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Leadership Award for Excellence in Mental Health

GlenM September 25th

Dear Community,

I am writing with some great news. We recently received the USA National Leadership Award for Leadership Excellence in Digital Mental Health Implementation. The award was presented by the eMental Health International Collaborative (eMHIC) at the 9th Digital Mental Health International Congress. eMHIC honors excellence in digital mental health. I flew up to Ottawa to receive it on our behalf. It is a high honor for our community!

Here is my acceptance speech. If I can find a video then I’ll share it soon. (Edit here is the video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IgL5UERnQ4U&ab_channel=7Cups)
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Thank you for this significant honor!

I was talking to a friend about the mental health field and how challenging it can be; like a big puzzle.

I have 4 kids. I’ve put together a lot of puzzles. My favorite ones are the 4 piece wooden puzzles with big pieces. My kids graduated to 20, 100, and 1000 piece puzzles. 

The bigger the puzzle the bigger the box. How big would the box be that holds the mental health puzzle? Is the puzzle 10 billion pieces, 100 billion pieces? The box would likely be the size of this room or bigger.

Events like this remind us that we are not alone. We are friends all working together to solve this giant puzzle. Some of you have been working on the corners. Some have been working on the challenging middle sections.

Sometimes we get lucky and we accidentally solve a part of the puzzle without realizing it. That happened with us on internationalization. We were one of the first free mental health services. Millions of people have come to 7 Cups and we likely have thousands of volunteer listeners in your country. If you go to
7cups.com and scroll down to the number of people helped you can see how many people we’ve reached in your country.

We will happily connect users from 7 Cups to your services. We are on the cloud and you are on the ground. Just reach out and let me know.

This is a big puzzle we are solving. A special thank you to Anil for bringing us together and helping us realize that we are not alone and can lean on one another for help, especially when we can’t find that piece we are looking for. It is likely that someone in this room has seen it and can point us in the right direction.  

Thank you again!

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I wanted to take a minute and unpack what this means for all of us. We have been working on our part, the 7 Cups part, of the mental health puzzle together for 11 years now. Every single one of us has found pieces and slid them into place. Many of you have put giant sections together. I have spent months hunting for pieces only to find out that a few of you put together a 10,000 piece section in a small corner of the site. This has happened countless times. We are all excellent puzzle masters! 

I could not be more proud of us (sorry for another metaphor); We built a shining city on the Internet (likely the toughest place to build a city as all the bad guys are just one click away). In the beginning, it was incredibly challenging but with time, we have gained more and more mastery. Now our gardens predictably yield fruit and vegetables and the trains run on time!

And we have made a lot of mistakes. We learn through failure. Innovation is another way of saying ‘I don’t know how to do it’ or ‘It hasn’t been done before’. Through following the problem is the path approach, solving one challenge after another, the path has revealed itself to us. We went from never being able to find enough listeners in the summer of 2013 to now being recognized as leaders in mental health implementation. We won this! Our community! What a great story! 

On 7 Cups, we do an amazing job of collaborating and not competing. We know that when one person is lifted up, we are all lifted up. This is the essence of community. When a person succeeds, we all succeed. I would love for the broader mental health field to have this same approach. The pain and suffering is too much for people to be taking potshots at one another. We have timely and important work to do and we are all needed to help build the puzzle.

I’m imagining we are in a tavern in a Tolkien story. There is song and dancing. Lift up your mug with whatever you’ve got in it and share a toast in the comments below.


My toast to all of you: 

Thank you for your trust, your love, your patience, and your dedication. You have held out lanterns in the darkness. You have healed deep wounds. You have taught me about community. I humbly thank you for walking with me on this path. Cheers! 

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To help us celebrate, we ask you to share the word! Please share our press release link with family and friends via social media - this is a win for all of us!

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goodFan4845 September 30th

@GlenM I'm new here, and I'm happy to hear it's give me hope and trust to you guys that like I'm in the right place while I'm feeling lost 

Iamwhoiamwhoami September 30th

@GlenM

I am thankful that this community exists and thrives. I am grateful to have a little tiny corner here for my writings/ramblings. This community is also a family. A family that has welcomed me with open arms and hearts.

Angelanj October 1st

@GlenM Congratulations 🎉👏🏾🎉

coolvibes October 1st

@GlenM Congratulations!!! Thank you for sharing 7 cups achievements with the community. Watching this community leave ripples in the water that grow and spread is an eye opening experience that leaves an enduring spirit of hope is this complex World. I am always grateful to be apart of this community.

@GlenM

a huge applause to you and all the people who have contributed for this platform. it's no more just any platform but rather a renowed and much loved one. You must have been so proud achieving the award, i am actually so glad to be a prt of this community, of the community where people are like family and are always ready to help each other. thanks to this community that has taught me many things. and congrats once again for your great achievement. May there be more events where you have to go and receive such awards.

daydreammemories October 31st

🥳❤️🌌

MistyMagic October 31st

@GlenM thanks for adding the video link, nice to see the speech. And pretty awe-inspiring too!

1 reply
GlenM OP October 31st

@MistyMagic Thank you Misty! It was a great honor for us!

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Sel3ne November 1st

@GlenM

Congratulations, 7 Cups, on the amazing work and to all the communities that helped thousands of people. What an honour.  What we are all doing here is an amazing job. ❤️🙏🏻

HopieRemi November 1st

@GlenM

This is impressive!! 

crimsonPapaya7218 November 1st

@GlenM lessgooo vin Diesel!