North Star Conversations Transcript: What is Catch—A Community Mental Health Mission
North Star’s Brandon Gimbel talks with neuropsychologist Lisa Novak about CATCH, a local nonprofit that supports parents and caregivers by promoting mental health over achievement. Born in a living room, the organization now helps families build resilience through community.
Brandon Gimbel (00:00)
A lot of people have heard about CATCH, the organization in the community. Could you tell us more about it?
Lisa Novak (00:04)
Sure can. So, CATCH is a 501c3 non-for-profit organization. It stands for Community Action Together for Children's Health. And it is an organization founded by a wonderful woman and mama named Amy Oberholtzer. And the organization's mission is essentially to help parents and caregivers raise resilient children. It was born out of her own daughter's mental health struggles and her experiences of just the lack of supports and resources. She didn't personally know where to go and how to seek help, but also she found that the organizations and schools around the community were so focused on things like an achievement-based culture that they weren't prioritizing mental health in the way that she really thought was necessary for her own children and for everyone else's children too. And so in her living room, the org was born.