Special to The News

BEAUMONT — Spindletop Center has launched its new HEAL — Healing Effectively After Loss — Program, along with a monthly series of Coffee Talks across the Center’s four-county catchment area in Southeast Texas.

HEAL and Coffee Talks are made possible by the grant the American Red Cross gave Spindletop Center for Mental and Emotional Healing After Hurricane Harvey.

HEAL will focus on mental wellness, community support, youth resiliency, enhancing skills and offering additional Center resources to those who would benefit from additional resources.

HEAL facilitators will teach the community’s youth new ways for persevering in the wake of a crisis, how to build and maintain new friendships, successfully handle stress and anger and boost resilience. Facilitators will also provide a bullying and education crisis curriculum.

The Center will provide support and outreach, which is open to all community members to gather information and resources. HEAL facilitators will provide information on avoiding substance use or relapse, how to increase overall mental wellness, and ways to identify the mind-body connection. Access to self-assessments and professional screenings will also be available to the community.

Additional resources and programs offered by Spindletop Center include behavioral healthcare, children’s services, intellectual and developmental disability services, a primary care clinic, substance use recovery services, strengthening families programs, parenting classes and community referrals, among others.

The Coffee Talks are included in the community outreach efforts for the HEAL program. These monthly support groups are a safe place for the community to talk about their physical health and mental wellbeing after experiencing trauma.

The Coffee Talks will be hosted in Lumberton, Vidor, Port Arthur and Anahuac

Each event will be 5:30-6:30 p.m. and will be led by Spindletop Center representatives. The Coffee Talks are free and open to the public. Coffee, light refreshments and giveaway items promoting physical health and mental wellbeing will be available for attendees.

“We’re honored to be able to provide these Coffee Talks for our community,” said Obetta Milo, director of Substance Use Disorder Services at Spindletop Center. “We wanted to create a safe and comfortable space for our community to be able to talk about how they’re feeling and meet Spindletop Center representatives. HEAL is a great addition to the Center’s array of programs available to our community. We’re grateful to the American Red Cross for their support of the program.”

The schedule and locations for the Coffee Talks can be found below.

• Lumberton: First Monday of the month, Parkway Life Church, 1865 FM 3513, Lumberton
• Vidor: First Tuesday of the month, First United Methodist Church, 501 N. Main, Vidor
• Port Arthur: Second Tuesday of the month, Greater True Vine Church, 4004 Memorial, Port Arthur
• Anahuac: Third Thursday of the month, First United Methodist Church, 600 Washington, Anahuac

Information about the program or Coffee Talks, contact Dexter Phillip, HEAL team leader, at Dexter.Phillip@stctr.org or 409-839-1033.