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Vocal Virginia 2025 Spring Newsletter

  • martin71674
  • Jun 26
  • 2 min read

Leadership Transition at Vocal Virginia

Earlier this month, Vocal Virginia said farewell to Heather Orrock, who stepped down from her role as Executive Director to pursue a new professional opportunity. We are deeply grateful for Heather’s leadership, vision, and dedication to our mission during her time with the organization. Under her guidance, Vocal Virginia expanded its reach, deepened its advocacy and education work, and strengthened its role as a voice for people with lived experience in Virginia’s mental health system. 

 

We are now beginning the search for our next Executive Director. We are committed to finding a leader who will continue to champion the values of recovery and peer support while guiding Vocal Virginia into its next chapter.

 

Martin Mash has stepped in as Interim Executive Director. Martin brings valuable experience, insight, and continuity to the role, and the Board of Directors has great confidence in his ability to lead the organization through this transition.

 

To read more, please click here.

 

Resilience in Uncertainty: What Grounds Us When the Ground Moves

Uncertainty is hard. It shakes the structures we count on—our jobs, our roles, our relationships, our sense of direction. It can feel like the floor keeps moving beneath us, just when we thought we found our balance.

 

In the face of that, it’s easy to believe we should just “be strong” or “stay positive.” But the truth is, real resilience isn’t about forcing a smile or muscling through. It’s about allowing ourselves to feel what’s real—grief, fear, frustration—without letting those feelings uproot our sense of worth or possibility.

 

Resilience means honoring the moment while trusting that it won’t last forever.

 

It means pausing when we need to, rather than pushing beyond what’s sustainable. It means leaning into our values, into our supports, and into practices that remind us who we are.

 

To read more, please click here.

 

Celebrating Community, Connection, and Resilience: A Look Back at Vocal Virginia’s Annual Conference

In times of uncertainty, our greatest strength has always come from community, connection, and the lived experience of those who have walked the path of recovery. That truth was powerfully affirmed at Vocal Virginia’s Annual Conference “Strength in Uncertainty: Growing Mental Health Resilience,” which took place on May 15th. More than just a gathering, this event became a rallying point for peers, changemakers, supporters, and advocates across the Commonwealth, a day filled with courage, compassion, and collective wisdom.

Attendees from across Virginia came together to celebrate lived experience and explore what it means to grow through adversity, to meet change with courage, and to support one another in building a more compassionate and resilient mental health movement.

 

To read more, please click here.

 

To read the entire Newsletter, please click here.



 
 
 

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