BeWellPBC 2025 Impact Report

Community Solutions: Where residents meet resources

Stewardship Coordination and Alignment: Where listening meets action

Workforce Pipeline: Where challenges meet innovation

2025: Meeting the Moment

This report reflects the power of what we can accomplish together. To our invested partners and contributors: Thank you for showing up, leaning in, and meeting this moment alongside us. Because of you, we are building a future where the opportunity to thrive is within everyone's reach.

Since BeWellPBC launched in 2019, we have led a movement to advance behavioral health and wellness in Palm Beach County. We have lived into our mission to bring together stewards from every corner of our community—residents, system leaders, providers, businesses, faith-based organizations, youth, and parents—to lead the change they want to see in their families, their schools, their workplaces, and their cities.

In each moment, we meet people where they are. We pivot and adapt to meet emerging needs. And we recognize when to lean in more deeply to meet challenges head-on—and when to step back and create space for what comes next.

Our story in 2025 is one of evolution. As we engaged more stewards, listened to more voices, and made deeper community connections, we grew confident that every opportunity has led us to meeting THIS moment. It is complex. It is challenging. Yet, we have been met with determination to create a community in which every person in Palm Beach County feels hopeful, supported, connected, and empowered.

Meeting the Mark: Impact Highlights

20 Community Connectors meeting neighbors where they are engaged reads of The Well of PBC 4,637

$59,406 in mini-grants invested in community-led ideas

1,824

individuals reached through Wellness and Recovery Initiative

BeWellPBC’s Founding Executive Director’s Next Chapter

During 2025, Lauren Zuchman took the next great step in her career, joining Children’s Services Council of Palm Beach County as Chief Communications and Partnerships Officer. In an excerpt from her letter to the community, Lauren shared her love of BeWellPBC and her belief in its future.

93 students enrolled in Behavioral Health Technician program

BeWellPBC met residents of every age, across every region in Palm Beach County to impact behavioral health in 2025, and invest in long-term community and system change.

"As I take the next step in my professional journey, I’m reflecting on where BeWellPBC has been, how far we’ve come, and the possibilities ahead. The lessons abound, the wins are many, and most prominent in my thoughts is my deep gratitude for everyone who has joined with BeWellPBC to transform behavioral health in Palm Beach County so every person can feel hopeful, supported, connected, and empowered.

I will continue to champion this movement, still leading in Palm Beach County, taking my love for this community and the lessons forward to influence change in more spaces across the county. I am incredibly proud of what we’ve achieved. I know this important work will continue to flourish in our hands. We’ve built something extraordinary together, and I can’t wait to see how this community evolves.”

COMMUNITY

Where residents meet resources

BeWellPBC amplifies the voices of residents to promote change. We know our neighbors hold the key to creating greater belonging and civic muscle by connecting people who have not been represented in the past, leading conversations to change, and co-designing behavioral health solutions.

Community Connectors

In 2025, BeWellPBC’s 20 Community Connectors engaged their fellow neighbors in meaningful conversations about mental health, behavioral health, and overall well-being. Rooted in the communities they call home, they are building trust and connection in Delray Beach, Boynton Beach, Pearl City (Boca Raton), Belle Glade, Pahokee, South Bay, Riviera Beach, West Palm Beach, Lake Worth, and Lake Park by listening without judgment, sharing resources, and helping residents find support in moments that matter most.

Community Connectors deepened their impact through:

● Informed support: Connectors surveyed more than 100 residents to capture lived experiences, identify barriers, and elevate community priorities so supports are shaped by the people we serve.

● Connections to Resources: Connectors navigated residents to over 50 community resources, helping them find counseling, transportation, food assistance, crisis and legal services, family support, and more.

● Outreach: Eight BeWellPBC Mental Health Pop-Ups across Palm Beach County offered trusted, neighbor-to-neighbor support. Pop-Ups are partnership opportunities to focus on specific issues affecting all ages, from children and parents to seniors.

Partners and topics included:

- Century Village, Connect & Thrive: A Wellness Gathering

- Bridges Belle Glade, Building Our Glades Support Group

- The Literacy Coalition's Village Readers Haitian Creole adult ESOL students

- Conviva Senior Center, The Interaction & Influence of Mental Health for Families with Dementia

- Spady Museum, Spill the Tea on HealthA Holiday Grief Paint & Sip Experience

● National Recognition: The Aspen Institute featured Katrina Blackmon and her success in building BeWellPBC’s Community Connectors team, recognizing her as part of a global network of changemakers. Read the blog here

Surveying residents in the Glades to connect more deeply with resident needs

A Connector's Story

“I let her know to call me anytime things get rough.”

Aida Smith is providing vital support to seniors navigating life's challenges in the Boynton Beach and Delray area. Through regular check-ins and compassionate listening, she walks alongside neighbors during their most vulnerable moments— whether they're facing divorce after decades of marriage, battling serious illness, or struggling with isolation.

When a 70-year-old woman felt overwhelmed by an impending divorce, Aida spent hours listening and connected her to 211 resources and senior socialization programs. She continues checking on a senior dealing with chronic pain and loneliness, inviting her to community events. For a 77-year-old man whose cancer returned, Aida provides steady moral support during treatment.

Aida's work extends beyond helping people through challenges—she helps seniors discover volunteer opportunities, facilitates their access to activities, and ensures they know someone cares. Her consistent presence offers neighbors hope during their darkest hours.

Building a community of support through mini-grants

BeWellPBC’s 2025 mini-grants that fostered connections, trust, and shared resources to ensure residents felt valued, included, and able to thrive together, were:

Addressing Maternal Morbidity in the Black Community National Coalition of 100 Black Women

Advocating for Black mothers and babies by partnering with St. Mary's Medical Center's telehealth program to reduce maternal and infant mortality.

Alo Vwazin (Hello Neighbor) Podcast

Lakou Lokal

A bilingual (English/Creole) podcast designed to give Haitian and immigrant families accessible, culturally-rooted information on mental health, parenting, and wellness.

Bridging Families on the Cancer Journey

The Pink Queen Foundation

Provides survivors, children of survivors, and their caregivers with practical tools that will aid in their ability to navigate through critical components of the cancer journey.

Mindfulness & Food Gathering

3 Demetrie's Eatery

Monthly events to learn healthy, cultural recipes rooted in African American, Caribbean, and soul traditions, where food becomes a bridge for legacy, culture, and well-being.

PEARL on the Go Beyond the Valley

A mobile wellness program integrating early childhood behavioral support, family-centered mental health tools, and basic hygiene necessities into underserved communities.

Where listening meets action

BeWellPBC brings together residents and system leaders to create a unified vision for building a culture of health and wellness and to co-design solutions grounded in equity, access, community healing, and behavioral health awareness.

Rohi's Readery — A RALLY Success Story

Following our final RALLY event in August 2024, we’ve seen how RALLY continues to influence youth mental health. One example is Rohi’s Readery, a social justicedriven bookstore and learning center for children in West Palm Beach. Pranoo Kumar, the owner, shared how RALLY inspired her work in 2025.

"Since participating in RALLY, Rohi's Readery has evolved into a multi-use, youth-centered learning and wellness hub rooted in liberation, literacy, and healing, now hosting trauma-informed programming, youth

employment, educator workshops, and intergenerational community gatherings. Last summer alone, we served over 100 youth ages 2–22 — the majority Black youth from the Historic Northwest and surrounding communities— through art programs, on-site child therapy, phonics readiness, and paid internships.

RALLY's influence is perhaps most visible in the growth of our Builders and Middle School Changemakers Internships, which engage middle and high school students at the intersection of social-emotional learning, mental health, mentorship, financial empowerment, and academic readiness. In 2025, five new community interns were onboarded to lead afterschool programming — a direct reflection of the youth-led model that RALLY helped ignite. One standout moment: a high school intern joined a BeWellPBC Stewardship Council meeting, offering recommendations that directly shaped program adjustments and strengthened community engagement.

Across programs, 100% of youth surveyed reported feeling safe, seen, and given space to grow. For Rohi's Readery, RALLY didn't just inform our work — it helped bring it to life.”

Get Your Green On 2025

Palm Beach County's Get Your Green On (GYGO) campaign had a strong Mental Health Awareness Month in May, with 70+ events countywide. The signature event, Greenprint Gathering at Pompey Park in Delray Beach, drew the community together around mental wellness, while the GYGO Goosechase Scavenger Hunt, organized by the Palm Beach County Behavioral Health Coalition and Alpert Jewish Family Service, attracted 21+ teams and 77 participants completing over 1,000 missions. GYGO also partnered with Palm Tran to wrap a bus in GYGO branding and air mental health videos onboard, bringing awareness directly to riders.

By the Numbers

70+ events

held for Mental Health Awareness Month ages 2–22

21+ teams, 77 participants, and 1,000+ missions completed in the GYGO Goosechase Scavenger Hunt

1 Palm Tran bus wrapped and activated as a mobile mental health awareness platform for one year

Wellness & Recovery

In May, Healthier Boynton Beach, the Caregivers Club (BeWell Club), and Genesis Community Health hosted the Caregivers Wellness Retreat for 38 attendees to participate in activities promoting mental health and wellbeing for caregivers. BeWellPBC engaged the community around wellness and recovery. The Peer Leadership Council hosted a two-part Partnership-Based Storytelling training series for peer specialists and community members, drawing 23 attendees. A four-part social media video series amplified recovery voices by asking community members how they stay resilient through tough times. Each post was paired with a Recovery Capital Index flyer and Shaping a Healthier Palm Beach County campaign info. In August, the County-funded edition of The Well of PBC was released publicly alongside an email blast to extend its reach. BeWellPBC closed out Recovery Month with four dedicated posts covering The Well of PBC, suicide prevention awareness, and SAMHSA reposts — reinforcing its role as a trusted community recovery resource.

Wellness and Recovery Impact Highlights

218 individuals engaged in Wellness and Recovery Initiative activities

1,606 individuals engaged through social media and the newsletter directly

1,495 individuals introduced

to/participated in the Resilience Capital Index survey

Honoring community healing and resiliency through mini-grants

BeWellPBC’s 2025 mini-grants that recognized and uplifted the strengths, experiences, and collective efforts of all residents as they overcome challenges included:

FitHub

Ascension 33 Empowers youth through dance, fitness, mentorship, and service learning in the Glades to grow into healthier, more confident, and more connected members of the community.

Lift & Lead: Wellness Through Aviation and Equine Programs

KOP Mentoring Network Serves economically challenged youth and families through an innovative blend of aviation-based learning and equine-assisted wellness experiences.

Motivated by the Lens – A Community Video Series by Olen TV Olen TV Photography & Selfie Museum

A video series sharing local stories of resilience, motivation, and wellness to uplift residents and inspire emotional well-being through storytelling and positive visual content.

ODZ Legacy & Resilience Circles

Omicron Delta Zeta Chapter, of Zeta PhiBeta Sorority Strengthens connections by creating spaces where elders

share personal stories of resilience, love, joy, and tradition, while youth serve as listeners and documentarians.

P'alante

Susana Rivero

A bilingual virtual wellness project for immigrant domestic workers who are impacted and traumatized by current immigration policies and related stressors.

Pickle Ball with a Purpose People of Purpose

Pickleball unites returning citizens and families through healthy activity, pro-social engagement, and community, strengthening bonds and second-chance opportunities.

Project Wellness

Tomorrow's Hope Academy

A Saturday series for immigrant and working-class families, blending a bilingual mental health workshop with community outings to strengthen resilience and foster connection.

Where challenges meet innovation

BeWellPBC works alongside behavioral health professionals, education and community stewards, and students to grow and meet Palm Beach County’s workforce needs now, and in the future. Together we are fostering inclusion, diversity, and youth advocacy to build a more equitable workforce with the supports they need for their own health and wellness.

Inspiring and Retaining Behavioral Health Professionals

BeWellPBC’s Workforce Pipeline Action Team knows that building a stronger behavioral health workforce starts with sharing knowledge. That’s why they created the Behavioral Health Career Roadmap during 2025—a tool to enhance and expand Palm Beach County’s workforce pipeline by showing students the wide range of career pathways available in the field. The roadmap outlines opportunities at every level of education and experience. View the expansive roadmap here

Also during 2025, the action team created the Behavioral Health Workforce Insight Survey one-pager highlighting what encourages Palm Beach County behavioral health employees to stay, areas for improvement, and how their experience could be enhanced. Insights were shared with behavioral health employees, employers, system leaders, and funders to help improve retention and overall employee well-being.

“The collaboration and partnerships developed through the Action Team were outstanding, with good dialogue for sharing and identifying issues.”

-Workforce Pipeline Action Team Member

A Statewide Spotlight

In August, BeWellPBC’s Alita Faber presented at the annual Florida Behavioral Health Conference (BHCON 2025) in Orlando, showcasing a district-wide model that connects high school students in the Behavioral Health Technician Program with community behavioral health providers to enhance student learning and career exposure through co-instruction and internships, and $1,000 scholarships for graduating seniors. This model reflects BeWellPBC's ongoing commitment to building pipelines that support the next generation of mental and behavioral health professionals and the communities they will serve.

Behavioral Health Technician Program

The Behavioral Health Technician (BHT) Program continued to grow its presence across Palm Beach County high school medical academies, engaging 93 students across 4 schools in the 2024–2025 academic year. BeWellPBC worked alongside local providers to support community experiences for students to learn beyond academics, including internships, classroom co-instruction with local behavioral health providers, scholarships.

A BHT Intern Shares Her Experience

Alisha Uddin

“My internship experience at Kaafi Counseling has been both eye-opening and rewarding. It has allowed me to gain a deeper understanding of behavioral health and the importance of compassionate, client-centered care. I have also had the opportunity to build positive relationships with many members of the team, including Dr. Fartun Mohamud and Mr. David Smith, who have shown me the different aspects of the mental health field and how each role contributes to supporting clients’ well-being.

In addition, working in marketing with Ms. Hayley Greene has helped me see how outreach and education play an important role in connecting the community with mental health resources.

Through this experience, I have strengthened my communication skills, gained confidence in a professional environment, and developed a greater appreciation for the impact mental health services can have on individuals and families.

This internship has definitely made me more interested in pursuing a career in behavioral health. Seeing the positive impact counseling can have on individuals has motivated me to help others feel heard and supported, and it has also shown me that there are many different methods and career paths within this field that I can take.”

Supporting workforce wellness through mini-grants

BeWellPBC’s 2025 mini-grants that offered spaces and experiences to help staff manage stress, restore balance, and reconnect with a sense of purpose and wholeness, included:

Compassion Fatigue Masterclass for Grassroots Nonprofit Leaders

Rooted Impact Collective Inc

A virtual program tailored for leaders of grassroots nonprofits in Palm Beach County's high-need neighborhoods to reduce stress and prevent burnout.

Lift & Lead: Wellness Through Aviation and Equine Programs

Soul Movement Creative Art Space

Promotes behavioral health and wellness among youth by combining creativity, movement, and guidance by licensed therapists, physical fitness instructors, and physical therapists.

Wellness Wednesdays

Federation of Families of Florida

Designed to address and reduce burnout among dedicated staff, community partners and volunteers providing behavioral health services in some of the county’s most under-resourced and high-need communities.

Where Awareness Meets Action

Our communications met the moment by keeping our stewards connected to the work that matters most. While The Well of PBC remains our flagship publication, BeWellPBC's social media, monthly newsletters, and community announcements expanded our reach by motivating collaboration, sparking innovation, and ensuring the community stayed informed, engaged, and heard.

The Well of PBC

“As Editor-in-Chief of The Well of PBC, I’ve had the privilege of witnessing how storytelling can meet the moment by amplifying the voices, partnerships, and innovations shaping the health of Palm Beach County. In 2025, we saw our community step forward with creativity and compassion to address some of our most pressing challenges. Our role has been to shine a light on those efforts and connect people to the work that moves our community forward. When we tell these stories, we remind ourselves that progress happens when a community comes together with purpose.”

-Julie Khanna, Editor-in-Chief, The Well of PBC

66,000

16,615 Linkedin Impressions

3,031 Linkedin Members Reached

39,363 Facebook Organic Views

21,410 Instagram Organic Views

30 Email Campaigns

47,367 Total Emails Sent

20,698 Emails Opened

48% Open Rate

vs Industry Ave

4%

8%

Note:

The Well of PBC Accolades and Partnerships:

The Well of PBC won The Guide to Florida Best of Florida Publication award for 2025 (the third year in a row!) and was nominated for Hats Off Nonprofit of the Year Impact Award - Arts & Culture

The Well of PBC Publications Total Impressions January 1, 2025 –December 31, 2025:

18,302 with 4,637 reads and an average reading time of 4:40

15,100 Views

13,000 Views

4,200 Reach

Source: Issuu Report Summary

Sponsorship from county organizations to "takeover" issues increased our community reach, including:

Get Your Green On, April/May, in celebration of the movement’s tenth anniversary

Palm Beach County Community Services Department, August/ September, in honor of National Recovery Month

Palm Health Foundation, October/ November, highlighting the Brain Coast vision and the impact the region is having on brain health across the lifespan

To our incredible behavioral health and wellness stewards and invested partners, Your generosity is how we meet this moment. Together, we bring stewards from every corner of our community— residents, system leaders, providers, businesses, faith-based organizations, youth, and caregivers—to lead the change we collectively want to see in our families, our schools, our workplaces, and our cities. Because of you, that change is happening—one powerful connection at a time.

Thank you for helping us meet the moment in behavioral health! - The BeWellPBC Team