During Suicide Prevention Awareness Month, St. Paul unveils plan to help those struggling

More than 20% of Minnesotans struggled with their mental health last year, according to the Minnesota Department of Health, with Ramsey County ranking mental health as a top community priority.

September is Suicide Prevention Awareness Month, a time to share resources to promote mental health support.

Rev. Melvin Miller of Progressive Baptist Church in St. Paul sees the need firsthand. “I told the staff, listen, we have significant challenges that I’m not equipped to handle.”

Miller has been a go-to for members of his church struggling with mental health, a number growing by the day. “I’ve done marital counseling and have worked with troubled youth, but it came to the point that it wasn’t just relationship challenges; it was personal trauma being brought into the relationship and fundamental to the struggle,” Miller said. “I didn’t have the tools to help them with the issues they were going through.”

That’s why Miller and his church, which are the founders of PROCEED Foundation, have made a major investment, $10 million to be exact, in a new Family Enrichment Center next to the church in East Saint Paul. An open house and partnership reception is scheduled for Sept. 29.

“If you don’t have a job or a place to access physical or mental health services, or you're low on funds and need food, this is a hub,” added Dedra Dunevant, PROCEED board secretary.

PROCEED is a St. Paul non-profit based out of Progressive Baptist Church that focuses on opening real doors for local kids and families through hands-on STEM programs, Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU) college tours, career prep, health equity, a food shelf, and other essential community support services. The new 16,000-square-foot Family Enrichment Center slated to open in fall 2027 will house expanded workforce development spaces, a community gymnasium, a medical clinic, and a Therapeuo mental health clinic.

“It’s a focus that is well-rounded on physical and mental health in general,” Dunevant added.

“We will have this gymnasium so that we can tie physical health with different classes like weight training, dance, basketball, and pickleball, for example.”

The new center will expand much-needed options to residents. “Resources for the BIPOC community on the East Side are difficult,” said Morgan Carrillo, PROCEED administrative consultant. “We’re a health desert, a food desert, a bank desert; resources in general are lacking.”

Carillo said the mental health clinic in the new center is designed to remove barriers to care. “The focus is making sure we’re providing clinicians that look like us so that people feel more comfortable getting services.” PROCEED and Progressive Baptist Church primarily serve Black/African American families, while simultaneously extending their programming to support the highly diverse and multicultural population of St. Paul's East Side.

Rev. Miller said the motivation of the new center is simple, “to be a place where people can be safe and get help.”

The public is invited to the PROCEED Family Enrichment Center Open House and Partnership Reception on Tuesday, Sept. 29, starting at 4:30 p.m. Learn about PROCEED’s resources and get a construction update on the news center. Learn more at: https://proceedmn.org/