Comunilife Life is Precious

Floor 2, Suite 221

Hours

Monday to Friday
9:00am – 7:00pm

Contact

Beatriz Coronel, Assistant Vice President
646-270-8537

Mission

Since LIP opened, our goal has been to provide activities that the teens and their families felt would be most helpful. Our community informed approach resulted in activities that include academic support, creative arts therapies, music, health/wellness activities and family services. We understood from the beginning that for the program to be a success it was necessary to break the barriers that stopped families from accessing mental health care.

LIP’s motto “Survive, Thrive and Strive” exemplifies the program’s goals. When a teen enters a LIP, she is met by a knowledgeable and empathetic staff of professional Latinas. Once there, she receives tutoring to improve her academic performance; takes part in creative arts therapy to work through their emotions using art, music, movement and poetry; increases her self-esteem by improving their sense of self-worth; and opens lines of communication with her family. Our teens are given the hope to imagine a future full of possibilities and the tools to achieve them.

About

Since 2008, Comunilife’s Life is PreciousTM (LIP) program has provided suicide prevention activities to NYC Latina teens who have seriously considered or attempted suicide. The girls, who range in age from 12 to 17, are immigrants or first-generation Americans and live in some of New York City’s lowest- income neighborhoods; LIP has four program locations – the Bronx (2008), Brooklyn (2009), Queens (2015) and Washington Heights (Manhattan) (2019). In FY 22, 181 Latina teens and their families accessed services. To be eligible for LIP the teens must be living with depression, suicide ideation or other diagnosed mental illness, be enrolled in school, under the care of a mental health clinician and have parents/guardians’ permission.