SOROPTIMIST INTERNATIONAL of MANTECA
COMMUNITY SERVICE PROJECTS

The Teen Crisis Counseling Project was conceived ten years ago by community and education leaders who were concerned about the complex social issues impacting the lives of young people. Many students and families lacked the resources to access professional mental health services. It was felt that the issues young people were dealing with on a daily basis often interfered with the achievement of educational success and jeopardized their future goal attainment. The Soroptimist International of Manteca club members, 33 active and 28 life members, declared this project as the club’s identifying community service project in 1988. In collaboration with school district officials, a private non-profit professional mental health agency was contracted to provide services on five secondary campuses in the District. These services were available without cost to students and families. These individual and small group counseling services are felt to be an essential element of effective student support services to assist the education process and student progress toward lifetime self-sufficiency.

Since 1988, Soroptimist of Manteca has provided $150,000 toward the cost of continuing this program. Several thousand students have been assisted to develop better insight about grief and human responses, communication skills, conflict resolution skills, suicide intervention and prevention, and improved decision making. These skills all support the goals of education for life-long learning. The Manteca club uses a variety of community activities to fund this project. Tens of thousands of hours have been donated in preparation for events and activities that raise the necessary money for this project. The entire community supports these events through their participation in theme luncheons, fashion shows, holiday celebrations, and raffle events. The members of the club and community clearly understand they are stakeholders in the education of our next generation of citizens.