Local nonprofit Fresh Start 508 commemorated the Juneteenth holiday in Worcester with its 'Unity in the Community' event. Fresh Start Wellness Center is a mental health agency which creates and implements mental health programs in the criminal justice and educational system.

For weeks, volunteers have joined members of fresh start's staff in cleaning up city neighborhoods while also looking to increase mental health awareness in the area.

They paired their final clean up with a Juneteenth celebration behind City Hall Saturday.

"The biggest message I can tell right now is mental health awareness, we all go through it," said Derrick Kiser, Fresh Start’s executive director. "You know, it’s time to just put away your pride and your ego and that's for the help that you need. We finished up our Unity in the Community cleaning, we brought down vaccinations so you need to focus on your internal and external health. We are here, Fresh Start 508, Forever Young, whenever you need help, just come to us and ask. If you need help, go to the Worcester Police or go to a local person that you know, they'll help you in any way that you can. We're all in this together."

"The important thing is destigmatizing the mental health services so that people aren't afraid to utilize them," said Sen. Michael Moore. "Look, we're in this together and the only way we're going to get through this is we all work together. So it's vitally important that we let people know the organizations whether it's government, or nonprofits that are out there providing services that are hopefully going to improve people's quality of life."

Kiser says he hopes the cleanup sessions the last few weeks bridged the gap between the community and law enforcement in an effort to improve relationships.