Updated: Feb 6, 2020
Anissa Keyes, President and Founder, started Arubah Emotional Health Services to address the complex emotional and mental needs of individuals in this community. Some examples of complex trauma or needs includes children in the Child Protective system, individuals out of incarceration, children falling behind school and unemployment. This means that their clients have bigger barriers and disparities to receiving proper mental health services. Arubah, which in Hebrew means the “restoration back to sound health,” works to sustain their client’s well being beyond office settings. That is why you’ll find Arubah therapists or skills workers co-locating with partnering agencies, at an in-home visit, or even at a coffee shop with a client. They provide adult rehabilitation support services, children therapeutic support services, skills work for adults and children, and are also MNsure navigators.
Out of the all clients that Arubah serves, 85% of them are on Medicaid and 70% are referred to them via partnering agencies such as employment centers, shelters, and chemical dependency centers. Keyes explains that since they serve a diverse clientele, it’s important for her to employ immigrants and multi-lingual speakers to reflect the community they serve. It is also something she is proud of accomplishing.
The future of Arubah is driven by their vision to make mental health services, and other nontraditional forms of therapy, accessible to everyone especially in communities with these complex traumas. Accessibility can come in the form of collaborations with churches and co-locating within schools or shelters. These partnered locations must be places where clients, adults and children alike, can feel safe.
Their vision is to also support the sustainability of their client’s well being, along with their other life struggles. Whether that is finding housing for a single parent or helping an individual find a job, they understand that emotional wellness is not the only thing that their clients are struggling with. Arubah is committed to helping their clients get to a better place, in order for their clients to make real and tangible changes to their own lives.
Keyes is a client of NEON and first came to NEON to receive support in finding a facility to start a healing center. The Healing Center is currently open and is being used for various forms of healing or emotional well being, such as affordable fitness classes, self-care groups, and more.
Written by MayPa Yang, Executive Secretary
Photo Credit: Northside Economic Opportunity Network (NEON)
To reach Arubah Emotional Health Services, call them at (612) 284-8115. For more information, please visit their website or follow them social media.