Coping 101: The ACCESS Project

What does an active retirement look like to you? At 80 years young, Wally Webster II sees his retirement as merely an excuse to dive deeper into his community and take on social issues for the group who needs it most: youth. "We're finding that a number of youth are committing crimes with weapons, hate crimes, as well as self-harm, like suicide, because they're having some mental health challenges," said Wally, Founder of The ACCESS Project who has lived in the community of Lynnwood, WA for 46 years. "I see it, and I'm just concerned about it and decided to pool the community together to do something. Our strategy is to bring together (social + mental health) organizations to provide these services. And The ACCESS project is not intended to duplicate any organization. We don't provide mental health services, we are connectors," Webster said. With participation from a range of community leaders — including the mayors of Mountlake Terrace and Lynnwood — the ACCESS project was born. ACCESS stands for the Association of Collective Community Engagement for Safety and Security. The project hopes to address some of the root causes of youth violence, as well as fill gaps in how it is handled. One of the project's main goals is to increase communication among existing resources for youth in Snohomish County - and it's working. Presented by c89.5 in partnership with Seattle Children's, Coping 101 is an ongoing series led by students in Nathan Hale High School's Podcast Club that destigmatizes mental health from a teen's perspective, made possible with local support from The Community Foundation of Snohomish County, Hansmire Builders and Compass Health - NW Washington's Behavioral Healthcare leader. No matter our age or background we all face challenges, and there are healthy ways to cope. Get started with more episodes, and find community-relevant resources online at c895.org/coping101 The Access Project: https://theaccessprojectwa.org/ more about The Access Project in My Edmonds News more about Wally's history: http://hanfordhistory.com/items/show/2057 This episode is made possible by The Community Foundation of Snohomish County: https://www.cf-sc.org/learn/who-we-are-what-we-do/