TRT supports planning grant for future of spiritual care
Templeton Religion Trust makes grant to plan greater access to spiritual care
September 9, 2024
Templeton Religion Trust, a global leader in philanthropic support for the study of religion and spirituality, has awarded the Chaplaincy Innovation Lab a planning grant to increase access to professional spiritual care. The grant continues the Lab’s work advancing covenantal pluralism in American public life, a key strategic initiative of the Trust. Wendy Cadge (President, Bryn Mawr College and Founder of the Chaplaincy Innovation Lab), Michael Skaggs (Co-Founder and Director of Programs, Chaplaincy Innovation Lab), and Amy Lawton (Research Manager, Chaplaincy Innovation Lab and Brandeis University) will lead the project, in collaboration with Rev. Dr. Lori Whittemore (Executive Director, Spiritual Care Services Maine).
While many people in the United States benefit from interaction with chaplains, others are unclear about what chaplains do and how to access them. Chaplains long have been available through “legacy” institutions, such as the military, prisons, healthcare, and higher education. In recent years, more chaplains have begun working through community organizations like social services groups, services for the unhoused, and protest movements.
This project will bring greater coherence to the profession of spiritual care and heighten public awareness of its benefits. Achieving the project’s goals will make spiritual care significantly more accessible in the United States. The project team and collaborators will do so by developing a national-level consensus statement with a broad set of stakeholders about what chaplaincy is and how it can contribute to individual and communal wellness. The project will also convene a diverse working group to articulate the current business models supporting spiritual care; furthermore, the working group will develop innovative models to render spiritual care accessible to more people in more settings. Finally, the planning grant will support the creation of a proposal to bring all these learnings to scale and drive generational change in the provision of spiritual care.
This work will begin in December 2024 and conclude in May 2026.
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About Templeton Religion Trust
Templeton Religion Trust (TRT) is a global charitable trust chartered by Sir John Templeton in 1984 with headquarters in Nassau, The Bahamas. TRT has been active since 2012 and supports projects as well as storytelling related to projects seeking to enrich the conversation about religion. Learn more at TempletonReligionTrust.org.
About Bryn Mawr College
Bryn Mawr College educates students to the highest standard of excellence to prepare them for lives of purpose. The College’s rigorous liberal arts curriculum and distinguished graduate programs foster a thirst for knowledge, open inquiry, global perspectives, civic engagement, and innovation through study across the arts, humanities, sciences, and social sciences. A world-class faculty of teacher-scholars, a talented staff, and a tight-knit student body cultivate intellectual curiosity, independence, personal integrity, and resilience in a community of passionate, joyful learners.
About Chaplaincy Innovation Lab
Founded in 2018, the Lab is a central national resource for spiritual care training, education, and research. The Lab works through a mission to bring chaplains, theological educators, clinical educators and social scientists into conversation about the work of chaplaincy and spiritual care.
As religious and spiritual life continues to change, the CIL sparks practical innovations that enable chaplains to nurture the spirits of those they serve and reduce human suffering. Learn more at ChaplaincyInnovation.org.
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Contact
Michael Skaggs, PhD
Director, Chaplaincy Innovation Lab Programs
Michael@ChaplaincyInnovation.org
(812) 269-2370