Brian From talks with Matt Blair, CEO and co-founder of The Well Resource Center, a Chicago nonprofit he and his wife started nearly nine years ago to support the mental health of first responders and their families. Matt explains how listening to neighbors on the city’s Northwest Side, where about 30 percent of Chicago’s protective services employees live, revealed a crisis: in 2018, the Chicago Police Department reported a suicide rate 60 percent higher than any other law enforcement agency in the country. He describes how first responders often keep the trauma they see bottled up to protect the people they love, and how isolation, long shifts, and missed holidays strain families. The Well offers free counseling funded entirely by private donors, alongside basketball, yoga, roll call visits, and couples retreats, all designed to build trust with a community that doesn’t give it easily. Matt invites listeners to the organization’s eighth annual gala on November 5 at Joe’s Live in Rosemont, and to learn more at thewellrc.org.

<p>Brian From talks with Matt Blair, CEO and co-founder of The Well Resource Center, a Chicago nonprofit he and his wife started nearly nine years ago to support the mental health of first responders and their families. Matt explains how listening to neighbors on the city&rsquo;s Northwest Side, where about 30 percent of Chicago&rsquo;s protective services employees live, revealed a crisis: in 2018, the Chicago Police Department reported a suicide rate 60 percent higher than any other law enforcement agency in the country. He describes how first responders often keep the trauma they see bottled up to protect the people they love, and how isolation, long shifts, and missed holidays strain families. The Well offers free counseling funded entirely by private donors, alongside basketball, yoga, roll call visits, and couples retreats, all designed to build trust with a community that doesn&rsquo;t give it easily. Matt invites listeners to the organization&rsquo;s eighth annual gala on November 5 at Joe&rsquo;s Live in Rosemont, and to learn more at thewellrc.org.</p>

The idea of “the common good” has a rich history within the Christian church. It’s the notion that, as we pursue Jesus in our lives and in the lives of others, we are fulfilling God’s purposes for His creation. This pursuit can be messy. It means rolling up our sleeves and creating space for hard conversations about real issues that impact our lives. Things like parenting, marriage, finances, politics, art, and culture. On The Common Good, Brian From creates space to have these conversations, to sit with the big questions that we all have, to sometimes disagree, but to always look for the chance to create common good, by following after Jesus. Brian welcome listeners to join them in these conversations, to bring their own questions, hopes, and struggles, and to ultimately share in a journey to see God’s design for all of us fulfilled.

<p>The idea of &ldquo;the common good&rdquo; has a rich history within the Christian church. It&rsquo;s the notion that, as we pursue Jesus in our lives and in the lives of others, we are fulfilling God&rsquo;s purposes for His creation. This pursuit can be messy. It means rolling up our sleeves and creating space for hard conversations about real issues that impact our lives. Things like parenting, marriage, finances, politics, art, and culture. On The Common Good, Brian From creates space to have these conversations, to sit with the big questions that we all have, to sometimes disagree, but to always look for the chance to create common good, by following after Jesus. Brian welcome listeners to join them in these conversations, to bring their own questions, hopes, and struggles, and to ultimately share in a journey to see God&rsquo;s design for all of us fulfilled.</p>