Our Impact
2024 - 2025
Our work sits at the intersection of mindfulness, mental health, and social justice.
The HeartWell Institute advances collective healing and social justice through evidence-based, accessible, and relevant mindfulness courses.
A Story of Collective Healing
In summer 2024, a call went out from Uhai for Health for help addressing a tragic crisis in Worcester's African immigrant and African American communities. In a few short months, mental health challenges led to the loss of eight lives.
In Worcester, communities help each other. We learned of the crisis through our partner, Worcester Addresses Childhood Trauma. We asked one of our teachers, a longtime local educator and change-maker, to help brainstorm how HeartWell could offer mindfulness-based mental health support relevant to this specific community.
Our teacher introduced us to a Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) trainer at Brown University who was serving the need for trained BIPOC MBSR instructors. This dynamic and generous individual, an African immigrant himself, connected with Uhai for Health's executive director, and together they found a way to deeply connect with a cohort of 20 participants who gathered, learned lasting healing skills, and joyfully graduated an MBSR course.
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One participant shared that the course saved her life. Another shared that she was skeptical at the beginning, and by the end of the course, she saw the hearts of others, and her own, open to healing in community.
Programs
In 2024 and 2025, 822 participants and counting have enrolled in HeartWell programs, including Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR), Mindful Self-Compassion (MSC), Cultivating Mental Health in the Workplace, Grounding & Centering Meditations, Mindfulness for Parents, and Cultivating Resilience and Renewal for Clinicians.
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HeartWell has hosted 14 third-year medical students from UMass Medical School for an experiential learning rotation. Students connect with the local community and explore mindfulness, contemplative practices, and spirituality as dimensions of culturally responsive healthcare.
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In development with Sha-Asia Medina of The Village, and Coqui Negron: Meeting the Moment: Mindfulness & Social Justice
Partnerships
Collaboration and mutual support are key to creating lasting change. HeartWell is honored to partner with the following organizations:
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African/African-American communities in Worcester: The Village, Uhai Health
Catholic Workers House
Center for Nonviolent Solutions
Centro
City of Worcester
Elder Services of Worcester
Everyday Miracles
House of Corrections
Joint Coalition on Health
Latin American Business Association (LABO)
MA Nurses Association
MA Labor Guild
Neighborhoods (Plumley Village, Grant Square Park)
Southeast Asian Coalition
Worcester Addresses Childhood Trauma
Worcester BIPOC Yoga Collective
Worcester Community Action Council
Worcester Interfaith
Worcester Regional Chamber of Commerce
Worcester Senior Center
Worcester State University/Latino Education Institute
Worcester Together
Worcester Youth Center
Contracts
HeartWell provides ongoing mindfulness training to promote resilience, emotional regulation, and healing for businesses and community organizations including:
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MA Labor Guild
SEIU
Worcester Community Action Council
