The Rev. Jessica Stokes, "A Blueprint for Advocacy: St. Thomas More Catholic Church"
Across North Carolina, faith communities are joining the wonderful work of mental health advocacy. These places of worship are eliminating stigma, becoming trauma-informed, promoting healthier mental health practices, providing resources, hosting trainings, normalizing professional therapy, and the list goes on. There is sacred work happening throughout our state and one beautiful example of this, comes from Chapel Hill’s St. Thomas More Catholic Church . St. Thomas More goes to great lengths to include mental health in their outreach and pastoral care work. St. Thomas More Catholic Church offers a helpful example of what it looks like for a faith community to establish a mental health ministry that becomes central to the life of the church. The following blueprints are shared with the hope it inspires you to work within your own context. With the various social and societal needs around them, congregants within St. Thomas More identified the need for support on mental health within