Dear Friend,

As 2019 comes to a close, on behalf of the Center for Mindfulness and Compassion (CMC) at Cambridge Health Alliance (CHA), I'd like to thank you for being a part of our community. We share a common understanding of the impact that mindfulness and compassion can have on improving the lives of individuals and enhancing the way people can work together.

"I've experienced how mindfulness not only reduces stress but leads to improved communication and compassion for myself and others." - CMC participant

Since it began in 2014, CMC has been changing the way primary care and mental health are provided at CHA and our region, by offering mindfulness and compassion training at all levels of the healthcare system. We have served over 2,500 people through CMC's public, research, and clinical programs. CMC has also been awarded a number of competitive research grants to study how mindfulness and compassion training can help people living with chronic illness, anxiety, depression, post-traumatic stress disorder, opioid use disorder, migraines, and chronic pain. CMC has offered workshops, conferences, and lectures to help our community better integrate mindfulness into our personal and professional lives. Through the development of the first in the nation, Mindful Mental Health Service at CHA in 2018, we began to transform how mental health care can be delivered.

"Mindfulness practices help me better support patients with multiple chronic medical conditions."
- CHA primary care provider

Even with such a strong first chapter, we must widen our Circle of Friends. Equalizing access to mindfulness training for a diverse population is a critical aspect of our mission. CHA serves as a safety-net hospital system for our region in which 50% of our patients receive federally subsidized insurance and 30% speak a primary language other than English at home.

To reach and support more members of our community, we ask for your financial help. This gift will support several key areas that are able to grow only through the strength of our community's commitment to inclusion and accessibility, such as the following key areas of impact: Scholarships for disadvantaged minorities for CMC's community workshops and trainings; Access for people with serious mental illness in the Mindful Mental Health Service; Portuguese and Spanish language groups; and other initiatives directly serving those who are marginalized by society, such as programs for immigration-related stress. Finally, our Advanced Fellowship in Mindfulness launched this year, with the aim to train clinicians to lead the integration of mindfulness into healthcare and psychotherapy. This Fellowship helps us to fulfill our mission of creating a healing mindfulness ecosystem focused on accessibility and inclusion.

I hope you will consider making a gift to further CMC's capacity to serve our community. We are all integrally connected -- one with each other; and as one is strengthened so too will our whole community become more resilient and caring.

"Practicing mindfulness and self-compassion have taught me to accept myself more."

Thank you.

Zev Schuman-Olivier, M.D.

Director, Center for Mindfulness and Compassion

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