The Faith and Health Perspective, May 2021


May Is Mental Health Awareness Month

In the month of May, many of us turn our focus to the tending and nurturance of our backyard gardens. Pulling out our best gardening tools, we carefully plant, fertilize, water, and weed to ensure that our seedlings will grow and thrive into healthy, beautiful mature plants.  

May is also Mental Health Awareness Month, whose theme this year is “Tools 2 Thrive.” PHW recognizes the need for all of us to tend to the “garden” of our mental health and well-being, especially given the stress and anxiety of this past pandemic year. And as we approach the anniversary of the death of George Floyd, we especially honor, and grieve,  the emotional pain felt by so many people of color in a too often unjust society.   

In this edition of our newsletter, we will provide you with a treasure trove of mental health “Tools 2 Thrive.” Our Associate Director for Mental Health, the Rev. Jessica Stokes, will share her words of wisdom and experience on how to engage your church in a mental health ministry, directly below. At the end of the newsletter you'll find Jessica's resources on race and mental health, her Trauma-Informed Toolkit, and a host of other mental health tools. Throughout our newsletter you'll also find the recording of our Sacred Conversation on burnout with Dr. Clark Gaither; an invitation to our “Faith and Health Connection” on June 4 with the Alzheimer’s Association on Alzheimer’s Prevention and Brain/Body Health, and our webinar on mental health and harm reduction on June 28. From all of us at PHW, we send blessings for vibrant mental health, for you, and your faith communities.
Engaging Mental Health Ministry: Rev. Jessica Stokes, PHW Associate Director for Mental Health

May is Mental Health Month! Partners in Health and Wholeness (PHW) is committed to equipping faith communities with resources that promote emotional well-being, support mental health concerns, and eliminate stigma around mental health in our faith communities. We see mental health work as an opportunity, not a hardship. The need for this work and conversation has always been critical, but with our lives, family, work, and day-to-day living impacted by COVID-19, our faith communities have an incredible opportunity to join these efforts.

Mental health work can be intimidating. It might feel hard to know where to start. PHW wants to partner with what your faith community is already doing, what you hope to do, and dream of new ways together – no matter where you are right now. Below are a few ideas for starting points to help your faith community approach mental health with compassion. Read more here:
Events & Resources 

Faith Health Connection: "Alzheimer's Prevention and a Healthy Brain, Healthy Body"

Friday, June 4, 11 a.m.  - noon
Online 

Given the fear and stigma that surround Alzheimer's and dementia, the subjects too often go unaddressed, yet there are positive, preventative measures that we can take to enhance our brain health and overall well-being. Please join PHW for "Alzheimer's Prevention and a Healthy Brain, Healthy Body," featuring Courtenay O'Donoghue, Ph.D., Director of Program Services for the Western Carolina Chapter of the Alzheimer's Association. Dr. O'Donoghue will discuss early warning signs, and provide simple, clear steps in how we as individuals and as faith communities can creatively and fearlessly engage the topics of Alzheimer's and dementia, to protect ourselves, our loved ones, and our congregations and broader communities. To register, click here:   (Please note that this Faith Health Connection will "preview"  the Alzheimer Association's "Healthy Brain, Healthy Body, Healthy You" Symposium, June 7 - 11. For details, see below.) 

"Healthy Brain, Healthy Body, Healthy You"

Monday, June 7 - Friday, June 11
Online 

In celebration of National Brain Awareness Month, join the WNC Chapter of the Alzheimer's Association for an overview of "Healthy Living for Your Brain and Body" and a series of workshops designed to provide more in-depth information and hands-on activities. See the flyer above for a list of activities and times. Click here to register:

NOTE: Upon registration, participants will receive an email confirmation and links to workshops as well as the recipe and grocery list for the cooking demonstration.

"Growing Communities of Inclusion: Mental Health and Harm Reduction"

Monday, June 28, 1 - 2 p.m.
Online 

Join us for a webinar on making the connection between mental health and harm reduction work. We will look at substance use, harm reduction, and mental health through the lens of faith. There will be tangible ideas and resources on how your faith community can get involved.

Let’s eliminate stigma together. Click here to register:

Miss Our Sacred Conversation on "Preventing and Navigating Burnout"? View Our Recording Here!

On May 14, Dr. Clark Gaither, MD, a board-certified physician who specializes in burnout, taught us how to identify, eliminate, and prevent burnout. You'll not want to miss this in-depth and enlightening conversation on such a crucial mental health concern.

 Click here to view the recording:
PHW Collaborative Pledge and Mini-Grant Cycle

The PHW Collaborative Pledge is open as of January 15, and the second PHW Mini-Grant Cycle of 2021 will open June 1. The PHW Collaborative Pledge is a commitment to continuing a journey of putting faith into action in your community. Through the Collaborative Pledge, we aim to promote connections and relationships among our faith communities to share wisdom, provide support, and build a community around health and wholeness. Click here to take the Collaborative Pledge. 

The PHW Mini-Grant allows PHW Collaborative faith communities to support projects that promote health and wholeness while engaging the community. Faith Communities are able to request up to $1000 for an individual mini-grant, and up to $5000 for a community mini-grant among a minimum of three faith communities. Faith communities must have submitted a PHW Collaborative Pledge in the last 12 months for their application to be considered. Community Mini-Grants are limited. For more information please reach out to our Program Coordinator, Michelle S. Peedin, at PHWinfo@ncchurches.org. Please click here to browse our FAQs and to get started!


Check out our calendar of events here, and our list of resources here, to keep up with PHW and community-based events and resources across the state related to faith, health, and justice.
Other Grant Opportunities:

The Cooperative Extension at N.C. A&T will award stipends of up to $1,000 to 20 community gardens throughout North Carolina. The stipends must be used for community garden enhancements and/or COVID-19 related purchases. Applications must be submitted by June 4, 2021.

In order to be eligible for a stipend, gardeners must participate in COVID-19 Response Training. The training will be online and will walk gardeners through developing their own Garden Response Plan as well as food handling and donating best practices and other resources to assist your garden to continue to operate in a safe and healthy way.  The Cooperative Extension is committed to sharing their resources equitably, prioritizing groups with limited access to other funding and Tier 1 counties. However, they encourage all gardens in need to apply.  Click here for the application: 
Spotlight on St. Timothy's Episcopal Church
Mental Health Ministry

One of our greatest joys at PHW is receiving letters from our network of faith communities, sharing with us the health and wholeness ministries they have created through our PHW mini-grants.  In this month of mental health awareness, we want to share with you in turn the story of St. Timothy’s Episcopal Church in Greenville, and the beautiful, inspiring way they reached out during this past pandemic year to make those in their community feel loved and held.

Since COVID, said Julie Crippen, chair of St. Timothy’s Fellowship Committee, “we have used the mini-grant funds to assist in the delivery of ‘St. Tim's Loves You’ birthday, anniversary, and celebratory bombs. How a ‘bomb’ works is that a car full of church members and children pull up to houses, and decorate and ‘bomb’ someone’s sidewalk and windows with ‘St. Tim's Loves You,’ ‘Keep the Faith,’ ‘You are Loved,’ and yard signs with similar statements. 

 

Julie continues: “The positivity and buzz this created around our Greenville area (including Ayden, Bethel, Winterville, Grimesland, Stokes, and Farmville) was driven by Facebook and Instagram postings. The St. Tim's lead person, Kristine Kelley-Salamon, organized these outings and has brought joy to many. It also gave several of the church's young folks something to do during their summer and fall times when they were not in school. People loved the messages, sending cards to the church expressing how these beautiful messages made a difference in their daily lives and overall mental health. We can't thank you enough for the grant funds and the resulting community building that this has brought about.”

And we at PHW can’t thank you enough, Julie and St. Timothy’s, for your remarkable care, and love, for those within and beyond your church walls. And for those of you who are ready to begin your own mental health ministry, check out Rev. Jessica Stokes's resources for doing so, directly below.
PHW Mental Health Resources

As a network of faithful people committed to health and wholeness, we can learn and share – creating effective and lasting resources for our local communities. PHW is continuously compiling mental health resources that can equip people of faith with the right tools to learn and grow in this work. Please reach out to Partners in Health and Wholeness for more resources and support around mental health ministries. 

Rev. Jessica Stokes Blogs: Mental Health and Race: Barriers, Ideas, & Sacred Work:

Part 1, Click here:  

Part II, Click here:

Part III, Click here:

Starting the Conversation on Mental Health: Click here:

Becoming a Trauma-informed Faith Community:  Click here: 


For more resources, click here:

Stay in Touch

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