One Big Thing and the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI/Washtenaw County) played an instrumental role over the course of 2021 in reaching out to our region’s faith and lay leaders to understand the needs of our community members on mental health. One important topic was the loss and grief that individuals experience because of COVID and the isolation caused by COVID.

A conference to address these topics, titled Emerging from the Pandemic: Faith Leaders Role as Shepherds through a Mental Health Crisis, was held and recorded on November 9, 2021. The conference is an overview of some of the important mental health resources in our region and also some success stories of what congregations can do to meet the needs of their members and their communities. Thank you to NAMI and volunteers Andrea May, Pastor Harold Wimberly, Rev. Sheree Gidcomb Clark, Melisa Tasker from Washtenaw County Community Mental Health, Dr. Martha Kershaw, and Abby Norris from St. Joseph Mercy Chelsea, for their words of inspiration and hope.

You can watch the conference by clicking the link above. Please help us spread the word about this important work.