Blog
Child Mind Institute Joins Rare Impact Fund’s Capacity-Building Workshop
Last week, the Child Mind Institute joined nonprofit leaders from around the world for the Rare Impact Fund’s first-ever “Capacity-Building Workshop.” The two-day event took place at Google’s Pier 57 headquarters in New York City.
The key mission of the Rare Impact Fund — founded by recording artist, actress, and philanthropist, Selena Gomez — is to increase access to youth mental health services and education globally. They selected the Child Mind Institute’s School and Community Programs because it embodies one key area of their team’s strategic funding priorities — supporting educators in the early identification and intervention of their students’ mental health challenges.
Taylor Barkee, Director of Programs for School and Community Programs, gathered with leaders who represented 30 different mental health organizations from across five continents. Sessions focused on the challenges nonprofit organizations face and the strategies that help them adapt, connect, and sustain their work.
Harold S. Koplewicz, MD, founding President and Medical Director of the Child Mind Institute, also spoke on a panel alongside clinical psychologist and policy advocate Benjamin F. Miller, PsyD, social impact strategist Jorge Alvarez, and ICONIQ Capital Impact Platform Manager Hayley Mead. They discussed the current mental health landscape and the role philanthropy can play in supporting bold, community-led solutions.
Additional sessions offered frameworks for navigating funding changes, refining strategy, and strengthening storytelling. The workshop also made space for something equally important: rest. The closing community support circle gave participants a moment to reflect, reconnect, and remind each other that well-being isn’t a side note — it’s part of the work.
We’re proud to be part of this global community of care and grateful to the Rare Impact Fund for creating space for honest dialogue, shared learning, and collective progress.
