The city of Hartford is offering mental health resources to residents, city employees and students and they will include free access to offerings from the Headspace app.
Hartford Mayor Luke Bronin announced a partnership with Headspace, the Copper Beech Institute and the Greater Hartford Arts Council Tuesday to make self-care and wellness resources.
The mayor’s office called this a first-of-its-kind public-private partnership focused on community-wide mental wellness.
City officials said all Hartford residents, students, city employees and Hartford Public Schools employees will be given free access to mindfulness and personalized meditation resources available through the Headspace app.
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Headspace will also work with the city to conduct a needs assessment to identify available self-care resources and gaps, develop a playbook to help community-based organizations and city departments increase awareness and understanding about the importance of mental wellness and effective self-care practices, develop partnerships with local employers and health plans to help cultivate a citywide culture of mindfulness and self-care and measure outcomes through an impact study, according to Bronin’s office.
Copper Beech Institute, a local community-based organization, will also provide self-care and mental wellness training for city employees.
There will be a focus for employees from the Department of Health and Human Services, Department of Families, Children, Youth and Recreation and the Hartford Public Library, so they can promote mindfulness resources and support for the Hartford residents they serve, the mayor’s office said.
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Copper Beech will also host several mindfulness pop-ups at public events.
The Greater Hartford Arts Council will use public art to emphasize positive messages, reinforce the importance of mental wellness and self-care and increase awareness of available resources, the mayor’s office announced.
“Communities across the country have seen a huge increase in anxiety and depression in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, and that’s been true here in Hartford, too,” Bronin said in a statement. “People are more stressed, more angry, and more prone to dangerous, impulsive decision-making, and you see it showing up in everything from road rage and personal disputes to absenteeism at work and school, domestic violence, and community gun violence.”
Bronin added that data “demonstrates that mindfulness and self-care practices can make a real difference, and we want to make sure that those tools and resources are available to everyone in our community.”
People who live, work or go to school in the City of Hartford will have easy access to the Headspace app.
