MARQUETTE, Mich. (WLUC) – A group of community members problem-solved wellness gaps across the U.P. on Tuesday. Marquette-Alger RESA held a U.P. Wellness Task Force meeting to see community-driven ideas become a reality.
MARESA Mental Health Specialist Theresa Champion says the task force collaborates to address social, educational and health needs.
“It’s a beautiful opportunity for someone to come here and be vulnerable and share their idea on how they want to add another strength to our community, and this is a way to network and really help people bring those ideas to fruition,” she said.
The session included networking and identifying gaps in the community. Groups created 90-day plans for a project that helps support their cause. Champion and Marquette-Alger Great Start Collaborative Director Angela Miller-Porter are working on “Screen Time to Green Time.” The initiative provides teachers with resources to take lesson plans from paper and screens into the outdoors, which can help improve their students’ mental health.
“It’s an elephant in the room that people are so hyped-up, fast-paced, on screens, inside, and you can see a direct correlation and a decline in mental health with that,” Miller-Porter said.
Champion says participants are always looking for ways to help other projects like hers.
“People who are the head of trail networks who say hey we can get kids out on a trail,” Champion said. “We’ve had the DNR connect with us and offer to come into the classrooms to do free lessons to take kids outside.”
Miller-Porter says collaborating with people of different skill sets matter when you share a goal.
“Everyone can see the problem or the issue from a different perspective, and you need all those perspectives to actually get to the root of the crisis,” Miller-Porter said.
She says the task force sessions are open to everyone. So, if you have an idea, she invites you to make that happen at a future session.
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