“Survival is insufficient.”
― Emily St. John Mandel, Station Eleven
Eighteen months ago, I started a nonprofit to continue the work I have been doing for more than seven years now. I had a vision for the ways we could offer mental health tools, community, and support to military Veterans who were dealing with invisible injuries from their time in service.
I’ll be honest, I’m passionate about this work for really personal reasons — I know what it’s like to lose your sense of community. It’s the one (and only) thing I miss from my eighteen years working in the film industry.
And one thing is incredibly clear to me: camaraderie saves lives.
I’m a civilian and I’ll never truly understand what these men and women have sacrificed but I can offer helpful tools, belonging, compassion, and a solid dose of ridiculousness to bring us all together.
If you have donated to Mission Flexible in the past, thank you. Your contribution has helped us make a meaningful impact on the lives of those we serve. For every retreat, we get more applicants than we have space for, and we are expanding so we can reach every Veteran we can.
Clearly, the need is so great — and that’s why I need your support.
Mission Flexible is fully dependent on donations from people like you. Everyone who helps create these programs does so as a volunteer, including me.
Small donations are so important to us because every dollar you donate goes to providing intensive mindfulness retreats to help Veterans heal from a variety of struggles - chronic insomnia, night terrors, impulse control issues, hypervigilance, flashbacks, panic attacks, loss of limbs, traumatic brain injuries, addiction, severe depression, and anxiety.
In a world that often feels overwhelming, a donation makes a direct and powerful impact, as our Veterans constantly tell us.
“In our first Zoom interview, you said that the retreat could be transformational, and I expressed my caution about getting my hopes up. I’m pleasantly surprised to say I believe I’m witnessing some significant type of positive transformation going on inside, like nothing I’ve experienced before.”
- A.G. (Marine)
I hope you’ll consider including us in any year-end giving you might do, at any amount.
Please join us in our ongoing mission to save lives.
In the next month or so, I’ll be sharing some really big news about an upcoming partnership. This has created jumping-up-and-down-squealing levels of excitement around here and once I can share the details, you’ll know all about it.
Mission Flexible is just getting started, and it is growing in ways I could never have imagined.
I am so grateful to those who have donated to make sure we survived our first year.
I am so grateful to the Veterans who trust me enough to show up and make this program the incredible experience that it is.
And I am so grateful to you for reading and caring about bringing a little light to some folks who need it.
With endless thanks and best wishes for a joyful 2024,
~Lisa Jakub