In 2024, John Davis founded Summit Support, a nonprofit with a twofold mission: to reduce the stigma surrounding mental health challenges and to provide resources and funding to support existing organizations already serving those needs in the community.
“It’s a very nice collaboration between the private enterprise and government,” Davis said on KPCW’s “Local News Hour,” Tuesday. “There are certain things that the county can do that I can’t do, and there’s certain things I can do that the county can’t do. And so, together we’ve been successful. This year, we just finished up our May Mental Health Month, where we had 13 events that we either promoted or sponsored or originated to benefit the mental health community.”
Summit Support partners with a number of organizations including the Christian Center of Park City, Jewish Family Service of Utah, Peace House, Live Like Sam, Holy Cross Ministries, People’s Health Clinic, Jackie’s Recovery, Summit County Clubhouse, Wasatch Crest Treatment and the Huntsman Mental Health Institute. One volunteer from each organization will be recognized at the event.
Christian Center of Park City Executive Director Steve Richardson says volunteers play an essential role in creating a welcoming environment for clients.
“Some of it’s just helping us to clean up the space, so it makes it look beautiful for others,” Richardson said. To help set up chairs, set up tables, to maybe help to cut up some strawberries, and just to make it special, because we want people to feel special every time they walk in to get help, we want them to feel valuable and important, and that’s half the goal right there.”
Jewish Family Service Executive Director Melissa Zimmerman says volunteers are equally critical to her organization’s work, which includes low-cost counseling services and food assistance programs.
“Mental health counseling is just one of the pieces of the work that we do,” Zimmerman said. “We have an on-site food pantry at our Salt Lake office, so we have volunteers every single day in our pantry. Honestly, without our volunteers, we would probably not be able to operate. We rely on them so heavily. We also have another critical program called the Friendly Visitor Program, which is a program in which a volunteer goes into an older adult's home, provides companionship, helps to run errands, and that's another critical service that we just don't have enough people on staff that we'd be able to do, so we have wonderful volunteers that dedicate themselves to helping these people out.”
The volunteer appreciation event is June 18, at 5:30 p.m. on the third floor of the Park City Library.
Community members interested in learning more about local volunteer opportunities are invited. Representatives from participating organizations will be available to answer questions and discuss ways to get involved.
