Donald B. Jeffries, MPA, MSW, Executive Director of the Mariposa Men’s Wellness Institute in St. Louis, Missouri, is at present available to provide the following services:

Presentations to groups, schools, agencies, social workers, and other professionals on

1. •men’s emotional wellness
   

2. •male sexual abuse survivors
   

3. •becoming an emotionally healthy father
   

4. •male violence
   

5. •the mission and goals of Mariposa MWI.
   

Interviews for print, radio, and electronic (TV) media on any of these subjects.

Mr. Jeffries, who was at the time an employee of the New Mexico Advocates for Children and Families, traveled throughout the state of New Mexico in 1997-98, giving presentations about Shaken Baby Syndrome (SBS) to teens and teen parents, school groups, social workers, and judicial and medical personnel. He engaged in these presentations as part of a contract with the New Mexico Department of Children and Families, in the capacity of SBS Statewide Training Coordinator. For that contract, he developed an innovative presentation that focused on the dysfunctional nature of male socialization and the impact that those socialized behaviors have on male caregivers. Before departing New Mexico to complete his social work graduate education in St. Louis, the local government channel in Albuquerque, New Mexico interviewed him for a program on SBS and videotaped his presentation, copies of which were then distributed to all 32 county health offices in the state.

Mr. Jeffries is a 1978 Master of Public Administration graduate of the University of New Mexico and a 1999 MSW graduate of the George Warren Brown School of Social Work at Washington University in St. Louis. In January 2002, he earned a Graduate Certificate in Nonprofit Management and Leadership from the University of Missouri-St. Louis. He is also a graduate of the Dismantling Racism Institute XI (NCCJ) and a trained facilitator with the Anti-Defamation League’s World of Difference Project. He has acquired additional training as a Rape Crisis Advocate [Albuquerque Rape Crisis Center, 1988], as a Mediator [Albuquerque Mediation Center, 1988], and in Family Group Conferencing [Family Court of St. Louis County, 2003].

In October 2000, as a member of the St. Louis Consortium on African American Male Survival, he was a member of a panel on “Responsible Fatherhood” at the 16th Missouri Conference on Child Abuse and Neglect. During that session, he gave a presentation on “Emotionally Healthy Fatherhood”, based in part on his previous work with the SBS program. As a result of these professional contracts, he has developed several innovative presentation programs on the subjects listed above - and can formulate presentations on similar subjects should a group or school wish to know more about a specific subject area related to men’s emotional wellness.

The Institute has developed a fee schedule for presentations to groups and schools. (The media interviews, however, are free and assertively sought, with the goal of spreading the message about the mission of the Institute.) Please contact Donald Jeffries about these fees or for interviews, or for any other reason, in any of the ways shown on the sidebar.

It is important, though, to be aware that we generally will not be a direct provider of mental health services. (For such services, see Mental Health Counselors listed in the Resources area of this website.)

Service Delivery

The service focus of the Mariposa Men’s Wellness Institute will be on:

1. •education and training including presentations/lectures to schools and organizations on men’s emotional wellness, male sexual trauma survivors, male violence, and related subjects. (Send an email or write to us for further information - see addresses on the sidebar of this page.)
   

2. •program development
   

3. •marketing
   

4. •creation of a resources and referral database including the formation of a regional and national information clearinghouse concerning mental health counselors and agencies that competently address a wide variety of men’s issues
   

5. •formation of men’s groups that emphasize racial and gender orientation sensitivity.
   

Our plan is to only provide direct mental health services in those areas where such services are not already available, and therefore need to be developed, where the available services are insufficient or inappropriate for our target population. Even in those instances our first priority, before considering the provision of direct services by Mariposa MWI, will be to offer appropriate training to an existing counselor or agency whose basic mission is applicable to men’s issues.

Mariposa Men’s Wellness Institute was founded in 2001

to help men become emotionally healthy.