Our Knowledge + You.
You won’t find anyone like us to make a change in your organization’s mental health.
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Letters to Strangers is first and foremost a nonprofit designed by and for those with mental health concerns. Over time, our learnings have developed into greater strategies on mental wellbeing and community healing, but our core has never wavered. All of our workshops and events reflect our constant strive for equity, inclusion, and empathy. We believe intersectionality is not just a term but a lifelong endeavor. We don’t just speak on mental health - we actively drive mental wellness activities and care provision on the ground, around the world, and that means those who learn from us aren’t just passively intaking information - our approach actively invites them to practice and embrace their learnings in real-life situations themselves.
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By choosing our organizational workshops, you're supporting our nonprofit programming costs. When you choose to learn with Letters to Strangers, you’re not just doing your members a favor - you’re investing in the mental wellbeing of future generations. 50% of all lifetime cases of mental illness begin by age 14 and 75% by age 24. The best time to grow into more emotionally intelligent, secure, informed, safe, and connected versions of ourselves is since youth - but the second best time is now. Seize both timelines at once with Letters to Strangers - health is one bet you'll never regret.
Testimonials
Who We've Worked With
...and more!
Why It Matters
It's not just us saying it. See what others (like here and here) are saying:
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“Employers that support mental health see a return of $4 for every dollar invested in mental health treatment.”
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“Employees experiencing mental distress use, on average, nearly $3,000 more in health care services per year than their peers. The cost of days lost averages $4,783 per year per employee, and the costs of turnover averages $5,733 per year per employee.”
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“Mentally distressed workers are 3.5 times more likely to have substance use disorders.”
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"96% of CEOs thought their companies were doing enough to address their employees’ mental health; however, only 69% of employees agreed with this statement."
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“The effects of neglected mental health and substance abuse cost US businesses roughly $80 to $100 billion every year. Globally, the economy loses approximately $1 trillion each year due to lost productivity from depression and anxiety.”
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“Global direct costs (i.e., medication, hospitalization, etc.) and indirect costs (i.e., loss of production due to absence or early retirement) are expected to double by 2030.”
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“80% of employees would quit their current position for a job that focused more on mental health.”
Our Most Popular Package
Letter-Writing Workshop
(~30 minutes)
This workshop introduces Letters to Strangers and walks through our award-winning letter exchange process, carefully developed and perfected over almost a decade of in-person and virtual exchange experience leading to over 20000 letters exchanged today every year. Unique strategies for writing with vulnerability, empathy, and openness are presented, with best practices explained and demonstrated, allowing participants to walk away with skills that they can use in their own lives and communications. Themes, guiding questions, and guidelines close the presentation to empower participants to write a letter of their own.
Guided Peer Discussion
(~30-45 minutes)
One of our trained peer leaders guides a peer discussion with participants of a letters exchange, following principles of group therapy and cognitive behavioral therapy to encourage openness and empathy. Having a Letters to Strangers individual lead the discussion can help ease any stress/burdens/fears an organization’s member may have if they are tasked with overseeing their peers’ discussion themselves, especially when sensitive issues arise.
Letter Exchange Report & Curation
A team of Letters to Strangers’ trained moderators reviews and reports on overarching themes and learnings from an organization’s submitted letters and curates (such as based on themes or emotions of an organization’s choice) a selection of those letters for the organization to share as they desire, such as via rotational features on the office break room walls, on the organizational website, on an employee portal, or more to help create a culture of empathy and connectedness.
Letter Moderation
A moderator or team of moderators trained through the Letters to Strangers moderation process and who passed our custom moderation exam will review, add trigger warnings, flag, and otherwise approve letters submitted by your group as part of a letter exchange process.
Custom Letter Exchange Portal
Our technical leads create a custom “Chapter” ID for your organization on our online letter exchange portal, allowing your members to utilize our easily-accessible platform, take advantage of themes/guiding questions/guidelines/samples all in one curated place, join our badges rewards system, get their letters reviewed by our trained team of moderators, and receive an anonymous moderated letter back for each approved letter they submit - all within a custom environment designed for only members of your organization. That means instead of having letters sent out to and receiving letters written by any random member of the public, this allows members of the same organization to exchange letters anonymously with each other, providing more ground for empathy and close connections and giving organizational leaders a chance to better pinpoint and understand overarching concerns expressed by their members. A walkthrough of how to utilize the platform will also be provided.
Mental Health Consulting
Outside of our flagship program, we also offer custom consulting services to organizations looking to improve their members' mental wellbeing or looking to design products/programs of their own with mental health best practices in mind, especially ones meant for young people around the world.
Other Services
Dear Stranger: Mental Health Story & Learnings
(~1 hour)
This presentation tells Diana’s personal story, from aspects of minority mental health like growing up below the poverty line with parents who didn’t speak English, to the power that even the smallest acts of kindness have had on her life. Incorporated within are strategies for maintaining mental wellbeing for ourselves and each other. It includes a brief Q & A portion at the end. This is presented by Diana only.
Mental Health & Racial Equity
(~1 hour)
This presentation dives into racial equity in the U.S. and beyond for both the past and present and integrates history, policy, and best practices to carve a path for self-care and greater community healing with intergenerational and current barriers in mind. It includes a brief Q & A portion at the end.
Moderation Training
(~30-45 minutes)
This training takes a group through a diverse packet of 10 letters submitted by real strangers in the past and dives into the goods, bads, and not-so-sures of each letter and their greater implications on the best mental wellbeing-oriented approach for each letter-writer. Developed and led by past counselors for the National Suicide Prevention Hotline and the Crisis Text Chat and reviewed by Harvard- and Yale-trained psychologists and psychiatrists, this training goes beyond each letter to allow each participant to walk away with better understandings of how to support one another no matter the medium. Those who complete this training are also allowed to join the Letters to Strangers online letter exchange platform moderator team and to serve as moderators for letter exchanges hosted by their respective organizations.
Other Merchandise
The organization qualifies for discounted prices on non-book merchandise offered by Letters to Strangers, such as clothes, stationery, and more. We otherwise almost never offer discounts on our products!
Mental Health Education
(~1 hour)
This presentation is focused on in-depth, actionable mental health education. It provides an overview of mental health and mental illnesses, then dives deep into concrete strategies and acronyms one can use to support oneself and each other with an emphasis on intersectionality. The information in this presentation was developed through years of experience in the mental health field and countless interviews with people from all walks of life. It includes a brief Q & A portion at the end.
Climate Change & Mental Health
(~45 minutes - 1 hour)
This presentation dives into the intersection of climate change and mental health by exploring shared risk and protective factors, historical and present-day studies into the effects of climate change on mental health, how marginalized communities are particularly impacted, scientific baselines for navigating future climate scenarios, and mitigation as well as adaptation strategies for moving forward. It includes a brief Q & A portion at the end.
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Note: Typically Diana, the founder of L2S, is the only one who presents this talk due to the integration of her expertise and background as a climate scientist.
Book Orders in Bulk
The organization qualifies for discounted prices on Letters to Strangers’ award-winning books. We otherwise almost never offer discounts on our products!
