Message from the Executive Director

Dear Friends and Family:

As the reach of the Copeland Center expands around the world, it is important to me as the Executive Director that I stay in touch with our community.  With all the uncertainty around us, be it in the world or in our own backyards, I wanted to let you know we are here. The Copeland Center community is healthy and growing thanks to your support and commitment.

As you all know, it is the inspiration and groundbreaking leadership of Mary Ellen Copeland with the Wellness Recovery Action Plan (WRAP®) that serves as our foundation and guiding light. Copeland Center WRAP® trainings have expanded to empower peers in supporting themselves and other peers in groups as varied as youth, veterans, people with developmental distinctions and countless others.  Since our founding in 2003 the Copeland Center community has deepened the understanding and application of core wellness based values and practices to promote WRAP through certifying an increasing number of talented and committed Copeland Center WRAP Facilitators.  Our community of facilitators and members cut across cultural, multidisciplinary, institutional and geographic barriers creating systems transformation from the inside-out and the outside-in. 

The educational work of the Copeland Center continues to grow. Our core values spread the message of peer support and individual empowerment through trainings on crisis support healing from trauma, community inclusion peer facilitation, story-telling and the new Wellness Engagement course (WE®) developed with the leadership of Jane Winterling.  Through in-person and online trainings people everywhere learn to use their own power and the power of peer support in more areas of our community.

This year we were thrilled to add to our home Doors to Wellbeing, one of SAMHSA’s National Technical Assistance Centers.  In less than a year, Doors to Wellbeing has already brought trainings to literally thousands in new and exciting ways and they are just getting started. Over the next few months the Peer Generation Initiative, a national peer database and a new series of educational webinars will kick off.

This is what we all built – the people at the Copeland Center, facilitators, members and donors. We are the people who live lives based on personal empowerment, mutual support and ongoing education. The Copeland Center is a grassroots non-profit whose existence depends upon trainings, technical assistance and the support of donors and members.  The Copeland Center takes great pride in never taking money from companies who might have an agenda that does not support our message, our values and our ethics.

We advocate and support efforts to increase the accessibility and adaptability of books and tools based on WRAP world-wide. Our accredited WRAP trainers continue to be vigilant and persistent advocates of the core values and practices that led to WRAP’s evidence based practice status.  Moving forward as a peer led grassroots non-profit we will further grow services and trainings throughout the world based on these firmly held values.

We remain grateful and loyal to all members of our community.  Let us know what you think, what you want and what you need to spread the message of empowerment, peer support, and hope.  We thank you for your enthusiastic participation. We know, that with your support - be it personal, educational, political or financial - the Copeland Center will continue as a world leader in peer-run, peer-taught and peer-directed organizations.

Speaking on behalf of the staff and board of directors of the Copeland Center and Doors to Wellbeing, thank you and stay tuned.  We are just getting started.

Matthew Federici, M.S., C.P.R.P.
Executive Director