Purpose

Empathy Mental Health is a non-profit corporation. It shall be operated exclusively for educational and charitable purposes within the meaning of Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986, or the corresponding section of any future Federal tax code. The primary purpose of Empathy Mental Health is to provide healthcare and social services to persons experiencing mental illnesses, helping them to achieve and maintain recovery and optimal mental health. Our goal is to assist each client to live a happy and fulfilled life, and to achieve their full potential. This involves several key aspects, such as:
- Support and Understanding: Providing emotional support and understanding. This means listening without judgment, validating their feelings, and being there for them during tough times.
- Access to Treatment: Ensuring they have access to appropriate mental health care, including psychotherapy, medication, and other treatments.
- Encouraging Self-Determination: Empowering them to make their own decisions and take control of their recovery process, helping them to build confidence and independence.
- Building a Support Network: Encouraging connections with family, friends, and support groups in order to provide a sense of community and reduce feelings of isolation.
- Promoting Healthy Lifestyle Choices: Encouraging healthy habits such as regular exercise, a balanced diet, and sufficient sleep.
- Setting Realistic Goals: Helping them set and achieve personal goals, which can provide a sense accomplishment and boost self-esteem.
Empathy Mental Health understands that mental disorders are brain-based diseases and therefore cannot be fully treated without coordination with a client’s medical ailments. As a result, we are committed to providing or arranging for the provision of medication therapy and the treatment of co-occurring Substance Use Disorders (SUDs), and physical disorders and illnesses, as needed by each client.
Subject to the above primary purpose considerations, a secondary purpose of Empathy Mental Health is to promote the achievement of race equity. Race equity is the condition where one’s racial identity has no influence on how one fares in society. It is a fundamental element of social change across every issue area in the social sector. Yet the structural racism that endures in U.S. society, deeply rooted in our nation’s history and perpetuated through racist policies, practices, attitudes, and cultural messages, prevents us from attaining it. The impact of structural racism is evident not only in societal outcomes, but in the very institutions that seek to positively impact them:
- Race Outcomes Gap. People of color fare worse than their white counterparts across every age and income level when it comes to societal outcomes. They experience significant disadvantages in education, economic stability, health, life expectancy, and rates of incarceration.
- Racial Leadership Gap. BoardSource’s Leading with Intent: 2017 National Index of Nonprofit Board Practices found that people of color comprise 10% of CEOs, 10% of Board Chairs, and 16% of Board members. Compared to 40% of the working population, these figures indicate a large gap between race demographics of the working population and social sector leadership. Building Movement Project’s recent report, Race to Lead: Confronting the Nonprofit Racial Leadership Gap, highlights that the racial leadership gap is not a pipeline problem, nor is it due to differences in education, skills, or interest; rather, it is a structural problem within the sector.
https://buildingmovement.org/reports/race-to-lead-confronting-the-nonprofit-racial-leadership-gap/
The attainment of race equity requires us to examine all four levels on which racism operates (personal, interpersonal, institutional, and structural), recognize our role in enduring inequities, and commit ourselves to change. Empathy Mental Health will center race equity as a core goal of social impact in order to fulfill our organizational mission.