Dear Friend of Well Being Trust,
In this season of gratitude and grace…
We pause to celebrate the abundance of our blessings – earned, unearned and unearnable.
We pause to allow the many gifts of this precious life to wash over and nourish us – and affirm that your life, every life, is sacred and needed.
We pause to remember that we are called to love one another as ourselves – and to be in a mutuality of service with one another.
May this be a period of rest, reflection, and renewal — with yourself, family and friends – let us give and receive the love!
May this also be a reminder to welcome with dignity and respect — those who are oft marginalized, based on having different identities and perspectives.
The layered crises of these times (biologic, economic, political, racial, environmental and more) touch all of us, even as the loss and impacts predictably continue to fall heaviest on the most vulnerable.
These inter-related factors sit atop other pernicious accelerants to soaring rates of mental health and addiction challenges. Sadly, trends suggest this is not going away, and will likely increase in 2022 and beyond.
This makes our “all-in” work together more important than ever — ensuring dose-sufficient investments in care, coverage and community; building strong local, state and national partnerships; and taking aligned distributed action each from where we stand and serve.
At Well Being Trust, we are celebrating our first five years of service on our mission to advance the mental, social, and spiritual health of the United States. In this half-decade, we have gone from the bold vision and generous endowment of Providence– to being a leader in the country, serving as an innovative catalyst, inclusive convenor, and focused investor. Read these stories of WBT + Providence: Partnering to Transform Mental Health and Save Lives from Deaths of Despair – which feature some of our current work focused at Providence on caregiver well-being/resilience.
Rooted in our goal to save 100,000 lives from deaths by overdose and suicide, and to increase equitable well-being for all in America:
– We continue to implement the Framework for Excellence in Mental Health and Well Being (2.0) — that serves as “design architecture” for comprehensive impact on care, coverage and
community — capable of saving lives at a population level. Around the Framework, with many partners, we have delivered dozens of solutions sets, data downloads, tools and stories of what works and how to engage.
– We continue to strengthen the multiple new organizations and alliances Well Being Trust helped co-create and seed-fund – that now serve as “essential infrastructure” for the U.S. mental health and well-being movement, and which bring key services and resources to families, organizations, communities, states and the nation. Click here to learn more about the organizations and alliances WBT has helped create and sustain, including: Inseparable, Mindful Philanthropy, The CEO Huddle and more.
– We continue to advance Community Initiated Care as a primary Well Being Trust initiative to democratize (scale and spread) mental health and well-being skills and capacities across our communities – via people working in places such as barber shops and beauty salons; YMCA’s, houses of worship, daycares and school, employment and cultural settings. The goals: increase community capacity to care for one another; reduce stigma; make it safe for people to have conversations of significance; and increase access and referral to integrated whole person care for everyone.
With gratitude to our governing Board of Directors, National Advisory Council, and trusted partners and grantees – the WBT staff (and our new President Benjamin F. Miller, PsyD) extend our appreciation to YOU — for your engaged support, wise counsel and willingness to serve alongside us in these tender times. We are just hitting stride, and it will take all of us to turn the tide.Let us welcome this season’s celebration of all life, cherish the awakening generosity that is rising around us, and redouble our commitment to the vision of a nation where EVERYONE realizes their fullest potential for well-being!
In spirited partnership,
Tyler Norris, MDiv (he, him) | Chief Executive
wellbeingtrust.org
ADVANCING MENTAL, SOCIAL, AND SPIRITUAL HEALTH
