Jewel Reminds People They Are Not Alone for the Holidays

Jewel is on a mission to bring comfort to those who feel lonely during the holiday season.

The “You Were Meant for Me” singer has been focused on raising mental health awareness for nearly two decades, and her Never Broken Foundation helps homeless and at-risk youth with their emotional and psychological well-being.

Now she has launched her second annual Not Alone Challenge, not only reminding people that they are not alone in the world, but also giving them access to tools to help them get their lives back on track. Last year, her efforts made it “the biggest mental health challenge in history.”

“Last year we reached almost a billion and a half people,” she told ABC News. “What we’ve learned is that a lot of people live in what we call mental health deserts where they don’t have access to therapy. So the Not Alone Challenge is not just about raising awareness, it’s about putting tools in the hands of people who need them and can find free tools and resources on our website.”

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Jewel, 49, has spoken openly about her troubled teenage years, saying she became mentally ill when she was 15 and moved from her abusive family home to a cabin in Alaska. Later, after she went to California, she lived in her car.

“When I was discovered — it’s funny — I almost didn’t sign my record deal because I was so aware that if you take someone with my emotional background, and God forbid, I’m going to be famous…,” she told PEOPLE in 2022.

She continued: “It’s every movie about every celebrity you’ve seen. In this business, we lose more people to addictions, overdoses, suicides, mental breakdowns, and I didn’t want to be a statistic.”

So she made a deal with herself: She would sign a recording contract “as long as my number one job remains learning how to be a happy, whole human being,” she told ABC News. “I refused to let my life pass me by without learning how to be happy.

“And it’s unacceptable that misery is an opportunist. It doesn’t matter what color you are or whether you’re rich or poor. But if you want to learn a new way of being that often takes access to things that not everyone has access to.”

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Duane Prokop/Getty Images for Wellness Your Way Festival

So, about 22 years ago, Jewel started a foundation for youth where they focus on mental health. “Now we have one of the most successful rates of helping children with suicidal ideation. And then we just spread this mission wider and wider because it meant raising awareness without offering tools.”

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Jewel’s very personal mission to raise awareness and help has been a huge success, raising $1.5 million last year.

“I hope people will visit the Not Alone challenge.org website,” she concluded. “They can find free resources. You can also vote or auction. There are auction items that you can bid on. Um, and we actually just found a donor, the Foundation Reserve Social Club, who will raise up to a million and a half dollars in donations.”

Categories: Trends
Source: HIS Education