Partners in hope: Justin Weinstein and Adam Hodson
“I think there'd be a lot of people that I knew that are no longer alive that would still be alive or in a much better place in the world right now had they had the opportunity to do encounter something like HeartSupport, if there had been an organization actively trying to heal the scene.”
— Adam Hodson, HeartSupport donor
“I want to heal the scene because everyone deserves to feel loved, seen, and heard through everything that they might be going through — to know that they have support, that they're part of a much larger community that gets them.”— Justin Weinstein, HeartSupport donor
Not many people would be quick to connect the cause of mental health support and the legal profession. These two seemingly disparate threads are bound together in Justin Weinstein of Weinstein Legal Team.
“I heard about Heart Support back in 2022. I was looking at concerts, and Heart Support Fest was going on,” Justin, a Florida resident, explains. “Originally, I just wanted to go. Then I saw, ‘wait, HeartSupport is an organization dealing with mental health and it intersects with the music I love.’ So I found out more, and I ended up sponsoring the festival.”
That early investment led to some amusing interactions by perplexed metalheads.
“I had attendees of the festival come up to our attorney tent. And they're like, ‘Wait a second, lawyers and metal. But you're not old!’” Justin recounts with a laugh. “I just had to explain to them: yeah, there are some of us out there, believe it or not.”
Justin was so bought-in to HeartSupport’s vision that he quickly brought his friend and fellow metalhead Adam Hodson in on the mission. When HeartSupport was set to be part of Furnace Fest, it was the perfect moment for the two to go together.
Adam says, “I grew up listening to punk and metal and hardcore and all the different genres that kind of bounce in between. I've been listening to this music since I was 11 years old. So when Justin invited me to Furnace Fest and I looked at the lineup and I saw Poison the Well, Coheed & Cambria, some of my favorite bands of all time — I said, yes, I will come!”
Adam Hodson, a HeartSupport donor
Being on-the-ground at Furnace Fest quickly drove home the weight of the impact HeartSupport is truly having. Both donors became convinced of the work’s urgency on a level that became tangible.
“We were out there talking to people at the support wall, talking with all the volunteers there. We just got to see it from the ground. It was an incredible experience,” Justin says.
Adam agrees, “It actually feels like supporting this organization is directly impacting people. I understood specifically not just the types of people that HeartSupport is helping, but the manner in which they're going about it. They’re focusing on specific communities, the hardcore community, the metal community, the punk rock community. And they’re really putting resources in front of them in a way where it's easy, it's seamless. There's no ego or embarrassment involved.”
For both HearSupport community members, the mission felt personal. Mental health has been a theme both in their own lives and in the lives of their friends throughout their coming-of-age and young adulthood. It’s part of what forged their friendship.
“I've been involved myself in a mental health journey, so helping people get to a good place is something that I really enjoy,” Justin offers.
“Whether it's drug addiction or mental health or any of these things, one thing that I've seen every step of the way is that there are always people that could use a hand or someone to talk to,” Adam adds, reflecting on the turmoil he’s witnessed in friends’ lives. “Some of these people that I've known have made recoveries, and some of them are no longer alive. When I first grasped what HeartSupport does — when I saw the wall with all the tiles on them — it immediately clicked. I just thought to myself, ‘This is that lifeline, that support, that so many people that I've known throughout the years needed. It they just had someone to talk to for an afternoon, how different could their lives have been? Would they have still been addicted? Would they still have gone down a path of violent and destructive behaviors?”
Justin shares these heavy reflections. He confesses, “I had a friend addicted to alcohol. I attempted to help with getting him into recovery. But I wasn't always there during that process. I've had, again, my own journey with mental health. My parents got divorced when I was 12. I was in therapy for quite a bit of time, and I would go over certain emotions that I was feeling. There really was no education on asking, how do we process emotions? How do we learn from certain things? How do we then use those lessons in the future to become a stronger person?”
This is exactly where they see HeartSupport coming in. Whether it’s at a major festival or online, HeartSupport is offering a chance to process emotions in a judgement-free zone. And that truly can make all the difference.
For Justin, his support of HeartSupport and commitment to getting friends like Adam involved is an empowering full-circle endeavor. As a professional, he has also been deeply encouraged by the level of transparency from the HeartSupport team about the impact of every dollar given, every volunteer hour invested. He never has to question that there is a worthwhile return on investment.
“I would say the amount of participation that we have is directly related to how much impact we see happen. So if people are reading this thinking, ‘I'd like to either get more involved or I’m not sure how to get involved in the first place.’ The more participation you have, the more impact you're going to see,” the lawyer explains. “My first response to someone on the support wall, just typing it and knowing that someone on the other end was going to read what I wrote and how that could affect their mindset? That hit me deep. Even if it's just the words ‘you're gonna get through this, you're gonna make it to the other side, you're gonna figure it out.’ Encouraging words that they might not have ever heard before.”
Adam chimes in, “I'm 38. There are people that are submitting that are older than me, younger than me, the same age as me. People are writing in about things that have been impacting them for 20 years. I think that was the biggest thing that stood out to me, that was the most impactful.
Both Justin and Adam are already dreaming of ways that HeartSupport’s compassionate solidarity can reach more people.
“I'm sure that scale will just continue to grow exponentially, where you're going to be able to go to more festivals and more people will start to learn about HeartSupport,” Adam says. “I think that's what I'm most excited to see: the awareness build.”
Justin adds, “I'm excited to see what other methods we can find in getting the word out about the mission.”
“HeartSupport replaces the pillow that you used to scream into and punch in your room when you were an angry teenager,” Adam says. “Having the outlet really is what it is: to talk to someone faceless, nameless, anonymous. Say ‘This is what I'm dealing with’ and have someone respond to you. It’s the ability to scream into the void, but actually the void can talk back and have a conversation with you. You have a whole ecosystem, a whole community that you can put your problems out to. They’ll give you reassurance.”
And it’s that community that lies at the heart of what Justin and Adam are contributing to.
Justin concludes, “When you feel as if you are alone in what you're going through, there is a community of people that are like-minded. They want to see you succeed, feel better, be the best version of yourself, bring your purpose into the world. I think HeartSupport is the exact community to provide that support and that guidance.”
Whatever your own purpose in this world is, you can pair it with HeartSupport’s mission by joining Justin and Adam in healing the scene. Get started: make a tax-deductible donation today.
