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Linn County Mental Health Access Center highlights HOPE Walk grants and 988-decal outreach
Summary
Erin Foster, director of the Linn County Mental Health Access Center, and Board Chair Gage Muscimmon described HOPE Walk grant support for client services and staff training and urged local governments to adopt 988 hotline decals on public vehicles; the meeting adjourned so attendees could observe a fundraising event.
Erin Foster, director of the Linn County Mental Health Access Center, told the Linn County Board of Supervisors on Sept. 24 that the Cedar Rapids HOPE Walk has supported the Access Center every year it has been open and has funded staff training and program activities. "The HOPE Walk has greatly supported the Mental Health Access Center," Foster said, describing grants that have paid for staff training and trauma-informed care yoga for clients.
Foster also told the board that the HOPE Walk had agreed, as of the day before the meeting, to pay her registration fees to attend a public-health innovation class at Harvard. "They have agreed to pay my registration fees," she said.
Gage Muscimmon, a Marion city council member and the board chair for the Linn County Mental Health Access Center, described how Marion used a HOPE Walk grant to place 988 crisis-hotline decals on school-resource-officer vehicles, fire chief SUVs and automated garbage trucks. "I highly encourage our colleagues at the county level and others local governments in the county to consider the same," Muscimmon said, calling it a "small step but an impactful" way to possibly save a life.
Foster and Muscimmon described a lighthearted fundraising demonstration planned after the meeting; Foster noted they had prepared protective tarps and a cape for Muscimmon and the board agreed to adjourn the formal meeting and keep the recording running so attendees could watch the event.
No formal requests for county action or funding beyond previously awarded HOPE Walk grants were recorded in the transcript.
