September 26, 2023
Story by Joe Vinduska
Barton Community College has teamed up with the CKP Suicide Prevention Task Force to bring author, actor, and international public speaker Josh Rivedal to the Barton County campus to entertain and educate about the importance of mental health and wellbeing. His program, “How to Live Mentally Well and Crush it During Difficult Times,” will be free and open to the public from 7-8:30 p.m. Oct. 10 in the Fine Arts Auditorium. It will also be live streamed from Barton’s YouTube page.
Barton Community College Mental Health Counselor Jakki Maser said she is excited to bring Josh Rivedal to the community to expand the conversations around mental health and wellness.
“It’s important that people know that wellbeing does not mean being happy all the time or that there won’t be stress, difficult periods, or emotional discomfort,” she said. “Mental wellness encompasses all emotions, and we want to bring awareness to the fact that all people struggle and have experiences that are really hard to talk about. Nobody is alone in that. It is by having those hard conversations that we learn how to cope, adapt, connect, and grow from those difficult experiences, and that is what creates resiliency and wellness. In his presentation, Josh inspires and challenges people to do those very things.”
According to his website, Josh Rivedal is the founder and creative director of The i'Mpossible Project. This organization creates workshops, seminars, curriculum, continuing education, books, and multimedia on suicide prevention and mental health in workplaces, campuses, school districts, communities, professional organizations, and more. A project born out of his own personal struggle with mental health and the loss of his father to suicide, Rivedal creates content that is relatable and that inspires, educates, entertains, and transforms.
Admission is free. Content is recommended for ages 12+. For more information, contact Maser at maserj@bartonccc.edu or (620) 792-9295.