care and supports, including those who face systemic barriers.

We invite you to join our campaign! Follow us on Facebook and Instagram @newmentalhealthconnection, and share our posts.