The Hope Walk, a project from Gilbert Leadership Class 31, will be unveiled to the public in a ceremony at 10 a.m. Saturday, May 6, at the Riparian Preserve at Water Ranch. 

Guest Speakers will include Gilbert Leadership Board Chair Deb Carr, Gilbert Parks & Recreation Foundation Board member Arica Reed, Gilbert Leadership Class 31 member Julia Macaluso and Gilbert Mayor Brigette Peterson. 

The Hope Walk, which aims to advocate for mental health, is a collaboration among the Gilbert Parks & Recreation Department, the Gilbert Parks & Recreation Foundation and the Gilbert Leadership program, and includes support from Envision Painting, Grainger, DeBellevue Global, Fastsigns of Gilbert and Suzi Freeman.  

The project embraced “Question, Persuade, Refer” gatekeeper training and uses mental-health prompts with the goal to reduce suicide and improve mental health in the community. 

The Hope Walk is a fully accessible, public three-quarters-mile loop within the Gilbert Riparian that includes three main features.  

Visitors along the Hope Walk will see Class 31’s efforts in features found folded into the desert landscape: positivity posts with positive messaging, desert-toned mental health tip signs that offer ways to promote mental well-being, and a desert inspired Hope mural near the midpoint of the trail that was hand-painted by Gilbert Leadership Class 31.  

Preceding the Hope Walk reveal, Gilbert Leadership Class 31 also held free QPR suicide-prevention training for adults and teens and assembled 100 “Hope Kits” containing mental health resources and positive message signs for community businesses and schools for distribution at the reveal event.