Over the past several months, we’ve all made adjustments to our lifestyle, which is creating a lot of anxiety for people of all ages.

Children and adolescents have the stress of school, peer pressure and the stages of growing up that are now impacted by a global pandemic.

Marisa Wachs and her mother Stacey wanted to end the stigma of mental health issues, especially in young people and encourage them to seek support. They decided to make and sell bracelets to promote mental health awareness and raise funds for Child Guidance Resource Centers (CGRC).

Child Guidance is a nonprofit organization that has been treating children and families who are experiencing mental and behavioral health problems for over 64 years.

Marisa and her mother have received services from Child Guidance. Thirteen year old Marisa came up with the idea to make bracelets as part of her Bat Mitzvah service project to support the mental health services CGRC provides. You can see Marisa’s description of her project here.

Each bracelet color represents a mental health illness: Teal for anxiety awareness, lime for depression awareness and mental health awareness and a combination of purple and teal for suicide awareness.

The bracelets are $5 each and can be ordered in small, medium, or large. Payment can be made via Venmo@stacey-wachs-1.

Recently, a friend of Stacey’s, reached out and purchased bracelets in each color for her 10-year old daughter. She explained how her child was having a rough time and was now receiving services from Child Guidance Resource Centers as well.

Her daughter was feeling unsure about therapy until she realized someone she knew was also going there for services. Marisa feels if she can encourage other kids to seek the help they need and raise money to support Child Guidance, her fundraiser will be a success.

For more information about Child Guidance Resource Centers visit www.cgrc.org.