Sunlight Village, Inc., a faith based non-profit corporation, has been providing mental health and support services throughout Montgomery County, Dayton, Ohio since 2008. We have a dedicated Board of Directors, team of professionals, advocates and support staff who ensure quality programs and services to all participants despite economic, social, racial or gender status. Sunlight Village’s initial population focus was transitional age youth and young adults (14-25 years of age) but due to the extensive mental, emotional, and behavioral needs of school age children in the African American communities of Dayton we expanded our scope to ensure we could service young children and their families.
After years of doing direct mental health services, in January 2023 we ended our professional counseling and therapy to partner with a provider of direct services. We regained our focus and are homing in on our original vision to support the mental health and overall wellbeing of our youth, young adults and families in our most underserved communities of West Dayton. We cannot address anxiety, depression, fear, guilt, loss, trauma and mental health barriers without working to resolve the underlying causes through comprehensive programs and services such as community, youth and care giver support groups, trainings, parenting programs, resource connections, etc.
It is important that we work to build practical yet comprehensive community models of care in order to reach populations who are challenged by the effects of mental, emotional and behavioral health concerns but way to often avoid services due to stigma and barriers. Sunlight Village, Inc. is taking a holistic and collaborative approach to establish a culturally competent model that is family friendly with appropriate mental health education, awareness, community connections and advocacy targeting underserved children, youth, young adults and their families.
