Mental Health Ministry
Our Mission: Compassionate service to people with mental health challenges and to their families, within and beyond the walls of our congregation.
Our Vision: to increase their hope, knowledge, and insight and help them find a sense of meaning in their lives.
Our Strategy: using fellowship, education, advocacy in the public arena, and honoring and deepening their spiritual lives.
Community Minister Rev. Barbara F. Meyers leads the Mental Health Ministry
Rev. Meyers has received a number of awards for the work of the Mental Health Ministry.
Programs of The Ministry:
There are four major components to the Mental Health Ministry:
- Education:
- HELD – Showing Up for Each Other’s Mental Health
a book by Rev. Barbara F. Meyers published by Skinner House Books in 2020. - The Caring Congregation Curriculum for congregations.
- Workshops, Webinars and Classes on mental health.
- HELD – Showing Up for Each Other’s Mental Health
- Healing:
- Barbara is Assistant Director of the Reaching Across organization, a peer-run mental health center in Fremont.
- Listening Post
- Spiritual Direction
- Barbara has volunteered at John George Psychiatric Pavilion as part of the Reach-Out organization
- Social Justice:
Barbara is pictured with Rev. Suzanne Fast during a disability-related vote at General Assembly 2017.
- Barbara engages in advocacy for mental health and other disabilities
- Barbara has been a leader in establishing the Accessibility and Inclusion Ministry a disability certification program for UU congregations
- Barbara is an advocate, participating in community mental health activities
- Mental Health Matters TV Shows – Half-hour shows about mental health
- Videos of Recovery Stories – Stories of recovery from mental health problems
- A member of the Interfaith Coalition for Justice in our Jails to work on
mental health conditions in our county jail.
- Priestly Functions: Barbara leads Worship Services and Rites of Passage
Barbara serves as the Board President of the UU Mental Health Network a denominational organization with a mission to empower the Beloved Community in honoring each individual’s unique mental health journey towards wellness.
More on the programs of the ministry…
Our Community Minister, Rev. Barbara F. Meyers
| Rev. Barbara F. Meyers, a member of our church since its founding in 1994, earned a Masters in Divinity from Starr King School for the Ministry in Berkeley in 2004 and returned to Fremont to launch a community ministry specializing in mental health.
Her entry into ministry marked a career change after working as a computer software engineer at IBM for 25 years. She holds a BA in Mathematics, an MS in Computer Science and PhD in Computer Science all from UCLA, |
Rev. Meyers testifies in Sacramento on February 1, 2011 to a California Senate Budget Subcommittee about mental health funding |
Read an interview of Rev. Meyers on MysticMag
The Mental Health ministry has close ties to the Mental Health Caucus, of EqUUal Access a UU accessibility group. For more information about Unitarian Universalist Community Ministry, see UU Community Ministry.
For more information, see: Details from the Mental Health Ministry
Rev. Barbara Meyers can be reached by email at com_minister @ mpuuc.org.
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