April's Spotlight Organization is Garrett's Space
Garrett’s Space is dedicated to reducing suicides and filling critical gaps in supportive care options for young adults ages 18 to 28 facing significant mental health challenges. We are working to restore hope and perspective in this population by promoting connections, self worth and resilience.
Our vision is to create a refuge for young adults struggling with mental health challenges by establishing a holistically focused residential center. Our goal is to have the space serve as a model that can be replicated and adopted by others in our state and across the country. Currently, we are offering a unique and critically needed wellness program to struggling young adults that we will expand until the residential center is created.
All donations go directly to Garrett’s Space.
Details
Events to support Garrett’s Space
Garrett's Birthday (Earth Day)
April 22, 2021
Please consider donating in honor of Garrett's memory on what would have been his 27th birthday.
Zingerman's Mail Order Warehouse Shop Fundraiser
April 23, 2021
All sales from this day from the Zingerman's Mail Order Warehouse Shop at 710 Phoenix Drive will go to Garrett's Space. The Shop is open from 9 am to 10 pm. Masks and social distancing are required; only three people are allowed in the shop at a time. Come check out all the great deals while supporting Garrett's Space!
Meditation and Journaling Virtual Workshop
May 2, 2021
1:30 pm
2nd Annual Go24forGarrettsSpace
September 3, 2021–September 4, 2021
12:00 pm –12:00 pm
This is a 24 hour virtual event that will include performances by leading artists, wellness classes and inspirational speeches. Stay tuned to Garrett's Space website and social media for updates.
How to contribute
Financial contributions are always welcome through the Garrett's Space website. You can either donate there or, throughout April, you can donate cash at select Zingerman's businesses to benefit Garrett's Space.
Resources and Support Offered by Garrett's Space
Garrett's Space is rolling out its wellness programming for struggling adults between the ages of 18 and 28. Participants in the program will need to be seeing their regular mental health provider while enrolled in the wellness program, but Garrett's Space can assist in making the connection to a provider if needed.
Ways to get involved
Garrett's Space is especially interested in those who can provide expertise in the areas of fundraising, marketing and real estate. We are looking for those who have experience in the types of holistic activities we plan to offer. And we are always happy to find tasks for volunteers who can donate time to our organization, regardless of your area of expertise. So far, volunteers have distributed over 25,000 door tags to residents in our county listing resources to contact in the case of a mental health crisis. We put this effort on pause due to COVID but hope to reinstate it this summer. We can always use volunteers for this effort. Please contact: [email protected] if you're interested in providing assistance in any area.
The Garrett's Space Story
Garrett's Space was launched by Julie and Scott Halpert, who lost their beloved son, Garrett, to suicide in 2017 when he was 23 years old. Garrett had so much going for him. He was smart, athletic, artistic and extremely social with great friends. Most importantly, he was one of the most thoughtful and caring young men you will ever meet. He went out of his way on a regular basis to help others who needed support. But Garrett, like so many other young people these days, struggled from time to time. In a world filled with landmines left by the mirage of happy and fulfilled lives portrayed on social media and the simple desire to succeed and fit in, young people feel isolated, left out and inadequate. During Garrett’s hard times, Julie and Scott didn’t know where to turn and were not successful in finding options that provided him with the help he needed. They also never found the type of support they believe Garrett would have craved: a place focused on forging connections and providing healing activities that can help ground young people and give them hope.
We believe this type of place we envision could have helped our son, Garrett, and we are convinced that it will help many young adults who are having difficulty navigating this increasingly complicated and troubled world. The center will feature: individual and group therapy; coping strategies for broken relationships; support for families; peer support from young adults who have experienced similar struggles; and an extensive array of holistic options focused on teaching healthy behaviors and promoting wellness. This includes meditation, yoga, art, healthy cooking and music. We hope to locate the center in a place surrounded by nature, in the midst of a tranquil woods with walking paths. The residents will be embraced by a warm community of caring staff, primarily social workers, with a medical director running the facility. At the space, young adults will forge connections and see that they are not alone, that their challenges are not insurmountable and that they are enough.
Since our proposed fully equipped and operational center may take several years to become a reality, we are currently offering struggling young adults an important new option: an intensive wellness group that meets three days a week (initially virtually,) for support and healing activities, together with an innovative intervention that identifies and trains caring supports for our group participants. Every beneficial practice and activity we identify at Garrett’s Space will be captured and memorialized to create a comprehensive model that we hope will be replicated and adopted elsewhere in our state and across the country. We are thrilled to be working in partnership with the University of Michigan, including Michigan Medicine, on this and other initiatives.
Garrett’s Space is supported by an all-star team of mental health experts and other professions who are dedicated to closing the gaps that exist in our health system for mental health care for young adults. You can see our Board of Directors and Advisory Council at www.garrettsspace.org. Garrett’s Space also is partnered with the University of Michigan Depression Center and Psychological Clinic and Washtenaw County Community Mental Health. It has ongoing collaborative discussions with NAMI, the Children’s Foundation, Thrive, Jewish Federation and several other community organizations. We believe that the new support options offered by Garrett’s Space both now and in the future might have made a difference in the life of our son, and for many other young adults who are struggling to navigate this increasingly complicated and troubled world.
Why Zingerman's is honored to support Garrett's Space
This past year especially has been profoundly difficult on nearly everyone in the world and mental health struggles have been startlingly on the rise, particularly so on young people in our country. We believe that everyone should have access to the help they need and can see that Garrett's Space is creating something remarkable to help young people and their families face mental health struggles in a multifaceted and uniquely supportive way. Not only do we think it's crucial that we give to organizations like this for the betterment of everyone, but we think their mission should be shared, knowing that these struggles are far too common and we hope places like Garrett's Space can help. We hope to see them grow and become a safe haven of support in our community.