The Academy at Glengary has received a $10,000 Community Impact grant from the Community Foundation of Sarasota County to support a comprehensive, culturally sensitive approach to county residents seeking mental health recovery. The pandemic has exacerbated the demand for mental health services, disproportionately affecting minorities and other marginalized groups.

The academy offers a comprehensive wellness approach to mental health recovery that helps people embark on a journey toward community integration, or re-integration, as well as personal goal achievement. There are barriers, however, to reaching people who aren’t connected to mainstream mental health services, such as culture, language and socioeconomics. Making services available, accessible and stigma-free is one of the academy’s biggest priorities.

The academy’s initiative has two prongs aimed at finding and engaging these members of the Sarasota community: an improved online presence that will include a simplified application process, and a highly visible, culturally sensitive awareness campaign in area neighborhoods.