By Guest Blogger Kelly Graves, PhD Executive Director and Co-Founder of The Kellin Foundation
“There is nothing more powerful than an idea whose time has come.”
Six years ago, my dear friend Lindy Beauregard made this statement to me approximately six months before she gained her wings after fighting cancer in 2013. Her fight was a fight of strategy. A fight of grace. A fight with a purpose.
This is the story of the Kellin Foundation.
Six months before Lindy died, she asked me to establish a nonprofit as a testimony to our joint legacy of giving back to the next generation. A legacy of working together to make a difference in the world. Feeling overwhelming admiration for this amazing woman, I agreed with one condition – she needed to pick the name and we needed to decide together its founding mission and vision. We sipped our coffee and casted visions of how we could make a difference together, even beyond however many days she had left on this earth.
Two weeks later, I got a phone call from Lindy. She had decided on the name. I can still remember the excitement in her voice that pushed through the weakness she felt from her latest chemo round. She shared the name with me – The Kellin Foundation. At first, it didn’t register, but after about 20 seconds, I understood. KELly. LINdy. Kellin. Forever connected in a joint legacy of making a difference together. It was perfect. Six months later, Lindy left this earth, but not before planting a seed that would sprout and grow into an amazing community-based organization for kids and families.
Today, the Kellin Foundation provides a continuum of free and deeply reduced services and programs that support individuals, children, and families toward safety and wellness. These services include mental health and substance use counseling, case management, peer support services, leadership development, victim advocacy services, and community outreach and education.
The Kellin Foundation believes that every child deserves to grow up in a safe and nurturing home, and that every adult has the potential to reach their goals. And, we are proud to have served almost 5,000 children, families, and adults in 2017 alone.
If we are honest, we have all struggled with something at some point in our lives. Maybe it was with a spouse, a child, or a family member. Or perhaps we felt so stressed that we couldn’t sleep so we decided to turn to alcohol or drugs just to cope. Or, maybe the horrific things that we saw and heard in our past continue to haunt us today.
If this is you, you are NOT alone. 1 in 4 people seek mental health support at some point in their lifetime and nearly half of households in the United States have had someone seek mental health treatment this year (APA, 2018).
While many try to cope alone, sometimes we need a helping hand on our journey to wellness. So, our biggest question is, how can we help YOU and your family? Anyone can make a referral. Although your journey is your own, you don’t have to walk it alone.
The Kellin Foundation is a nonprofit organization that supports children, individuals, families, and communities to achieve safety and wellness. The goals are to assist individuals and communities with safety, restore hope, facilitate healing, and achieve holistic wellness. The foundation’s belief is that mental, physical, social, and spiritual well-being all contribute to the ability of individuals to reach their full potential, and thus, we use an integrated approach to our programming.
For more information, please visit our website at www.kellinfoundation.org or call us today at 336-429-5600.
To read other blogs in our “Doing Good Things Series,” click here!
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