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Amendment 3 spurs Seminole sheriff to back ‘faith-based’ youth mental health program
Seminole County Sheriff Dennis Lemma hosted a large gathering of Central Florida religious leaders Tuesday as they announced the launch of a new faith-based program to address youth mental health in the region — which they hope can help make up for coming budget cuts caused by Amendment 3.
The Mind Your Faith program, run by local nonprofit Breaking Thru, aims to help congregations and faith groups equip parents with important mental health knowledge about the challenges their kids are facing.
Seminole County Sheriff Dennis Lemma hosted a large gathering of Central Florida religious leaders Tuesday as they announced the launch of a new faith-based program to address youth mental health in the region — which they hope can help make up for coming budget cuts caused by Amendment 3.
The Mind Your Faith program, run by local nonprofit Breaking Thru, aims to help congregations and faith groups equip parents with important mental health knowledge about the challenges their kids are facing.“In the wake of Amendment 3, you’ll see more and more of us doubling down on organizations like our faith partners, and other nonprofit organizations, to come together to meet the expectations of the citizens that we serve each and every day,” Lemma said.
The group issued a report Tuesday identifying for parents the six main dangers facing young people: Digital overuse, online gambling, cyberbullying, online predators and sexual exploitation, dangerous new drugs and use and isolation and relationship crises.
The group says mental health challenges among young people aren’t just the typical issues of the past like substance abuse, but also the dangers posed by new technologies like artificial intelligence.
Gabriel Salguero, a pastor of The Gathering, a Latino-led non-denominational fellowship in Orlando, highlighted the issue and mentioned the death of Sewell Setzer III, a 14-year-old Orlando student who committed suicide in February 2024.In a lawsuit, Setzer’s mother, Megan Garcia, alleged that he fell victim to a chatbot that pulled him into what she described as an emotionally and sexually abusive relationship that led to his suicide. Garcia later settled the suit.
Salguero said he had met with Garcia and that the conversation was part of what spurred him to join Mind Your Faith. He also said he joined because mental health in the Hispanic community is often ignored.
“Sometimes we’re invisible because many of them are migrants or immigrants. Many of them face homelessness. And in our community, regrettably, the subject of mental health has been taboo for too long. And that’s why faith communities are important,” Salguero said.
Andrae Bailey, Mind Your Faith’s co-founder, said the group is going to have a major event at the Kia Center in Orlando on Feb. 21 to really “kick off” the program. In the meantime, the group plans to get 25,000 to 30,000 Central Florida parents join the program’s pledge. Bailey said that in situations where children are suffering from a severe mental health crisis, such as suicidal thoughts, they will be referred to professional mental health services.
Bailey added that the group will issue a new report Dec. 1 on the potential impacts of Amendment 3 on youth mental health, homelessness, addiction recovery and other issues.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
