Grammy Nominated Singer-Songwriter and mental health advocate Jewel, and her leading mental health nonprofit The Inspiring Children Foundation, announced their partnership with The Wellness Experience by Kroger for its 2nd Annual World Mental Health Day Summit & Concert set for Sunday, October 10. For twenty years Jewel’s Inspiring Children Foundation (ICF) has been empowering at-risk youth struggling with financial hardship, anxiety, depression, suicidal ideation and other mental health challenges by giving them the ultimate environment to survive, then thrive at the highest levels.
This year’s event is in partnership with and benefiting the Inspiring Children Foundation and One Mind. The event’s goal is to democratize wellness by bringing physical, emotional, and mental health to the masses in a fun, creative way, infused with music, celebrity and experts. To this end they are making the event available for free to the general public and have an open invitation to partner with organizations or companies interested in mental health. The event also kicks off a new collaboration between Jewel, ICF, and One Mind, the leading mental health and brain research nonprofit, founded over twenty five years ago.
The Summit & Concert will include music performances, exclusive conversations with celebrities, workouts with fitness experts, and cooking demos. The event is hosted by Jewel, Dancing with the Stars' Cheryl Burke, Alaska The Last Frontier’s Atz Kilcher, Olympic Gold Medalist Laurie Hernandez, and Influencer Summer McKeen. Music Performances include Jewel, Alejandro Sanz, Nicky Jam, Quinn XCII, CG5, Lydia Knight, Hunter Hayes, and Pat Monahan. The event will feature mental health liver experience experts, researchers and clinicians including: Former.Congressman Patrick Kennedy, Co-Founder of One Mind, Ryan Wolfington, President of Jewel Inc. and Co-Founder of Inspiring Children Foundation, Dr. Blaise Aguirre of Harvard McLean Psychiatric Hospital, Dr. Gabor Maté; the subject of the award-winning film “The Wisdom of Trauma”, and Dr. Stephen Murphy-Shigematsu; Director of the Heartfulness Lab and Co-Founder of LifeWorks at Stanford. There will be appearances by Kroger CEO Rodney McMullen, President of Kroger Health Colleen Lindholz, Chief Medical Officer of Kroger Dr. Marc Watkins, President of SaksWorks Amy Nelson, SaksWorks Director of Wellness Nicole Kalhorn, award-winning actress Tabitha Brown and ICF foundation youth. Fitness Sessions will be led by celebrity fitness trainers.
The livestream will be available on The Wellness Experience’s website, as well as the Inspiring Children Foundation’s Facebook page and www.
The CDC indicates that since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic there has been a 93% increase in those looking for help with anxiety, and a 62% increase in depression. 40.9% of respondents reported at least one adverse behavioral health condition. Pre-COVID-19 suicide rates for youngsters had increased exponentially from 2006, up 70% and 77% for white and black youth, respectively. During this time the Inspiring Children Foundation in Las Vegas has been on the front lines at Lorenzi Park, Craig Ranch Park, over the phone, and online, developing programs to inspire children to use the tools that have been scientifically proven to help mitigate mental illness in children and adults.
“We are giving them the same tools that helped me go from an abusive background, moving out at 16, and being homeless, to becoming a happy whole human,” said Jewel. “I know how much people struggle to feel the healing and internal permission needed to become an architect of your own life, instead of the backseat driver of one you were born into. I believe there are every-day solutions that can help other people find peace of mind and live an extraordinary life.”
The Inspiring Children Foundation’s online, over the phone, and in person ecosystem of healing and growth includes programs that emphasize the need for: emotional intelligence, SEL, mindfulness/meditation, DBT, trauma therapy/informed care, group mental health counseling and mentoring, leadership development, entrepreneur skills, nutrition, yoga, recreational and high-performance tennis, sports, sleep science, and academics. The Foundation leadership empowers youth to co-create and run 80% of the programs believing it develops know-how, an understanding of themselves, and confidence.
“Jewel and I have given these children what we wish we had when we were young, the physical, emotional and mental health tools to find love in even the most challenging of circumstances,” said Ryan Wolfington, Co-Founder of the Inspiring Children Foundation. “These tools and this information should be made available to everyone, everywhere, which is why the children co-created our online World Mental Health Day Summit and Concert with Kroger.”
On the Foundation’s Advisory Board, co-chaired by Jewel, is Dr Judson Brewer, Director of Research and Innovation at Brown University Mindfulness Center. Dr. Brewer is the Foundation’s scientific advisor, and has validated the tools and practices being offered for free on their free mental health website JewelNeverBroken.com. The in-person programs and practices were further validated by the public recognition by Dr. Blaise Aguirre, the internationally recognized child and adolescent psychiatrist at Harvard-affiliated McLean Hospital, the nation’s leading freestanding mental health facility.
To become a partner of the event, or for more information go to www.InspiringChildren.org.
