About

OUR PURPOSE

The Be the One campaign encourages positive social connections in multiple community settings. This campaign is accessible, evidence-informed, and based on CDC research. One way both to prevent and heal from adversity is through safe, stable, nurturing relationships and environments. Caring positive relationships support healthy child development, promote adaptive responses to stress, and contribute to positive mental and physical health.

Our actions and reactions can be the catalyst for positive and transformative personal and community change and it’s easy. Being the One is as simple as smiling, listening, caring, and sharing with those we encounter each day. We can feel the power of social connections in everyday life. We feel less stress when we get a hug from a friend or a smile from a stranger on a bad day. Our resilience is strengthened when we know someone in our life will support us in a crisis, reach out when we need empathy, or bear witness in tough times. We feel the power of connection when we feel seen and truly heard by others. Caring relationships have the power to recharge, inspire, comfort, and transform us. We have the power to do the same for others when we invest in connection.

Be the One invites communities to dialogue about the impact of Positive and Adverse Childhood (and Community) Experiences (PACEs) and the science of resilience. This campaign helps transform ideas generated in these conversations to simple yet transformative actions steps. As California moves from a culture of reporting to a community of supporting, Be the one offers concrete avenues for everyone in the community to contribute and make the world better, safer, happier and more meaningful for all.

We want to thank Hui International for serving as our fiscal sponsor. Credit to Lucy Morse Roberts for creating Be the One with assistance from Natalie Audage in 2018. Gratitude, too, to Resilient Yolo, Yolo County Public Library, and the Yolo County Office of Education for piloting the campaign that same year. As of 2024, fourteen other California counties have embraced Be the One as a way to create healthy, holistic change for all. Be the One is for anyone and everyone anywhere and everywhere.

All of us have the ability and the responsibility to Be the One to someone somewhere.