Alexandra’s Open Labs 1 Year Anniversary Update
Mental Health Month May 2018 marks the one year anniversary and end of the pilot of Open Labs. Over the past year, our goal was to create a sustainable grassroots community in Colorado to carry out our mission — to empower people in the Colorado startup and tech communities living well with brain conditions to live openly.
Our pilot was successful, the community is thriving with partnerships from the National Mental Health Innovation Center, Center for Health, Work, & Environment at CU Anschutz, story2, and many more. They are all focused on finding new and innovative ways to help people with brain conditions live Openly. Referrals to our community are as high as ever, and our members are growing their ‘Experiments’ in Open Labs to the national level.
LGBTQ, gender equality, racial equality — Open Labs sparked a movement for cognitive behavioral equality.
The next step is to take off the training wheels, so to speak, and let the community grow. We’ve entrusted the day to day operations to our Fellowship Program, and through my role as a board member I will continue to build new community partnerships.
With a proven model, starting Summer 2018, we are entering Phase 2 of Open Labs and enacting changes. During 2017, we piloted a Fellowship Program through the masters in public health. Based on the programs’ success, a similar Community Manager role will be taking over day to day operations of Open Labs and the Open Labs members will continue to run our programs with partners — Open Workplace Assessment, storytelling for change, and our bi-annual Open Weekend to raise awareness.
Helping Open Labs members harness the power of their collective voice and action has been one of the most rewarding experiences. This movement toward openness, candor, and acceptance is growing. I look forward to growing this movement with your support for years to come.
Join Open Labs to change the future! Read about Phase 2.
