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Thriving Together: A Springboard for Equitable Recovery & Resilience in Communities Across America - Social Renewal
Photo by Johnson Wang on Unsplash
“From mental health’s humble beginnings in public policy, there was always a vision that community was part of the solution. The goal of President Kennedy’s landmark 1963 Community Mental Health Act was to transition care from psychiatric hospitals to the community, where people in need could find a continuum of effective care. More than a half-century later, we have yet to fulfill that vision. But through a comprehensive and integrated plan, we can do it now."

Renewing Social, Emotional, & Spiritual Life

How do we cultivate emotional strength, grow resilience & care for others?

OUR SOCIAL, EMOTIONAL, AND SPIRITUAL LIFE is tied to how we understand ourselves, relate to others, and experience belonging and purpose. It is about our thoughts, feelings, perceptions, memories, and states of being. This sense of self is further shaped by culture, early life experience, faith, ZIP code, and other factors. Our social, emotional, and spiritual life guides our decisions, influences our actions, and helps us know who we are.

Too many of our lives are compromised by trauma, exclusion, and violence. Too few of us receive the care that is essential for strong social and emotional health. Too often, our differences and biases drive us apart and disrupt connections to each other and our better selves. The structures meant to promote social and emotional health are hobbled by fragmentation, over-specialization, and inaccessibility.

This legacy moment has exposed the systems that create prolonged toxic stress, harming social and emotional health across generations. We must create institutions and places that allow us all to flourish, experience belonging, and reach our full potential. We can heal our nation’s pain by preventing further harm, treating distress, and investing in our whole selves and whole communities.

This issue is dedicated to the ways the WIN Network and our partners are moving toward social, emotional, and spiritual renewal. Explore signs of momentum and trend bending ideas on Thriving.US
Articles from National Civic Review
Social, Emotional, & Spiritual Renewal with National Civic League’s National Civic Review
(Access Code: TT21)

These articles authored by WIN Network partners and Thriving Together contributors begin to reimagine our renewed social, emotional, & spiritual life by cultivating emotional strength, growing resilience & caring for others.

The Journey From Pain the Nation to Healing the Nation
Looking for the Leading Causes of Life

IN THE NEWS
Solving America's public health crisis means addressing historic inequities

By Richard E. Besser and Julie Morita

The pandemic’s disproportionate impact on Black and Brown people is the latest entry to a long list of disparities.

We need to shift to a proactive approach that puts public health on solid ground, with sustainable and equitable funding — even during periods of calm — and expands the mandate of public health to confront the biggest health threat of our time: racism itself. 
Photo by EV on Unsplash
A 5-Year Denver-based Supportive Housing Project Achieves “Remarkable Success” for People Entrenched in Homelessness and Jail Stays

A 5-year housing study, targeting the lives of homeless people in Denver, has been completed in an effort to understand the correlation between homelessness and legal issues.

The Urban Institute served as the initiative’s independent evaluator with partners from the Evaluation Center at the University of Colorado Denver, funding from the City and County of Denver, Arnold Ventures, and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. CSH and Enterprise Community Partners (ECP) served as co-intermediaries for the project
SPECIAL SHOUTOUT
Advancing Well-Being by Transcending the Barriers of Whiteness

PolicyLink, in partnership with Well Being Trust, developed Advancing Well-Being by Transcending the Barriers of Whiteness, along with the companion Community Dialogue Guide, to serve as the starting point for critical dialogues that deepen and build shared understanding across communities.

You can also join the leaders of PolicyLink and Well Being Trust, Michael McAfee and Tyler Norris, as they engage in a deeply honest fireside chat moderated by co-author Victor Rubin of PolicyLink.


PODCAST
Farmers from Across the U.S. Heartland in Conversation

Local Voices Network (LVN) envisions a country connected through more constructive and empathic public discourse.

Agriculture Today was a conversation event hosted by Harvest Public Media to learn from residents, especially farmers, across the US Heartland about their hopes and concerns related to agriculture policy under the Biden administration.

VIDEO
Strong Voices: Black Leaders Who Are Making Neighborhoods Healthier 

Meet Black leaders who are working at the intersection of race, health and poverty. This new video series aims to elevate Black leaders in community development through storytelling, showcasing their leadership style and contributions to the field as members of the Purpose Built Communities Network.
TOOLS TO BUILD WELL-BEING
A Primer for Multi-Sector Health Partnerships in Rural Areas and Small Cities

This primer aims to assist multi-sector approaches that increase community-centered investments to support opportunities for all individuals to live long, healthy lives, regardless of their income, education, race or ethnic background.

Bright Spots
The West Lakes Community Wellness Center, Orlando, Florida

Founded in 2013, Lift Orlando is a non-profit organization that invests in the power of the neighborhood by placing focus on people, place, and partnership. Now, working in tandem with community partners, Lift Orlando shepherded more than $100 million in financial investments into the 32805 ZIP code in Orlando, Florida also known as the Communities of West Lakes.
Exciting opportunities
Community Services Block Grant (CSBG) CARES Act Rapid-Cycle Impact Projects

The Office of Community Services within the Administration for Children and Families has issued a funding opportunity to support the adaption of service models to effectively respond to immediate community needs while also preparing the future.

The closing date for applications on July 26, 2021, and you can learn more by clicking below.
Join the Conversation
How Our Mental Models Undermine Wellbeing
by The Full Frame Initiative

Understanding mental models and shifting them is essential for durable and transformative change.

Join the Full Frame Initiative for a three-hour interactive workshop to begin to understand the mental models that undergird our communities, organizations, systems, or fields and ways we can begin to shift these so everyone has a fair shot at wellbeing.