No Wrong Door: Connecting Residents to Mental Health and Substance Use Support

Rebecca Elwell leading a No Wrong Door session

Where do we turn when we or someone we love needs help addressing a mental health or substance use condition? Often, people in need of help with these challenges don't know where to turn. Rhode Island's No Wrong Door initiative addresses this crucial need by connecting Newport County residents with a continuum of care best suited to their recovery.

No Wrong Door RI is a strong, substantive network of behavioral health and community organizations that links a wide array of services across Newport, Middletown, Portsmouth, Little Compton, Tiverton and Jamestown. The initiative ensures that if someone asks about getting help from any organization in the network, they are never in the wrong place. They will receive the information and care they need from the best resources available.

Throughout this program, Newport County residents are connected with a diverse group of professionals, including licensed social workers and substance use specialists. This comprehensive approach ensures that individuals can access the specific support they need, regardless of which organization they initially contact.

The underlying concept behind No Wrong Door's model has been practiced in communities throughout the world in recent years. In Newport County, the idea emerged from collaborative brainstorming among local healthcare leaders. Dr. Jon Brett, a clinical psychologist at Newport Hospital, along with Linda Hurley from CODAC and Jamie Lehane from Newport Mental Health, recognized the absence of a continuum of care for residents of Newport County and saw the need for such a model in his own community.

In a 2018 conversation, Dr. Brett described this need to Diana Oehrli, Trustee of the Gruben Charitable Foundation. Diana shared this information with then-Salve Regina President Sister Jane Gerety, who saw an opportunity to convene local nonprofits and discuss the need for increased collaboration. Sister Gerety invited a handful of organizations to a small lunch to explore ways to best address our community's needs.

"During that lunch, it became clear that communication between organizations could only be in the best interest of Newport County residents," Diana Oehrli said. "If there is a perception of a waiting list at one organization when there isn't one, that's a problem."

That convening and subsequent planning conversations with the van Beuren Foundation yielded No Wrong Door RI as a program of Strategic Prevention Partnerships, a nonprofit organization dedicated to enhancing community health led by Rebecca Elwell, who was involved through her role as Director of the Newport Prevention Coalition. Rebecca now leads the No Wrong Door program. In describing the impact of No Wrong Door, she says, "Our greatest achievement has been to bring community members with genuine lived experience to the table - providing an opportunity for them to shape and guide behavioral health services based on their own experiences within the system. We seek to amplify the voices of folks that for too long have been unheard."

We encourage you to visit No Wrong Door's web site and their program descriptions to become more familiar with the network's scope. And we encourage you to share this information with family, friends, and colleagues so all of our community members know that there is a wide, accessible network of supports available for everyone who needs it.

Free Music Lessons Initiative Launches for Aquidneck Island Students

Photo: Newport Festivals Foundation

The Gruben Charitable Foundation and Newport Festivals Foundation have established a new initiative to provide free private music lessons for up to 80 students on the island in the next year. The initiative will allow students to apply to receive ten, half-hour-long lessons at the Newport Music Shop, located on Bellevue Ave. Students can also rent a free instrument for the duration of their lessons. 

“Personally, I wouldn’t be here today, if it weren’t for playing the piano and singing,”  says Diana Oehrli, trustee of the Gruben Charitable Foundation. “In Switzerland, where I am partly from and lived for many years, the government invests in music instruction for children. Science is finally catching up to what humanity has known for ages. Playing an instrument is one of the healthiest things you can do for your brain, central nervous system, and for the development of minds at any age.”

“Our festivals are known around the world, so we feel a real responsibility to make sure every student in our backyard of Aquidneck Island has access to high-quality music instruction,” said Dan Swain, Director of Programs for Newport Festivals Foundation. “When the Gruben Charitable Foundation approached us with this idea to provide free music lessons, we were thrilled. It’s such a simple, yet effective solution: give kids free private lessons and an instrument. It’s the best way to improve their confidence as a musician, which will make them more likely to pursue music for years to come.”

Students can visit newportfestivals.org/lessons to sign up for lessons and rent a free instrument. Lessons will begin in the fall and be offered in guitar, piano, voice, bass, drums, saxophone, trumpet, flute, trombone, songwriting, and music theory. 

Registration does not guarantee lessons. Applicants will be added to a waitlist. Once a spot opens up, Newport Festivals Foundation will email a code to receive free lessons at the Newport Music Shop located at 142 Bellevue Avenue, Newport, RI. Lessons will begin in the fall.  

Questions about the initiative can be sent to info@newportfestivals.org

Eastern Rhode Island Conservation District: Cultivating Environmental Stewardship Through Programs

From community gardens to student driven agriculture education to support of local farmers, Eastern Rhode Island Conservation District (ERICD) offers a wide array of vibrant programs and services that preserve our state’s natural resources. Serving Newport and Bristol Counties, ERICD works with landowners, farmers, municipalities, state and federal agencies, non-profit organizations, and the residential community to protect natural resources such as soil, water, and air. 

A key piece of ERICD’s work is collaboration with the Natural Resources Conservation Service to provide resources to farmers and landowners to implement conservation-smart practices on their land that they wouldn’t be able to install otherwise. In addition, ERICD partners with Portsmouth School District on the Portsmouth AgInnovation Farm – a student-driven sustainable community agriculture education program that teaches about the environment through experiential learning. The organization also provides funding for community gardens, educates state and local governments for smart environmental legislation, and engages the community to promote conservation practices.

This month ERICD invites our community to participate in its numerous Earth Month programs. The organization will be offering three rain barrel workshops, three plogging (trash pickup) opportunities, a seedling sale, a community learning workshop about residential stormwater, and a clean comedy show. Details for all of these events can be found on their website.