TLA Network Inaugural Awards Outstanding Organization of the Year: Mission Belonging
TLAN is a non-profit organization that brings together and lifts up those who promote forms of the spoken, written, and sung word as a tool for personal and communal transformation. TLAN recognized Mission Belonging for providing consistent, weekly, free, and accessible writing and visual arts workshops for active military, veterans, military families, and caregivers.
Guided by a diverse board, including veterans, artists, and professionals, Mission Belonging strives to build connections, foster creativity, and provide healing spaces for those dealing with emotional and physical trauma. Mission Belonging Founder and CEO Seema Reza was present to accept the award at TLAN’s annual Power of Words conference during November 2023.
“When you’ve experienced things that are out of the ‘norm’, it’s easy to feel totally isolated,” Reza said. “Our programs give people the tools and space to talk about these things, first with people who feel the same way and then to people in their lives who are potentially very different from them. It’s how we begin to heal the fissures, and find ourselves experiencing belonging.”
Learn more about this honor at the TLAN Blog.
Ben Weakley spent fourteen years in the U.S. Army, beginning with deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan and finishing at a desk inside the Pentagon. He writes poetry and prose about the enduring nature of war and the human experience for veterans, their families, and anyone who would help them bear witness to war and its aftermath.
A believer in the power of words to empower and heal, Ben leads writing workshops for Active Duty Military, Veterans, their families and caregivers, as well as Frontline Health Care Workers and other communities of ordinary people bearing witness to a difficult world.
Ben lives in the Tri-Cities of Northeast Tennessee with his wife, two children, and a well-meaning but poorly behaved hound-dog.
