Wings Across Alabama enters a new fiscal year, our focus is not simply on doing more. It is on becoming more intentional about who we are, why we exist, who we serve, and how every program, partnership, employee, and dollar moves us toward our mission and vision.
OUR MISSION: The Work We Do
To advance mental health policies and services to promote and support recovery.
This mission calls Wings to be both a service organization and a systems-change organization. We provide direct peer support while also ensuring that the voices and lived experiences of people navigating mental health challenges help shape Alabama’s mental health system.
Our FY27 Action: We will evaluate our work through a simple question: “How does this advance recovery?” Programs, partnerships, advocacy, funding decisions and organizational priorities should have a clear connection to promoting recovery, strengthening peer support, increasing access, or improving the systems that serve Alabamians.
OUR VISION: Where We Are Going
Our vision describes Wings rising like the sun across Alabama—becoming a dependable source of hope, clarity, guidance and support for people on mental health recovery journeys.
But a vision becomes meaningful when we turn it into action.
1. Recovery Within Reach
Vision: Every person experiencing a mental health challenge has the support, resources and programs needed to achieve and sustain recovery.
Action: Strengthen our statewide peer-support continuum—from the 24/7 Wings Across Alabama Warm Line to support groups, Certified Peer Specialists, education, outreach and connections to community resources. We will pay particular attention to people and communities that remain difficult to reach.
2. Partnership With Purpose
Vision: Agencies and providers across Alabama know Wings and collaborate with us.
Action: Build intentional relationships with hospitals, behavioral-health providers, community organizations, peer organizations and other partners. Wings should increasingly be viewed not simply as somewhere to refer people, but as a partner in recovery.
3. Support Where People Live
Vision: Support groups flourish throughout Alabama while stigma surrounding mental health continues to diminish.
Action: Strengthen existing groups, support our facilitators, identify geographic and service gaps, and strategically expand peer-support opportunities—both in person and virtually—while maintaining environments centered on safety, respect and recovery.
4. Lived Experience Has a Voice
Vision: Wings is recognized as a voice-driven leader in mental health advancement.
Action: Create more meaningful opportunities for peers to tell us what is working, what is not working and what needs to change. Initiatives such as SOAR Stories, listening sessions, surveys and peer representation can ensure we aren’t simply speaking for people—we are creating platforms where people can speak for themselves.
5. Make Wings Impossible to Miss
Vision: People who would benefit from Wings know that Wings exists.
Action: Strengthen statewide awareness through community outreach, digital storytelling, media engagement, provider education and consistent messaging. Someone should not have to already be connected to the mental-health system to discover peer support.
Our message should become unmistakable:
“Recovery is possible. You are not alone. Wings is here.”
6. Build the Organization Behind the Mission
Vision: Wings has the staff and organizational capacity necessary to make recovery possible and lead Alabama toward embracing a recovery-centered philosophy.
Action: Invest in our people. Strengthen training, supervision, communication, accountability, trauma-informed leadership and professional development while ensuring employees understand how their individual responsibilities connect to the larger mission.
A strong peer organization requires both compassion and accountability.
7. Sustainability With Purpose
Vision: Wings is financially strong, adequately funded and sustainable.
Action: Protect existing funding while intentionally diversifying revenue through grants, partnerships, philanthropy and other sustainable opportunities. We will also strengthen data collection and demonstrate the impact of our programs so funders and stakeholders understand not only what Wings does, but why it matters.
8. One System. Shared Responsibility.
Vision: Alabama’s mental-health agencies, providers and stakeholders—including our key partner, the Alabama Department of Mental Health—work toward a shared vision for stronger mental-health policies and services.
Action: Wings will come to those tables carrying something uniquely valuable: the voice of lived experience. We will collaborate while continuing to advocate for policies and systems that are accessible, recovery-oriented, peer-informed and responsive to the people they are intended to serve.
The FY27 Wings Commitment
This year, Wings Rising means moving intentionally from vision → action → impact.
We will listen before assuming. Collaborate instead of operating in silos. Measure what matters. Strengthen our people. Expand access. Elevate peer voices. Protect the integrity of peer support. Advocate for better systems. And remain accountable to the people whose recovery journeys are the reason Wings exists.
The sunrise in our vision isn’t simply beautiful imagery. It represents a promise.
Every day brings another opportunity for hope. Every voice deserves to be heard. Every community deserves access to support. Every person deserves the opportunity to recover.
And as we begin this new fiscal year:
WINGS IS RISING.
Hope in sight. Recovery in reach. Action across Alabama.
First and foremost I would like to thank our AMAZING Board of Directors, Program Directors, Employees, Contractors, Members, Stakeholders and Friends for your patience and support over the past eleven months. Your commitment to the success of Wings Across Alabama and the individuals we support through The Alabama Warm Line, APPR, Support Groups and Grants has meant so much!
As my tenure as Executive Director of the largest ADMH contracted Peer-Run Mental Health Nonprofit in our great state officially begins on October 1st, I remain committed to both the mission and vision of Wings. In tandem with this leadership transition, I am excited to announce that we will be hiring a Chief Operating Officer by the end of October. Every decision that is being made brings us one step closer to our ultimate goal of literally spreading our Wings Across Alabama!
With continued transformation on the horizon, I will be working closely with our Board of Directors and others to lead and continue guiding Wings into the next chapter, ensuring the continued success and sustainability of this organization. Being introduced to Peer Support in 2014 I have witnessed many amazing changes to the landscape of Mental Health Recovery but there is still so much work to be done. My visionary leadership, strategic acumen and passion for recovery are the foundational tenets necessary to propel Wings Across Alabama to higher heights and deeper depths not only in Alabama but across the globe. Together, we will continue to push boundaries, innovate and inspire as we reinforce these powerful words from Patricia Deegan, “We share in the certainty that people labeled with mental illness are first and above all, human beings. Our lives are precious and are of infinite value.”
“National Recovery Month (Recovery Month), which started in 1989, is a national observance held every September to promote and support new evidence-based treatment and recovery practices, the nation’s strong and proud recovery community, and the dedication of service providers and communities who make recovery in all its forms possible.” (SAMHSA.gov)
SAMHSA aims to increase public awareness surrounding mental health and addiction recovery. In the years since Recovery Month launched, SAMHSA has timed announcements of initiatives and grant funding during Recovery Month, while collaborating with private and public entities to celebrate individuals during their long-term recoveries.”
As an individual in both long-term substance use disorder recovery as well as mental health recovery, National Recovery Month is a very important month for me. September 24th I will be celebrating six years in recovery after relapse. This may seem odd for the Acting Executive Director to share so openly but at the core of who I am, I am a peer first and foremost. Peer support services allow those who have worked so hard to overcome stigma, symptoms and self-doubt to share empathetically to encourage and empower those who are still stuck in the grips of the shame that too often encapsulates us. Wings Across Alabama shines as a beacon of hope and light for recovery!
I am grateful to be a part of this life changing organization but I dare not forget what my life was like before being introduced to peer support in 2014. I didn’t know that mental health recovery was possible! I didn’t know the power of peer support that can propel you from a place of hopelessness to hope! So as we prepare for National Recovery Month 2024, I challenge each of you to become more involved in promoting and supporting recovery and peer support. Whether you choose to become a member of Wings Across Alabama, attend one of our support groups, share our video library with a friend or visit our website you can make a difference!!!!! Recovery is indeed proof! I am an example, not the exception.
SOAR-AIR 2024
“We are here because we’ve been there.”
This seemingly simple phrase left a powerful impact on me during the opening ceremony of the AIR Conference 2024 that was held at Shocco Springs in early April. “SOAR (Supporting Our Aligned Recoveries) Across Alabama” was our theme, which focused on connecting through shared experiences while embracing differences. Various workshops, keynote speakers and fun filled experiences that were impactful for the 400+ individuals in attendance left me wanting more. More connection, more support for all of us! As I have reflected on this over the past week, I came to this realization amidst a deep conversation surrounding peer support with a dear friend:
“We come together because we are peers-we connect because we are people!”
These words came to life as I thought them, imagined them, spoke them aloud. In my current role as Acting Executive Director of Wings Across Alabama, I am no different in that way than any other Alabamian who is living with mental health challenges. That fact within itself forces me to be a voice for those who feel they no longer have a voice. For those who feel unheard and unseen. The connections made as a Certified Peer Specialist and the evidence-based power of peers is not only for recipients of mental health services in our local communities. Those of us who continue to navigate both our personal and professional lived and living experiences successfully are able to do so for a number of reasons- one very important reason being SUPPORT!
So as we celebrate AIR 2024 and look hopefully towards AIR 2025, I ask each of you to join me in truly connecting with others! Although mental health challenges are what led us here, what keeps us are the same connecting pieces, those building blocks that identify us as human beings. AIR was a prime example. Whether you are a Taylor Swift fan, love karaoke, are obsessed with all things Sci-Fi, practice meditation, enjoy fishing or writing poetry, you were able to CONNECT with likeminded peers. Let us continue to connect so that we can continue to support one another!
Charisse Rupert
Acting Executive Director
Wings Across Alabama
Why SOAR Across Alabama?
SOAR (Supporting Our Aligned Recoveries) is the epitome of what Wings Across Alabama is and why we do what we do. Every individual has the right to recover on their own terms. We strongly believe that our unique Peers Across Alabama community is strengthened when we as peers share our personal lived and living experiences to encourage and empower others. Whether that is accomplished by connecting with Alabama Warm Line Specialists and accessing our free, confidential non-crisis peer support line anytime day or night, attending our ART (Art as a Recovery Tool) , Music, Certified Peer Specialist or all-inclusive Community Support Groups, creating a recovery action plan through APPR (Action Planning for Prevention and Recovery), or participating in our SAMHSA funded Peers Across Alabama Virtual Resource Hub, which provides personal and professional support to CPS in the field through videos and resources, our four programs- Alabama Warm Line, Education, CPS Support Groups and Grant Program provide individuals with the freedom to find the recovery and wellness tools that work best for them! The beautiful and most impactful part of this is that through individual seeking, a community formed and forged into something much stronger than any one person can create alone is born!
We have also found and experienced the magic that occurs when we connect with other community partners such as NAMI and ROSS to collectively SOAR!
All of this is possible because of our dedicated and passionate Wings Team! Everyone who is a part of Wings Across Alabama is a person who themselves has navigated the rocky road of mental health challenges to a place of wellness and recovery. We aim to bring people together with shared experiences to support one another, provide a safe space where they feel accepted, understood, seen, heard and valued. We are the individuals we serve!
As 2023 comes to an end, we are grateful for all we have accomplished and excited about what’s on the horizon. Our new ASAP (Additional Support And Prevention) Support Group focused on supporting those who have been discharged from crisis diversion centers, area psychiatric facilities, callers to the Alabama Warm Line, 988 or anyone who would like additional support before and/or after experiencing a crisis will add an additional layer of ongoing peer support for Alabamians.
Thank YOU for being an integral part of Wings Across Alabama! The best is yet to come…..
Charisse Rupert
Acting Executive Director