On Tuesday, June 13, Communilife will gather at the Marriott Marquis in NYC, from 7:30-10 a.m. to celebrate not only Comunilife’s 34 years of providing vital services to New York City’s most vulnerable residents, but its Life is Precious (LIP) Program’s 15 years of providing suicide prevention services for at-risk Latina teens.
The mental health toll of the COVID pandemic on its already at-risk teens has been dire and still growing. Since March 2020, 38 of its Latina teens have been admitted to psychiatric in-patient units 48 times – prior to the pandemic, no more than two teens had emergency room presentations or inpatient psychiatric admissions annually. The continuing need for LIP and its suicide prevention services is evident by the more than 200 teens who have accessed services in the last year. They continue to adapt LIP’s curriculum to meet the girls’ growing needs including specialized services for those teens categorized as “high risk” and the development of more comprehensive family services designed to improve the family foundation.
During the breakfast, they will honor three amazing women who serve as role models for the LIP girls: Karina D. Aguilar, assistant regional director, SAMHSA; Debbie Salas-Lopez, senior vice president, community and population health, Northwell Health; and Karen Sherman, principal, Sherman Law.
Tickets/sponsorship information is available by contacting Illyse Kaplan, vice president of development at ikaplan@comunilife.org.
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