I had one of the most magical moments of my life and career this past week with the National Council in Seattle. It was a whirlwind of inspiration and recognition and I’m moved beyond words. (Which I realize is complicated in a written post like this. ha!)

Here’s the good news: Keep Oregon Well and Flawless Foundation partnered all throughout #NatCon17 and they have words about it, which were just published last night on the Keep Oregon Well blog. What they wrote absolutely captures the spirit of the week, so I have included it below instead of trying to re-capture it myself. Lots of cute, supportive Tweets at the bottom of the page. OMG.

Thank you again to the National Council! My heart is full.

From Keep Oregon Well and Flawless Foundation: (4/6/17)

This week, the brainchild behind Keep Oregon Well and our very own Chief Impact Officer, Logan Lynn, was called on to share his many talents at the National Council for Behavioral Health’s annual conference, #NatCon17. First, he brought his expertise in community engagement to a panel discussion, “Health Systems Partnering with Communities for Whole Health,” and led a Facebook Live Q&A aftershow with his fellow presenters which, as of publishing this post, has already been viewed over 30,000 times on our Facebook page alone! Then, at the 2017 Awards of Excellence show Tuesday night, Logan was honored by the National Council for the positive impact he has made through Excellence in Artistic Expression and topped off the evening with a live performance of his new song, “Big City Now”.

Watch our Facebook Live video of Logan Lynn’s acceptance speech and performance:

As he shared during the panel, Logan brings a history of lived experience with mental health struggles and substance use challenges to his work with Trillium and the Keep Oregon Well movement. His turning point came when, after a 16-year struggle with addiction, a trauma-informed therapist asked Logan a simple question: “What has happened to you?” From there, Logan has used his music and platform to “talk about something that really mattered” and to heal himself and “hopefully provide a space for others to do the same”. He has since leveraged not only his network and brand as a musician, filmmaker and television personality, but also his skills in partnership-building and communications to make Keep Oregon Well one of the top mental health campaigns in the country.

Watch Logan Lynn speak to Flawless Foundation about why he does this work here:

A visionary and connector, Logan, in many ways, represents the future of mental health advocacy. He recognizes that changing the face of this issue is going to require commitments from beyond the mental health field. He sees this cause as one we all need to get involved with, and he has recruited allies from diverse backgrounds, including music, radio, television, sports and other corners of popular culture. While the mission of Keep Oregon Well is to reduce stigma around mental and behavioral health issues, Logan takes it one step further: he insists we must move “beyond tolerance and acceptance, to truly celebrating neurodiversity.” This is the kind of bold vision we need in order to really change the system.

Watch our Facebook Live video of the #NatCon17 Thought Leader Plenary – “Health Systems Partnering with Communities for Whole Health” featuring Trillium Family Services, Keep Oregon Well and Logan Lynn alongside Tyler Norris, Dr. Robin Henderson, Dr. Arpan Waghray and Patrick Gordon here:

Key to achieving this vision, and a large part of Logan’s work, is building partnerships with communities. Collaboration was a dominant theme of the panel discussion, and the presenters shared different strategies for outreach, building trust, and forging effective partnerships. In discussing how best to achieve collective impact, Logan called for a model of “radical inclusion” in which we “make space for everyone at the table.” This is the model we strive to follow in all of our partnerships at Keep Oregon Well, and Logan’s commitment to authentic collaboration is a driving force behind our success.

Watch our Facebook Live video of the #NatCon17 Thought Leader Plenary Aftershow about Collective Impact and partnership across sectors:

We are so proud to have this fearless and visionary leader heading up Trillium’s Impact team and driving this radical community engagement strategy. Congratulations Logan! Thank you for bringing your passion and creativity to this cause we all care so deeply about!

Check out photos and Tweets from our #NatCon17 adventures here: