About Us

In 2003, Mary Ellen Copeland, along with other people in recovery and supportive allies, founded the Copeland Center for Wellness and Recovery to promote mental health recovery through education, training, and research based on WRAP®. The Copeland Center for Wellness and Recovery was named in honor of and dedicated to the memory of  Mary  Ellen’s  mother – Kathryn  Strouse Copeland (1912-1994) – whose courageous struggle to face and overcome mental health challenges was a lifelong inspiration to her daughter.

The Copeland Center for Wellness and Recovery is a peer run 501(c)(3) non-profit organization that provides training, consultation, and program activities to support the wellness, recovery, community inclusion and peer support journeys of individuals. We work with the owners of WRAP® materials at Advocates for Human Potential (AHP) to ensure the fidelity and quality implementation of WRAP® Facilitation in the health care system.  We further enhance the effectiveness of recovery groups, healthcare providers, healthcare organizations, and healthcare systems that seek to support individuals’ recovery and wellness. The purpose of the Copeland Center for Wellness and Recovery's initiative is to:

1. Develop and implement innovative trainings and services based on wellness, recovery, community inclusion and peer support by and for people in recovery.
2. Disseminate the most creative, exciting, and effective developments in the field of WRAP®, Community Inclusion and Peer Support;
3. Teach new skills to people who are facilitating WRAP®, Community Inclusion and Peer Support curriculums;
4. Network thousands of passionate and committed wellness facilitators, advocates and practitioners from across the world to join forces and leverage their potential for change;
5. Inspire individuals and representatives of organizations and systems to take their knowledge and skills back to their own communities to make Wellness, Recovery, Community Incluson and Peer Support a living source of healing and transformation at the grassroots level.

The Copeland Center for Wellness and Recovery is the world’s preeminent organization advancing the knowledge, skills, and values of the evidence-based recovery practice of WRAP®. The Center for Wellness and Recovery is the only organization in the world which conducts the training required to become a certified Advanced Level WRAP® Facilitator. We have trained and supported Advanced Level WRAP® Facilitators from communities across the United States and Canada, Ireland, Japan, Hong Kong, New Zealand and other countries. WRAP® quality materials and resources are owned and published by AHP.  AHP's WRAP and Recovery Books works exclusively through The Copeland Center for Wellness and Recovery to help organizations develop Advanced Level WRAP® Facilitators who can provide local WRAP® trainings that meet the criteria of WRAP® as an evidence-based practice.  We are also leaders in innovative trainings on Community Inclusion Facilitation for Peer Supporters developed with resources from Temple University's Collabortive on Community Inclusion. 

The Center for Wellness and Recovery is the hub of an organic, grassroots movement of individuals using WRAP® as a personalized system for wellness and recovery.  In order to ensure that the international WRAP® movement is healthy and strong, the Center for Wellness and Recovery has created and sustained a worldwide network of people using WRAP®, facilitators, educators, and practitioners.   The role of the Center for Wellness and Recovery's WRAP® initiative is to develop and disseminate the ethical guidelines, model practices, and scientific research that has earned WRAP® the status as an evidence-based recovery practice while training and supporting individuals to master the skills for learning, facilitating, and using WRAP®.

The Copeland Center for Wellness and Recovery sponsors WRAP® Around the World Conference and annual Summits, which brings together people from around the world – representing all ages and all walks of life – who use, teach, and study Wellness, Recovery, Community Inclusion and Peer Support. In January 2013, more than 450 people from Asia, Australia, Europe, and North America gathered to exchange ideas and share skills in Oakland, California. Conducted over the course of three days, the 2013 WRAP® Around the World Conference featured more than 70 workshops and presentations by leaders in the field who addressed what the future of the recovery field holds and how WRAP® will fit into the new international health care paradigm. The WRAP® Around the World Conference is one example of how the Copeland Center for Wellness and Recovery is facilitating the growth and development of the worldwide WRAP® movement.