Wednesday, May 14 – Minneapolis, MN 🇺🇸

“They’re fine.”

That’s the lie—the one people tell when it’s easier not to look too closely.

They’re fine.
Just tired.
Just dramatic.
Just moody.
Just going through something.

Ms. Caldwell had heard those words in every staff meeting, every rushed parent phone call, every scribbled post-it left on her desk.

But she had also seen what “fine” really looked like:

• A student curled up in the nurse’s office, too anxious to speak

• A quiet girl writing poetry that felt more like a cry than a class assignment

• A straight-A boy who stopped speaking, then stopped showing up altogether

What could she offer?

A 30-minute session once a week.
A waitlist longer than the semester.
A pamphlet. A hotline. A hope.

It felt like triage.
Bandages over broken beams.
And still, the adults around her kept repeating the same line:

“They’re fine.”

The Vision in the Margins

But Ms. Caldwell knew better.

So in between crisis emails and cafeteria duty, she started building something new:

A full mental health support model.
Not just reactive. Proactive. Preventative. Daily.

She called it The Well—a place students could return to, not just when they broke, but to stay whole.

• Daily check-ins

• Tiered group therapy

• Staff training modules

• Peer support teams with trauma-informed protocols

• A dedicated decompression room

• A culturally competent therapist with language and racial equity capacity

She had the blueprint.
What she didn’t have—was funding.

When she presented it to leadership?

“No funding stream exists for this.”
“We’re already stretched.”
“Try again next year.”

She almost shelved it for good.

Enter Mr. Grant Money

Then came the summit.

A youth mental health conference where Ms. Caldwell gave a breakout talk. Raw, informed, unapologetically urgent.

In the back row sat a man in a burgundy tie.

After her session, he waited until the crowd thinned and approached with a knowing calm.

“Ms. Caldwell?” he said. “I’m Mr. Grant Money. I help build programs like yours—by finding and stacking the right funding streams.”

She blinked.

“You’re ready. You just need the scaffolding.”

The Insider Advantage

Mr. Grant Money didn’t hand her a check.

He handed her access—to tools, strategy, and people she didn’t know how to reach.

He ran a funding scan—targeting federal, state, and philanthropic opportunities with overlapping timelines:

• SAMHSA’s Project AWARE: a perfect fit on paper—but difficult to navigate without experience

• ESSER III carryover funds: still eligible in her district for mental health supports

• Minnesota wellness foundation: offering 1:1 matching for school mental health pilots

“Three sources,” he said. “One dream. You just need to braid the budget.”

He translated her vision into grant language:

“This line about ‘safe space for student healing’—good for a speech. Let’s call it ‘Tier 1 school-wide universal supports’ in the narrative.”

He built her a logic model using inputs, activities, outputs, and measurable outcomes.
He added research citations.
He mobilized partnerships:

• A behavioral health professor as evaluator

• A licensed therapist offering a letter of intent

• A program officer to review the draft budget for state wraparound alignment

He even trained her staff:

• How to justify indirect costs

• How to write “evidence-informed” goals

• How to answer the “sustainability” question honestly

  (“Name a revenue bridge—not a fantasy. District co-investment pending results + foundation reapplication.”)

He helped her build a strategy—not just a grant.

The Grant Goes Through

Three months later:

✅ SAMHSA Project AWARE: Approved
✅ ESSER III carryover: Secured
✅ Local match: Confirmed

The Well opened. Fully funded.

• An unused storage space became a soft-lit wellness room

• A licensed therapist was hired

• A peer navigator program was launched

• Monthly wellness nights for families began

The Culture Shift

The real transformation?

It wasn’t just in the space.
It was in the people.

• Teachers replaced “How are you?” with “How’s your head today?”

• Office staff learned grounding techniques

• Suspensions dropped

• Referrals declined

• Students spoke—openly, honestly, without shame

“This place makes me feel seen.”
“I didn’t know I was allowed to feel like this out loud.”
“I don’t have to lie anymore.”

The Lie Fades

“They’re fine” disappeared from the vocabulary.

It was replaced with:

“They’re supported.”
“They’re healing.”
“They’re understood.”

What Mr. Grant Money Really Does

Ms. Caldwell didn’t just get a grant.

She gained:

• A funding architecture

• A mental health ecosystem

• A professional network now invested in her school

Mr. Grant Money wasn’t a donor.
He was a leverage architect.
A translator of vision into funder-friendly language.
A bridge-builder for people who usually walk alone.

“I don’t find money,” he told her. “I build the bridges so you can walk toward it.”

He wasn’t a hero.
He made sure the heroes didn’t burn out.

Because when someone listens—and backs you with power, paperwork, and precision?

That’s when you stop patching wounds…
And start building wells.

🧠 Discussion Questions

1. What assumptions do we make when we say “they’re fine”—and how can schools shift away from that mindset structurally and culturally?

2. Ms. Caldwell had a powerful vision, but lacked access to funding pathways. What barriers do educators and frontline staff commonly face when trying to innovate?

3. Mr. Grant Money translated emotional urgency into grant language. Why is this translation critical—and what happens when it’s missing?

4. What aspects of “The Well” are replicable practices for other schools or youth orgs working in student wellness?

5. In your own community or field, what “wells” are waiting to be built—and what kind of support would it take to make them real?

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