James DeCamp
Elizabeth Vargas meets with New Albany-Plain Local Schools faculty and staff during her 2018 visit.
For the last 20 years, the New Albany Community Foundation has taken the lead to start conversations about challenges facing New Albany residents.
Around the time of the first Jefferson Series lecture, central Ohio experienced an increase in teen suicides, raising concern among residents, school officials and city leaders who understood New Albany was not immune to the trend. Communities can choose to ignore such issues in order to avoid any perceived negative attention, but New Albany chose to confront the problems head-on.
“In New Albany, we care about everybody and we wanted to find a way for the community to express this,” says Craig Mohre, president of the NACF. “We looked to start a community discussion that would help remove the stigma associated with mental illness.”
The foundation decided to make mental health a focus by encouraging community dialogue and awareness of resources. During the 2015, 16 Jefferson Series season, the NACF took its first public step toward convening a community conversation about eliminating the stigma associated with mental health related topics, but it didn’t happen overnight. There was significant work done behind the scenes prior to Mariel Hemingway coming to New Albany, and significant progress has been made in the years since.
Lorn Spolter
Students meet with Glenn Close following the Jefferson Series Student Lecture in 2019.
Hemingway had just written a book chronicling her famous family’s generational battle with mental illnesses. The timely subject matter coupled with her celebrity status was a perfect fit for a Jefferson Series lecture, and the community response was tremendous.
The next day, Rocky Fork Company owner Brian Bailey, who had attended the Hemingway lecture, visited Mohre in his office. Bailey wanted to make a corporate gift to support evidenced-based behavioral health programming. Another anonymous donor decided to establish a fund that would engage the schools in confronting mental illness, and the seeds for the Well-Being Initiative were planted. The Well-Being Initiative is a group of community leaders working in collaboration with school officials to create a best-in-class well-being model focused on New Albany students.
With an enthusiastic endorsement from New Albany-Plain Local School District Superintendent Michael Sawyers, many people were eager to get involved.
“The foundation’s impact is quite real and aligns with our district’s purpose: to create a culture of accountability that achieves the best academic and developmental outcomes for each student,” says Sawyers. “For many years now, the New Albany Community Foundation has realized our school district’s need to support the developmental aspects of educating our students.”
One of the initial supporters of this conversation was Fran Horowitz, chief executive officer of Abercrombie & Fitch Co.
Lorn Spolter
Mariel Hemingway in conversation with central Ohio mental health leaders at the Heit Center in 2015.
“Nothing could be a more timely or relevant topic than mental health,” she says. “Through various causes we support, we understand the severity of mental health issues facing our communities today, and A&F Co. is dedicated to driving awareness and providing funding to local, national and global organizations supporting those in need.”
Another important early contributor to the effort was Rick Bayer. Bayer spent years volunteering with Concord Counseling and knew immediately that he wanted to help with this burgeoning project. As the momentum grew, so did the understanding that the focus needed to be broader than addressing only mental illness; it needed to emphasize total well-being.
“Our ultimate goal is to help each student navigate the inevitable challenges they will experience during this stage in their lives and give them a solid well-being foundation they can build upon into adulthood,” Bayer says.
Looking to keep the community energized while building off of Hemingway’s successful appearance, the foundation brought Patrick Kennedy to New Albany as part of the 2016-17 Jefferson Series season. Kennedy’s discussion provided the community with another success story as he recounted anecdotes from his life that demonstrated the power of a substantial support system.
In addition to the Jefferson Series lectures, the foundation gifts students each speaker’s book, and provides the opportunity for them to attend a special student lecture event to ask questions and learn more about the speaker. To date, more than 14,000 students from over 50 area schools and youth organizations have attended Jefferson Series events, including the well-being focused lectures given by Mariel Hemingway, Patrick Kennedy, Elizabeth Vargas, Glenn Close and in the coming season, Michael Phelps.
The Well-Being Initiative’s success depends on an all-hands-on-deck approach to create the type of support system that Kennedy touted. Sarah Underhill led the Parent Education Team and works to involve families in the initiative. Underhill recently launched the Well-Being Connection, aimed at bringing expanded programming to the community so that a culture of well-being grows in New Albany.
“I hope to see parents become empowered to help their children as mental health issues arise,” Underhill says, “and for them to become a part of a larger community that values sharing and learning about how to help our community improve everyone’s well-being.”
The support from the foundation’s donors and sponsors makes the Jefferson Series speakers available to the community and has helped to power the Well-Being Initiative in the schools, and now the Well-Being Connection. One of these partners is the Berend family. Cindy and Keith Berend have made a multi-year commitment to support behavioral health programs.
“Cindy and I believe that if New Albany is to become the healthiest community in America, we cannot leave mental health out of the picture,” says Keith Berend. “We are simply honored to be able to help.”
These partnerships enable the foundation to generate resources for transformational investments in education, health, the arts and environment, and to keep community conversations about important issues such as mental health and well-being at the forefront today and for years to come.
Lorn Spolter
Patrick Kennedy meets with students during his 2017 Jefferson Series visit.
Bob Valasek is a contributing writer. Feedback welcome at feedback@cityscenemediagroup.com.
