New York, NY (Top40 Charts) Today, four-time Grammy-nominated, multi-platinum singer-songwriter
Jewel announces the launch of the #NotAloneChallenge in partnership with iHeartRadio, to raise awareness and provide proven tools for mental health throughout the holiday season.
Jewel will appear on a broad range of outlets to launch her #NotAloneChallenge including the daytime talk show "Sherri," MSNBC's "Morning Joe" as well as ABC's "Nightline".
The mission of the #NotAloneChallenge is to remind people they are not alone during the holidays, to offer free mental health resources, and to raise funds to make mental health available to those in need, including the nearly 50% of Americans that do not have access to mental health resources and tools. The #NotAloneChallenge will bring together an extensive collaboration, one of the largest to-date, of more than 120 thought leaders, executives, celebrities, athletes, and mental health experts, all banning together to participate in the campaign.
The #NotAloneChallenge inspires people to create a short video sharing their support and advocacy for mental health, then challenge and tag two friends to also participate and share their story using the tags #NotAloneChallenge @InspiringChildren @Jewel. As an option, individuals can offer a "Heroic" auction item, anything from handmade art to a high-dollar offering, for the benefit of the campaign. Auction items will be used to raise funds for Jewel's non-profit Inspiring Children Foundation. A portion of the proceeds of select packages will be dedicated to CORE, One Mind and The Big Silence Foundation. For more information, visit https://www.notalonechallenge.org/.
For over 20 years, Inspiring Children Foundation has inspired at-risk youth to heal, grow and then to flourish at the highest levels. Inspiring Children Foundation transforms lives through a whole human approach to physical, emotional and mental health. The Foundation helps at-risk youth struggling with financial hardship, anxiety, depression, trauma, and suicide ideation go from survive to thrive. Their innovative curriculum encompasses a 10-step program with over 40 tools and 100 activations to help youth find their best selves.
This award-winning program has been developed by some of the world's leading experts over the past two decades. It encompasses a variety of evidence-based practices, and is now being implemented in schools, nonprofits, corporations and sports teams.
Through the #NotAloneChallenge, funds raised will make free online tools and in-person programs more readily available, provide wellness to people in need, help develop more advanced mental health care opportunities virtually and scale the Inspiring Children Foundation's best-in-class, innovative mental health curriculum. The curriculum helps youth create their own path to figure out who they are and who they want to become, with a detailed set of action steps on how to get there. The path includes academics, project-driven learning, the power of community, mentoring and mental health counseling, entrepreneur skills, tennis and more.
"Anxiety, depression and suicide rates are at a historic high, yet 50% of Americans who need them, don't have access to proven tools and resources," shares Jewel. "My goal in creating the #NotAloneChallenge was to bring together people from all walks of life and every demographic, to not only highlight the problem in their communities, but to make sure tools are scaled to these mental health 'deserts', that are tailored to them specifically. Misery is an equal opportunist, it does not care if you are black, white, rich, poor, a CEO, famous, a housewife or homeless. But to learn a different way takes education, and sadly education typically costs money. My goal with the #NotAloneChallenge is to democratize mental health so that proven effective tools like the one my Inspiring Children Foundation has been pioneering for 20 years can get in the hands of anyone who wants to make a positive impact on their mental fitness."
Jewel grew up in Alaska where she was indoors for eight months out of the year and dealt with feelings of isolation before moving away from her family at 15 due to an abusive household. While suffering from debilitating panic attacks, an eating disorder, depression and significant trauma,
Jewel became homeless by the age of 18 and developed agoraphobia, the fear of leaving one's home.
During that time, she began to develop a set of tools to rewire her brain and create new emotional patterns. Jewel's program has also been validated and supported by one of the nations top teen mental health experts Blaise Aguirre, M.D., an assistant professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School and the founding medical director of 3East at Harvard's Mclean Hospital. After learning meditation and discovering and innovating her own mindfulness practices,
Jewel was able to heal symptoms of her depression and go from surviving to thriving. These are the same tools she uses to help at-risk youth through her charity and the same tools she is offering online for free.
Inspiring Children Foundation believes that children learn best by doing projects and Jewel's #NotAloneChallenge has been managed and executed by foundation youth, alumni and leadership.
Jewel went from a girl who grew up with no running water on an Alaskan homestead, to a homeless teenager in San Diego, to an award winning, multi-platinum recording artist who released one of the best-selling debuts of all time. Through her career
Jewel has sold over 30 million albums worldwide and has earned 26 nominations for such awards as the GRAMMYs, American
Music Awards, MTV Awards, VH1 Awards, Billboard
Music Awards, and Country
Music Awards, winning eight times.
Jewel has been featured on the cover of TIME Magazine, Rolling Stone, has performed on Saturday Night Live, at the Super Bowl and the NBA Finals, for the Pope and the President of the United States. Her music has spanned a wide-range of genres with top hits in Folk, Pop, Club, Country, Standards, Children's and Holiday music. Jewel's new studio album Freewheelin' Woman, via her own Words Matter Media is out now.
