Paraag Marathe – EVP, Football Operations, San Francisco 49ers – To Headline Rcoz Gala

Rcoz, a Fremont-based nonprofit focused on mental health prevention in South Asian communities, will hold a fundraising  Gala on Saturday, May 30, at The Woman’s Club of Palo Alto. May is Mental Health Awareness Month; Rcoz was founded to raise awareness and build acceptance of mental health issues in the South Asian community.

Paraag Marathe, President of 49ers Enterprises, Executive Vice President of Football Operations for the San Francisco 49ers, and the Chairman of Leeds United, will anchor the event.

South Asian mental health remains widely underreported, and events like this one offer a rare, on-the-record window into a community working to change that from the inside. Marathe will moderate a conversation about what it takes to break cultural silence and for South Asians to seek help early, before things reach a breaking point. According to Rcoz, mental health issues are typically only addressed when a crisis occurs.

“To give you a sense of what’s at stake: in just the last four months, we are aware of four South Asian youth suicides in the Bay Area alone. It’s hard to ignore what that’s telling us,” says Rcoz.

Rcoz envisions a future where mental health in South Asian households is no longer ignored, but spoken about as naturally as the common cold. They help South Asians find the words through lived-experience storytelling, community dialogues with culturally attuned mental health experts, and programs for both youth and families.  

Rcoz will also run a summer program called High School Changemaker Program from July 6 to August 2 to build leadership skills and launch awareness programs for youth. The program, supported by partner community-based organizations, particularly those focused on substance use and suicide prevention, will provide leadership training with mental health specialists, peer support specialists, and returning youth participants.

Shreyas Jay, a senior who attended the program last year, said. “We worked on things like elevator pitches, marketing ideas, and speaking about our own experiences, along with sessions on substance use and suicide awareness that helped us understand what to look for and what kind of support is out there, for ourselves or for someone else.” The program pushed me in ways I didn’t expect, he added.

Jay assumed his problems were unique, “but hearing others my age share what they were going through made me realize I wasn’t alone. The struggles we go through are much more similar than most of us think.” 

Rcoz, 

For more information on the Gala:
https://www.rcoz.us/events/2026annualgala/

Saturday May 30
The Woman’s Club of Palo Alto,
475 Homer Ave, Palo Alto.