Strategic Plan 2023-2027

For over three decades, The Center for Mind-Body Medicine has shared our comprehensive program of self-care and mutual support with communities around the globe. We’ve trained and mentored clinicians, educators, first responders, clergy, and other community leaders in our model to help them better understand and heal themselves, and every day we watch in awe as they use the mind-body skills they have learned to transform their communities.

We feel privileged to build trusting, long-lasting connections with leaders and community members in major healthcare and education systems and Native American reservations, and regions impacted by natural and climate disaster and war and conflict. We have also mobilized to treat emerging sources of psychological trauma, like burnout and stress, since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. Leaders of these communities agree: our inclusive approach to public health is one of the most effective ways to treat trauma.

Our work’s efficacy is supported not only by community leaders, but also by evidence. Scientific studies, including the first randomized control trial of any intervention, continue to demonstrate that our model of self-care and mutual support can reduce PTSD diagnoses by 80% or more in children, adolescents, and adults. Our model continues to attract significant media coverage from outlets like The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Atlantic, and USA Today. We have also received coverage on CBS, NBC, CNN, and NPR.

The scope of our work and the organization itself has grown rapidly and thoughtfully to keep pace with emerging and ongoing sources of trauma around the world. Our annual budget has more than doubled to support the expansion of our work, from $2.5 to $5 million. Our Staff boasts 35 members, and our Faculty has grown to 140 committed professionals and non-professionals. These healers, mentors, and teachers make it possible for us to train thousands, who in turn bring our model to millions.

The expansion of our work would not be possible without the support of longtime and new partners. We have sustained our operations with the help of longtime supporters like the deLaski Family, OLP, Hellman, George Sampson, Barbara Stohlman, Bruce and Holly Johnstone, and the Scheidel and Lipshy Family Foundations. Visionary new supporters like the Simon Family and the Gordon and Llura Gund Foundations are helping us expand our operations from in-person to online modalities and from single institutions to state- and region-wide programs. Their support has also helped us lay the foundation for nationwide trauma healing in Ukraine.

We have also received funding from government agencies and other charitable organizations, a testament to our commitment to healing trauma and building resilience. Current funders include the US Department of Veterans Affairs, the Administration for Native Americans, the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, and the Kellogg, Novo, and Agassi Foundations.

As we have embraced these new opportunities with partners, we have also turned our eyes inward to develop new internal structures that promote and sustain CMBM’s growth. We are laying the foundation for a time when I will move away from the organization’s day-to-day operations to instead focus on innovation and program development.

Working closely with an energized and empowered Board of Directors, we have created an Executive Leadership Team (ELT) responsible for making all significant organizational decisions. Members of the ELT have, in turn, developed a stronger, more effective organizational structure. Our Executive Director, Rosemary Lombard, Ed.M, MBA, has played a critical role in establishing the new ELT structure and working closely with me on partnership development. Together, Rosemary and I work closely with our new Board Chair, Dennis Jaffe, PhD, and board committees to ensure the stability and efficacy of these new structures in addition to ensuring the organization’s financial health.

Our organizational restructuring and increased partnerships have helped our organization innovate and expand dramatically. Our online trainings, implemented during COVID-19, have already served over 1,000 participants across 60 countries. These participants come from different backgrounds, speak different languages, live in different time zones, and yet walk away from our trainings with the tools they need to change their own lives and the lives of others thanks to the efforts of CMBM Faculty and Staff.

Despite our rapid growth, we also take time to explore and move beyond any preconceptions and unconscious biases that may limit our understanding and partnership with new communities. We continually deepen our commitment to justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion, tenets upon which CMBM was founded.

Our ELT created this five-year Strategic Plan, which describes the trajectory of CMBM’s growth and the steps we will take to meet emerging and ongoing sources of trauma and foster our organizational health. We invite you to engage with our four goals that guide our efforts, and join us in making them a reality.

Sincerely,

James S. Gordon, MD, Founder and CEO of CMBM

What will we achieve:

In this five year period, we aim to become the provider-of-first-resort for population-wide trauma relief programs to institutions, health networks, school districts, government bodies, and other partners who are seeking systemic change.

Note: We use the term ‘partners’ throughout this document. We define partners two-fold:

1. Program Implementation Partners: individuals and groups who request our services to bring a CMBM project to their community or organization
2. Funding Partners: funders who understand the need for our work, are invested in population-wide healing, and are interested in collaborating with us on developing specific projects to serve their communities

Examples of success:

• CMBM’s program of group support and self-care has been a pillar of Kosovo’s nation-wide community mental health program for 20 years. It is available to the entire population of 2 million.
• CMBM has trained more than 1,500 people in Gaza who have served more than 280,000 traumatized children and adults. In Israel, in a parallel program, CMBM has trained over 500, who have served more than 50,000.
• CMBM is partnering with the Veterans Affairs (VA) Sunshine Healthcare Network (VISN 8), which serves more than 1.6 million U.S. Veterans across Florida, South Georgia, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands. CMBM has trained 200 Whole Health Coaches and more than 150 clinical and administrative leaders who have been implementing CMBM’s model as a core part of their day-to-day work with Veterans. These trainees are now, under the guidance of CMBM senior faculty, successfully training incoming new Whole Health Coaches and clinical and administrative staff.
• A participant in CMBM’s Broward County training, Diane Wolk-Rogers, a former history teacher at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, who is now a member of CMBM’s faculty, partnered with us to secure a $200,000 grant from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation to bring social justice leaders through our trainings.

How will we achieve it:

• We will do this by shifting our focus from growth in general to growth through intentional partnerships.
  • We will apply a strategic approach to partnerships that balances the criteria of program quality, budgeting, human resources, and partner capabilities equally with a community’s need.
  • To contribute to this effort, we will cross-train all staff and faculty to identify new potential partnerships and strengthen existing relationships, and develop a manual to facilitate this process.
• We will increase our organizational capacity by enhancing our infrastructure to:
  • Improve internal communication, clarity, collaboration, and mutual support by assessing departmental needs and refining policies, procedures and decision-making matrices.
  • Identify systems to capture, organize, and communicate our data and impact
  • Scale our staff and programs according to demand
  • Respond with appropriate speed and attentiveness to communities in crisis in a way that also is in alignment with our organizational capacity
• We will focus our development efforts on:
  • Relationship building with partners who value our approach and are committed to participating in a partnership that emphasizes ongoing collaboration and mutual learning
  • Acquiring funds to allow for our responsiveness to emerging global crises
  • Building our unrestricted funding reserves to accommodate infrastructure support for our internal systems and teams to deliver excellent programs and research
• We will continue to refine our clinical model to:
  • Respond to the evolving trauma landscape
  • Scale to meet the global demand for our services
  • Focus on the sustainability of our model by ensuring we have trainees who feel equipped to use and teach our model anytime, anywhere; this may require that we
    • Optimize the clinical supervision and consultation that we provide
    • Optimize our capacity to certify more trainees
• We will prioritize our external communication strategy to:
  • Portray our capabilities, data, and impact to potential partners in ways that they can easily understand and appreciate
  • Connect with partners in the field of trauma-relief in the spirit of mutual support

We will measure success by developing:

• A codified strategic partnership approach and workplan that all staff and faculty have access to
• An organizational infrastructure that creates internal support systems which allow for growth
• Amulti-faceted development plan that enhances our public profile and identifies opportunities for funding from government agencies, private foundations, and major donors, as well as from the worldwide CMBM community of faculty, staff, trainees, friends, and supporters
• A description of our clinical work that reports on its elements and achievements, and outlines opportunities for the growth and adaptability of our model
• Communications metrics that showcase increased awareness of and engagement with CMBM by media outlets, potential partners, and other leaders in the trauma field

What will we achieve:

• Our priority for these 5 years is to strengthen the organizational infrastructure to ensure our capacity to grow as a leading global service provider with a clear continuum of leadership that will continue to pave the way for population-wide trauma relief.

Example of success:

• We have, from 2020-2022, done a substantial amount of self-analysis, self-care, and sought support and guidance from outside experts to assess our infrastructure needs and capacity for and pathways to growth.
  • This process has helped us to clarify our values as they relate to justice, equity, inclusion, and diversity.
  • We created a leadership structure (Executive Leadership Team) to provide mutual support and facilitate collaborative decision-making.
  • We assessed our organizational health and identified processes and systems that require streamlining in order to support our staff and faculty in delivering world-class programs.
  • We have identified internal strengths and have welcomed the opportunities to address challenges.
  • We have appreciated the empowerment of our Board of Directors, and the guidance that they continue to give us.
  • We are clear that our ability to meet the global demand requires our internal organizational health and wellbeing.

How will we achieve it:

• Solidify our continuum of leadership. This includes:
  • Continuing to refine the way in which our Executive Leadership Team shares decision-making in a collaborative and mutually supportive way
  • The design of a succession plan, by our Founder & CEO, in which he serves as a mentor to evolving leadership, a plan which assures his continued contributions to CMBM’s effort to meet emerging challenges, and his position as an inspirational thought leader, presenting CMBM’s model, values, and successes to a worldwide audience
  • Creating, in collaboration with the Board of Directors, the conditions for organizational success and sustainability beyond the Founder’s tenure as CEO
• Codify our values
  • Codify how practices and values that represent justice, equity, diversity have been woven throughout our model and history and how we will intentionally strengthen the way they shape our decisions
  • Celebrate the history and impact of the model’s authentic embrace of diversity and inclusion
• Optimize our Operations
  • Refine and optimize our operations functions including technical, financial, human resources, and contract planning to ensure capacity for growth and responsiveness
  • Identify and implement policies and procedures to maximize staff and faculty support, accountability, and professional growth
  • Identify and implement tools and systems that promote staff and faculty communication, interdepartmental planning, efficiencies, and streamlining

How will we measure success:

• Successful implementation of our program where it is needed and requested, on an ever-larger scale, for example: in Ukraine and South Sudan, in additional divisions of the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, and among indigenous people throughout North America
• Operational functions optimized in a way that the technical needs of larger and more complex projects are met, finance and human resources needs forecasted and planned for, and contracts are carefully and meticulously tracked
• Development of a plan for continuity of leadership
• Embodiment of our values throughout our organization, for example:
  • Promoting staff and faculty participation in training sessions that include cultural humility and JEDI themes
  • Bringing additional expertise and greater diversity to our Board of Directors

What will we achieve

• We will ensure that our business model can accommodate the growth required for CMBM to be a global leader in population-wide trauma relief. The model will encourage revenue generation that is dynamic and flexible, and at the same time creates a foundation for the ongoing development of organizational infrastructure.

Example of success:

• In 2021, we offered a first-ever ‘hybrid’ training in Central Asia. We coordinated gatherings of trainees, as well as individual participation in an online program in which faculty from around the world presented didactic lectures and led group experiential activities. We were able to bring people together in a variety of ways and navigate technological challenges amidst shortages of power and resources.
• In 2022, we offered two first-of-kind two-day trauma relief seminars for trainees from Ukraine and those working with Ukrainian refugees around the world. We created these seminars, which included large group lectures and intensive small group sharing and experiential exercises, to meet the exigencies of wartime trauma healing (including the impossibility of taking the customary 4 or 5 days for a training), and the inability of most trainees to gather together in-person.

How will we achieve it:

• We will explore opportunities that our increasing skill with technology, as well as our commitment to global healing, are encouraging us to pursue, for example: Pan-African trainings, programs for indigenous people throughout North America, programs for nationwide U.S. hospital systems, and work in areas of the world to which we cannot easily have physical access (e.g., Syria, Iran)
• We will enhance the specificity and scope of our financial analysis and forecasting
• We will adjust program budgets to ensure that costs of both program administration and supporting organizational resources are met
• We will factor post-pandemic / remote work costs into all financial and business modeling
• We will focus on our partnership strategy as our gateway to growth
  • This will include a focus on partnership ‘lead generation’ and partnership cultivation for long-term relationship-building
  • We will ensure that funding is adequate to respond flexibly to partners’ needs, as well as underwrite our organizational and administrative costs
• We will create a development strategy that includes targets for unrestricted income and an “Emergent Projects” fund that facilitates our capacity to respond quickly and effectively to urgent population health crises around the world

How will we measure success:

• We will develop a robust and dynamic development strategy to increase funding by
  • x% from x area
  • x% from x area
  • Xyz
• An active Board Finance Committee will take a lead role in developing fundraising strategy and finding funding
• We will provide development and budget training to enable all staff to help support partnership development, and ensure that all aspects of each partnership and every program are financially sound
• We will hire a CFO and integrate this person into the Executive Leadership Team

What will we achieve:

• We will define and determine the impact of our work on individuals and communities, make impact measurement an integral part of every one of our programs, and share the results with potential partners, professional colleagues, and the media, as well as the entire CMBM community.

Example of success:

• In 2022 we designed a new staff role of ‘Associate Program Director for Program Data & Impact’. This has made it possible for us to more effectively record data on participants and their experience during all our programs, and to present program impact more precisely – in grant reports, newsletters, and social media posts.
• In our comprehensive wellness program in Broward County, both of our funding partners, Broward County Public Schools and the Children’s Services Council, have, at our request, shared examples of how our training has contributed to systemic change. They described meditations now held before staff meetings and classes, techniques they have used to respond to high-alert incidents, such as classroom lockdown drills, and ways they have processed grief during the pandemic.

How will we achieve it:

• We will systematize impact measurement, so that all CMBM departments are able to collect, report, and refer to data consistently, and data management becomes a centralized, integral, accountable function of our operations
• We will invest in tools (e.g., Salesforce) and operational enhancements to help us capture and organize our data and systematize impact measurement
• We will share what we learn from our impact studies with each other, our partners, and our funders, as well as the scientific community and the media – in reports, proposals, pitch decks, case studies, social media campaigns, press releases, and popular and professional writing and video presentations

How will we measure success:

• Systematize our impact measurement
• Demonstrate the evidence for the impact of our work
• Systematize the collection and sharing of CMBM’s testimonials, stories, and scientific studies so we can more effectively demonstrate and communicate the beneficial impact of our work on individuals and communities
• Establish a program of branding and marketing that demonstrates the impact and excellence of our programs, as well as the spirit of inclusion and the commitment to mutual understanding and diversity that animates them