Mental Health First Oakland

🚨 Important Update from APTP 🚨 Today, 2/13/25, we are pausing our volunteer programs—Mental Health First (MH1) and First Responders—to restructure, reshape, and retool for the future. First Responders was APTP’s first program. It trained hundreds of community members to respond to incidents of state violence. While OPD no longer murders Black and Brown people with impunity, harm continues—racial profiling, police brutality, sexual violence, and wrongful incarceration. We’ve also seen the growing need to respond to intra-community violence. This requires us to pause and rebuild First Responders for today’s political context. MH1, launched in 2019–2020, was inspired by our co-founders' years of crisis response. It’s aimed at eliminating our people’s reliance on the state during mental health crises. We’ve heard your concerns and are restructuring MH1 to ensure it’s more sustainable and impactful. We’ll pause both programs for 3–6 months to realign and grow. We remain committed to Healing Justice as a core strategy, led by Black leadership. Thank you for your continued support. Together, we’ll rebuild stronger. #HealingJustice #MentalHealthFirst #FirstResponders #CommunityCare #APTP

CLOSE — ID: A graphic with a green background and black header, the red APTP logo is on a small image of a van next to green text that says M.H. First Community First Response Oakland. Below the header reads “We are currently closed. Please try us during our open hours Friday and Saturday 2pm-2am. 510-999-9641

October is Domestic Violence Awareness Month but we are here for you all year round. We want to remind you of some services we offer for survivors that don’t involve police. Survivors need, want, and deserve so much better than police. Our MH1 teams provide domestic violence safety planning in Oakland and Sacramento. @mhfirstoak is open Fridays & Saturdays, 2pm to 2am at (510) 999-9MH1. @mhfirstsac is open Friday thru Sunday, 7pm to 7am at (916) 670-4062. The People’s Clinic offers free, trauma-informed healing services every 1st & 3rd Friday from 3pm to 7pm at 893 Willow St, Oakland, CA. #WeTakeCareOfUs #WeKeepUsSafe

Police involvement often escalates violence, especially for marginalized communities. October is Domestic Violence Awareness Month, and we’re closing out the month with a series of posts explaining why survivors need, want, and deserve so much better than police — and some community-driven solutions for addressing intimate partner violence. Almost 80% of survivors who call police say they don’t help or make things worse. In an appalling number of cases, police arrest or threaten to arrest the survivor instead of the person causing harm — especially if the survivor is Black or brown. And more than 70% of survivors say they would prefer alternatives to the police, like mental health and substance use services, housing, social workers, peer counselors, financial assistance — literally anything other than police to keep them and their families safe. Let’s honor and uplift survivors by exploring community-first responses to intimate partner violence without relying on police intervention. Learn more at: /interrupting-ipv (LINK IN BIO)

ATTENTION: Bay Area and Sacramento residents! We need your input! Help us understand community perceptions of our Mental Health First (MH1) programs by taking our community survey! Whether you have called the hotline or not, please fill out this survey to support our work. Each participant will be entered into our raffle with a chance of winning a $20 Visa gift card. Go to bit.ly/MH1Survey today to share your input! . . . . . Alt text: Green, orange and white flyer with a water color background, and a flock of birds flying up into the sky. In the foreground, 5 MH First members stand at a table with supplies and info for the community in front of an MH First banner. Text reads: “BAY AREA & SACRAMENTO RESIDENTS: WE NEED YOUR HELP. Take Our Community Survey! Help us to understand community perceptions of Anti Police-Terror Project’s MH First. Whether you’ve called the hotline or not, please fill out this survey to support our work! bit.ly/MH1Survey. Enter our raffle to win one of five $20 Visa gift cards!”

Mental health issues are not individual problems that should be internalized and solved one-by-one, but rather by shifting realities one-by-one. Our Mental Health First framework is addressing mental and emotional crises now through care that is rooted in community, autonomy, and shared humanity, while simultaneously dismantling the systems that uphold the root causes. For 15 years, volunteers have been the engine of APTP and are critical to continuing this work. Sign up to join our next MH1 Oakland training on Saturday, July 13 from 10am to 5pm! antipoliceterrorproject.org/mh-first-oakland/training (LINK IN BIO)

APTP knows that many of the ways that folks experience mental health crises are directly tied to the structural oppression and violence that comes with surviving under racism, capitalism, imperialism, genocide, and other forms of state terror. While we work to dismantle these unjust systems, our Mental Health First (MH1) program is actively addressing mental and emotional crises now through care that is rooted in community, autonomy, and our shared humanity. For 15 years, volunteers have been the engine of APTP’s work. Sign up to join our team of volunteers today so we can continue providing this crucial support to folks most in need! antipoliceterrorproject.org/mh-first-oakland/training (LINK IN BIO)

🚨 Joint Oakland and Sacramento MH First training opportunity! 🚨 Sunday, April 28th 10 am to 5 pm Online training open to BIPOC community members. Limited capacity. Priority will be given to those who are able to start volunteering as responders in the next 3 months. Register at: bit.ly/MH1April *LINK IN BIO* MH First Oakland @mhfirstoak is our model for non-police response to mental health crisis. The goal of MH First is to respond to mental health crises including, but not limited to, psychiatric emergencies, substance use support, and domestic violence safety planning. Our purpose is to interrupt and eliminate the need for law enforcement in mental health crisis first response by providing mobile peer support, de-escalation assistance, and non-punitive and life-affirming interventions, therefore decriminalizing emotional and psychological crises and decreasing the stigma around mental health, substance use, and domestic violence, while also addressing their root causes: white supremacy, capitalism, and colonialism. Register to get trained to become an MH First volunteer, link in bio!

🚨MH First training opportunity for Black, Indigenous and other people of color!🚨 Sunday, April 28th 10 am to 5 pm Online training open to BIPOC community members. Limited capacity. Priority will be given to those who are able to start volunteering as responders in the next 3 months. Register at: bit.ly/MH10428 @mhfirstoak is our model for non-police response to mental health crisis. The goal of MH First is to respond to mental health crises including, but not limited to, psychiatric emergencies, substance use support, and domestic violence safety planning. Our purpose is to interrupt and eliminate the need for law enforcement in mental health crisis first response by providing mobile peer support, de-escalation assistance, and non-punitive and life-affirming interventions, therefore decriminalizing emotional and psychological crises and decreasing the stigma around mental health, substance use, and domestic violence, while also addressing their root causes: white supremacy, capitalism, and colonialism. Register to get trained to become an MH First volunteer, link in bio!

🚨 MH First training opportunity! 🚨 Sunday, March 3rd 10 am to 5 pm Online training open to all community members. Limited capacity. Priority will be given to those who are able to start volunteering as responders in the next 3 months. Register at: bit.ly/mh1-030324 *LINK IN BIO* MH First Oakland @mhfirstoak is our model for non-police response to mental health crisis. The goal of MH First is to respond to mental health crises including, but not limited to, psychiatric emergencies, substance use support, and domestic violence safety planning. Our purpose is to interrupt and eliminate the need for law enforcement in mental health crisis first response by providing mobile peer support, de-escalation assistance, and non-punitive and life-affirming interventions, therefore decriminalizing emotional and psychological crises and decreasing the stigma around mental health, substance use, and domestic violence, while also addressing their root causes: white supremacy, capitalism, and colonialism. Register to get trained to become an MH First volunteer, link in bio!

We Take Care of Us! As part of APTP’s week of action to #ReclaimMLKsRadicalLegacy, MH First Oakland is proud to be offering our MH First Intro Training to community! Topics covered include different types of peer mental health support and strategies for supporting loved ones or community members in crisis. The training will be hybrid in-person/virtual on Friday, January 19th from 5-7pm 💚🖤 RSVP at the link in our bio #ResistanceIsTownBizness #WeKeepUsSafe [Image description: green flyer black and white text with 5 people standing in the foreground wearing face masks with fists up. Text says “We Take Care of Us MH First Intro Training January 19, 2024 5-7pm. Hybrid in-person/virtual RSVP In-Person: bit.ly/mh1-inperson RSVP on Zoom: bit.ly/mh1-virtual.” Red banner at bottom features a photo of MLK with text that reads “Reclaim MLK’s Radical Legacy Week of Action. Resistance is Town Bizness. Until We’re All Free.”

Posted @withregram • @sashaheron All Grief Cafes for Gaza are free and virtual events. The purpose of this space is to grieve collectively in solidarity with the Palestinian people. These will be our 8th, 9th and 10th Grief Cafés for Gaza that we’ve organized in the last 7 weeks, and we are truly proud to see the incredible international healing community it’s become. As in previous Grief Cafés for Gaza, when you sign up, you will choose your identity-based small group: - Palestinian, Arab and/ or Muslim - Jewish and/or Israeli - BIPOC - Mixed (all identities welcome) We’re proud to share some of the confirmed small group facilitators for the coming sessions including: amasood1 @asma.therapist @manalelkarra @tree_carr @collective_rest @kikiesque @gregjeske Links to register for each event in the bio @sashaheron #istandwithpalestine #freepalestine