Rev. Odell Montgomery Cooper, Community Advisory Board, COMPASS caring for our community

A church/ministry leader explains she joined the COMPASS Advisory Board because the initiative and City leadership care about everyday people and address needs they often see in the community. She describes how unrecognized trauma, grief, and mental health struggles can go untreated—partly because people lack language to understand what’s happening—sometimes leading to arrest or further traumatic outcomes. COMPASS is helping people recognize underlying mental health issues and provides support in partnership with first responders. As part of the Advisory Board, she aims to advocate for COMPASS and communicate its purpose so the wider community knows about it.