The James Morehouse Project (JMP), founded by a classroom teacher and current director in 1998, is the health and wellness center for students at El Cerrito High School.
The JMP offers primary care medical and mental health services (i.e., 1:1 counseling, crisis intervention, therapeutic groups) and a wide range of youth development programs through a trauma informed lens. Youth get the support they need and also take on leadership roles, express themselves through poetry and present in classrooms, to faculty and at School Board meetings. The love and connection young people encounter with peers and adults through JMP programs create powerful change in the lives of participating young people. This chance to matter, to be an agent of change, has a deep impact on young people’s sense of themselves and their imaginative capacity to hold a positive future.