For 20 years, Give an Hour has worked to expand access to mental health support, strengthen communities, and build pathways to healing. During Mental Health Awareness Month, we are reflecting on a critical truth that continues to shape our work:
The people who support others also need support themselves.
Through Give an Hour’s longstanding partnership with the DC Office of Victim Services and Justice Grants (OVSJG), we have seen firsthand what becomes possible when organizations invest not only in services for survivors, but also in the wellbeing of the professionals, advocates, public servants, and frontline teams carrying that work every day.
As Jennifer Porter, Director of OVSJG, shared in a recent conversation with Give an Hour:
“So much of trauma in our community is passed down, it’s inherited. So many of us are walking around as islands with things that need to be healed.”
Over the years, the partnership between Give an Hour and OVSJG has evolved into more than a traditional grant collaboration. Together, we have worked to strengthen trauma-informed systems through workforce wellness initiatives, Help the Helpers trainings, continuing education opportunities for mental health professionals, peer support models, and survivor-centered programming designed to meet evolving community needs.
At the heart of this work is a recognition that healing does not happen in isolation.
Porter described healing as an ecosystem, one that includes survivors, families, communities, and the professionals serving them. She emphasized that sustainable victim services require sustained investment not only in technical expertise, but also in psychological safety, wellness, and the normalization of seeking support.
“People being seen, people being acknowledged, people being witnessed, that is the real work, and I think it is probably the greatest impact. It really feels like movement work.”
That cultural shift matters.
In public safety, victim services, healthcare, and nonprofit work, many professionals operate within environments where mission often comes first and personal wellbeing comes second. Yet the emotional weight of this work is real. Secondary trauma, burnout, compassion fatigue, and chronic stress impact individuals across helping professions every day.
Programs like Help the Helpers were created to address that reality directly as an essential and embedded part of effective service delivery.
“Healing starts with us,” Porter explained. “When we are healed and we’re showing up regulated and healed, we’re able to innovate in ways that we can’t when we’re in crisis. We get to share and model what healing looks like for others because we’ve done it first.”
That philosophy has helped create measurable culture change across agencies and teams. What once felt stigmatized is increasingly being normalized: reaching out for support, prioritizing psychological safety, and recognizing that healing strengthens, rather than weakens, our ability to serve others.
Throughout Give an Hour’s 20-year history, we have also seen the power of combining clinical care with community-based and peer-centered support systems.
“Therapy is healing from the inside out, and peer support is healing from the outside in. Being able to normalize reaching out for help, particularly in public safety and justice… it’s transformative.” Director Porter notes.
That idea reflects the broader evolution of Give an Hour’s work over the past two decades. What began as a mission focused on providing free mental health care to military service members and their families has expanded into a broader vision of community healing, one that recognizes the importance of connection, belonging, and shared lived experience alongside traditional clinical support.
During Mental Health Awareness Month, we are reminded that healing is not only individual but also collective.
It happens when people feel seen.
When stigma is reduced.
When communities create space for vulnerability and support.
When organizations invest in the wellbeing of the people carrying difficult work.
And when systems are designed not only to respond to crisis, but to sustain long-term wellness.
As Give an Hour looks toward the future, we remain committed to expanding access to trauma-informed support, strengthening peer and community-based healing models, and continuing to build partnerships that center both care and human connection.
Because supporting mental health is not separate from strong communities.
It is what makes strong communities possible.
A voice among many
As Give an Hour marks two decades of impact, Jennifer Porter’s story stands alongside others in a powerful collective narrative. She is featured as one of Give an Hour’s twenty voices in the organization’s 20th anniversary edition of the annual report. A recognition not just of her work, but of the community she has helped build.
A community where people come as they are.
And, over time, come back to life.
Because awareness is a starting point.
Being heard is what changes things.
Stories like this don’t stand alone. They’re part of a larger movement toward more integrated, human-centered care.
Explore Twenty Years, Twenty Voices to see how this work is taking shape across communities. silence no longer serves you.
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