Enduring connections
About the Initiative
Enduring Connections grew from years of exploration, listening, and collaboration with experts, people with lived experience, and families. In partnership with Advocates in Framingham, Massachusetts, our small team launched this pilot program. Enduring Connections was created with families in mind. Many parents and caregivers know what it feels like to watch someone they love pull away from support, decline services, or feel unsure about where to turn next. It can be frightening, isolating, and deeply confusing.
This program was built to offer a different kind of help — one grounded in trust, respect, and long‑term relationship rather than pressure or coercion. We believe families deserve support too, and that staying connected matters even when the path forward isn’t clear.
Enduring Connections is a relationship‑centered approach for individuals and families who haven’t found the support they need in traditional mental health systems. Through sustained, compassionate, and non‑coercive outreach, trained peers build trust with people who are disconnected from care while offering families steady guidance rooted in curiosity, humility, and respect. A key part of our work is helping families shift from a protective parenting role to a collaborative partnership—strengthening communication, honoring autonomy, and supporting their loved one’s ability to make decisions and shape their own path forward.
What We Offer Families
Families often carry the emotional weight of trying to help while also respecting their loved one’s autonomy. That balance can be incredibly hard, especially as children become adults and the parenting role naturally shifts.
Enduring Connections supports families by:
- Helping you stay connected even when communication feels strained or uncertain
- Offering guidance on the transition from “parenting” to “partnering” as your loved one grows into adulthood
- Providing a space to talk through concerns without judgment or pressure
- Sharing approaches that build trust rather than conflict
- Exploring a wide range of support options
Our goal is not to push your loved one toward any particular service. Instead, we work to open doors — gently, respectfully, and at their pace — so they can choose what feels right for them with you by their side.
How it began
After leaving my career in high tech, I completed a year of study in the Gender, Leadership, and Public Policy program at UMass Boston. During that time, I interned with State Representative Kay Khan and the Children’s Mental Health Campaign — experiences that reshaped my understanding of policy, family needs, and the gaps in our system.
At the same time, I was working with McLean Hospital to launch the PACT program, one of only two in Massachusetts operating outside the Department of Mental Health. Through Rep. Khan’s office, I visited Roca in Chelsea and saw firsthand the power of persistent, relationship‑based outreach. That visit sparked the idea of pairing persistent outreach with the person‑centered PACT model to reach people who had turned away from services.
The idea sat dormant for years until I learned about INSET in New York State, developed by Mental Health America of Westchester County in collaboration with NYAPRS. Their work reignited the vision.
In collaboration with Rae Simpson, a small group came together to explore what this could become. We spoke with experts, peers, and families; considered forming a 501(c)(3); and examined models for supporting peer and family supporters doing this work. Ultimately, we realized the right path was to partner with an organization that shared our values around trust, relationship, and non‑coercive support.
Original thinking for Enduring Connections.
Purpose
Enduring Connections is a program grounded in hope — and it is intentionally a pilot. We are testing whether a different kind of outreach can fill a long‑standing gap that families know too well: when someone is not “voluntarily” engaged in services, they are often left to fall through the cracks while families watch helplessly or feel pushed toward coercive options.
Our aim is not to steer people toward any particular service. Instead, we work to open doors to a range of supports — peer, medical, community‑based, and non‑traditional approaches such as meditation — so each person can find their own path forward.
Families play a vital role. As children become adults, especially in the context of mental health challenges, it can be difficult for parents and caregivers to shift from decision‑maker to partner. Enduring Connections helps families navigate that transition, strengthening relationships and supporting shared decision‑making.