Edmond Mental Health Nonprofit Receives Massive Donation

Alright, let’s get the obvious question out of the way first. Why is a mental health nonprofit named Green Shoe? 

“I get that question a lot, and actually, if you go back, green is the color for mental health awareness, so that’s the main factor,” said Executive Director Stephany Cochran. 

It also is a stock term, which makes sense since the Green Shoe Foundation was founded by a businessman, Paycom CEO Chad Richison. 

And speaking of green, the foundation just got a lot of it in the form of a generous $2 million donation from Paycom Chief Sales Officer Jeffrey York. 

“This kind of donation will help us be able to reach more people and continue to help both individuals and the community here," said Cochran. 

Green Shoe offers that help by holding no cost, one-week mental health retreats at their Edmond office, where people can speak to licensed therapists. 

One of the foundation’s overall goals is to break the stigma of mental health. 

“I hear so many times, ‘I didn’t want to reach out for help,' or 'I didn’t know how to reach out for help, I don’t want people to know I’m struggling.’ We need people to know they can talk about it,” said Cochran. 

Green Shoe focuses on reconciling childhood trauma and how that affects relationships later in life. 

“Trauma can be anything that’s less than nurturing, that we experience during that zero to eighteen time period in our life. So, we want to help people go back and look and kind of connect some of those dots, to see how they’re doing with relationships today,” she said. 

Green Shoe just hosted their 200th group since starting in 2016. 

For more information you can go to greenshoe.org