Our Origins

It began with a question.

In 2020, in the aftermath of a community tragedy in Springfield, Illinois, a small group of women came together with a single question: what would it look like to do this differently?

The country was in the early months of a pandemic. Communities were grieving on multiple fronts at once. The old models — siloed, individual, reactive — were visibly failing the people who needed them most. What started as a series of conversations became the Illinois Light Initiative, and the conversations turned into advocacy.

In June 2021, that advocacy contributed to the passage of Illinois Senate Resolution SR0301 — a resolution committing the Illinois legislature to acknowledge the principles of trauma in policy decisions and to move from a siloed, individual approach toward a collaborative, person-centered healing one.

A resolution doesn't heal a community. But it changes what's possible to say out loud in a legislature — and that changes what's possible to build.

What we learned in Illinois became the foundation for everything that followed: that healing-centered work belongs in policy and partnership, not just in clinical settings. That public will and private resources can build infrastructure together that neither could build alone. That coalitions move farther than organizations, and that the most important work is often the quiet work of bringing the right people to the same table.

We are all in this together. Together, WeHealUS.