SESLOC Credit Union is proud to honor Justine Lowry as a SESLOC Young Change Maker. Justine recently earned the award for her work at The Yellow House Project in Morro Bay, providing mental health care services to her clients and presentations throughout the community.
The SESLOC Young Change Maker Award is given monthly to a young person or young professional under 40 doing significant work to benefit their community. Anyone can nominate a young person for the SESLOC Young Change Maker award on the Wild 106 website.
For all her life, Justine knew she wanted to be the safe person that she needed in her youth. After graduating from San Luis Obispo High School, she followed her heart to Florida, where she originally started in nursing, Through those classes she discovered her true calling in mental health and counseling, ultimately earning a bachelor’s degree in psychology and a master’s degree in clinical mental health counseling.
Upon coming back to the Central Coast, she jumped straight into her work starting with the County of San Luis Obispo. She worked with youth in Cambria providing mental health services while also working as part of the mobile crisis mental health evaluation team. She also obtained sexual assault and domestic violence peer counselor training through Lumina Alliance.
Since transitioning to The Yellow House Project, she has provided individual counseling to her clients, where she celebrates their biggest breakthroughs with them on a daily basis. From setting boundaries and leaving toxic situations to engagements and pregnancies, Justine is one of the first people whom her clients celebrate life’s joys in a beautiful and meaningful way. Every day is different, and Justine wouldn’t have it any other way.
In addition to serving her clients, she’s also gone out of her way to spread her work into the community. Justine can regularly be found doing presentations to educate groups about mental health signs, symptoms, treatment options and community resources. And when SNAP funding and other community resources were threatened, Justine worked to create a food pantry at The Yellow House Project, continuing to support those dealing with food uncertainties – especially while healing from a eating disorder.
We congratulate Justine on her award as the latest SESLOC Young Change Maker!