The Goldfinch Foundation Gives Nashville Youth a Lifeline
Healing doesn’t always begin in a doctor’s office. Sometimes, it begins with connection. Founded because of a mother's loss, The Goldfinch Foundation is transforming grief into purpose. Image: iStock
Children today are growing up in a world of constant noise, such as screens, pressure, comparison, and isolation. And the toll on mental health is impossible to ignore. Anxiety, loneliness, and burnout are showing up earlier and more intensely than ever before. Yet healing doesn’t always start in a doctor’s office.
That’s where The Goldfinch Foundation comes in. Founded in 2024, the Nashville nonprofit supports youth mental wellness through creativity, education, movement, and human connection, offering young people something profoundly simple and deeply needed: a place to belong.
At its core, Goldfinch is about transforming isolation into community and empowering young people to lead the way.
Donate $50 today to The Goldfinch Foundation.
Mental health support often comes with barriers. Long waitlists. Limited access. Lingering stigma. Goldfinch was created to remove those obstacles and replace them with possibilities.
But the foundation didn’t begin as an abstract response to troubling statistics. It began as a mother’s response to unthinkable loss.
In June 2024, Elisabeth “Liz” Willers lost her son, Owen, very suddenly. He was 18 years old — an artist, an athlete, and someone who worked earnestly to manage his mental health. His death fractured Liz’s world and reshaped her understanding of both medicine and healing.
“I started the Goldfinch Foundation in August of 2024, which was two months after my son, Owen, died,” Liz says. “He died of an unintentional overdose. He took too much of his prescription medication along with over-the-counter medication during a panic attack.”
For more than 25 years, Liz had practiced medicine, treating adults in critical care settings and holding leadership roles. She was deeply familiar with systems, protocols, and outcomes … and also with their limitations.
“I really wanted to deliver healthcare in a different way,” she says. “I was trying to develop a way where I would just start my own practice.”
Before Owen’s death, she had already begun imagining a more holistic approach to wellness — one that included creativity, purpose, movement, and joy. Owen was part of that vision, working with her on logos and dreaming alongside her.
Donate $50 today to The Goldfinch Foundation.
When he died, that vision didn’t disappear. It transformed.
“I knew, at that moment, I wanted to do something to honor not only the person he was … but also to create something for our community that would provide solutions to some of the problems we see with the mental health crisis and loneliness epidemic,” Liz says.
Goldfinch became both a memorial and a mission, built not only in Owen’s memory but shaped by who he was.
Donate $50 today to The Goldfinch Foundation.
From its earliest days, Goldfinch was intentionally designed to feel different. Liz knew that if mental health support carried shame or labels, many young people would never walk through the door.
“I knew I wanted to create something that was positive,” she says. “That didn’t have stigma … because I think a lot of people might not necessarily want to be involved if there was stigma.”
The foundation’s name was no accident. Liz, a lifelong bird enthusiast, spotted a bright yellow goldfinch in her garden shortly after Owen’s death.
“It was the most striking, beautiful, bright, yellow bird,” she says. That’s when she turned to the rest of her family (including Owen’s twin sister) and told them, “Whatever we do, it’s got to be positive. It’s got to be light.”
The symbolism deepened. Birds are often thought to represent the souls of the recently departed. And there was another connection, one Liz hadn’t fully realized at first.
“When the twins were born prematurely, my dad called them the gold dust twins,” she says. “Izzy would always be like, ‘I’m Goldie, and Owen’s Dusty.’ But I guess Owen was Goldie all along.”
The goldfinch became a reminder of Owen’s light, and of what the foundation should always offer: hope and positivity.
Donate $50 today to The Goldfinch Foundation.
“The mission of The Goldfinch Foundation is to shine a light on the importance of mental health and social connection as essential to overall wellness,” Liz explains. “But the other part of the mission is to empower young people to lead that change. Because I really want the youth in our community to lead. To have a voice.”
Instead of focusing solely on caregivers or crisis response, Goldfinch prioritizes empowerment, prevention, and belonging. Its programming brings teens and young adults together through shared experiences — many of them intentionally off-screen.
“Everything is rooted in social connections,” Liz says. That connection takes shape through creativity, education, movement, and community collaboration, each one designed to meet young people where they are, without judgment.
Donate $50 today to The Goldfinch Foundation.
Creativity plays a central role in Goldfinch’s programming, in part because it played such a profound role in Owen’s life. During his senior year, he created an art series exploring teen mental health with vulnerability and depth.
Liz admired his work even then, but after his death, she discovered something even more revealing.
“I found his workbook,” she says. “It was kind of like a playbook.” Inside were sketches and raw reflections — evidence of how thoughtfully Owen processed the world around him. “He was so intentional about the messages he wanted to portray,” she says. “It blew me away.”
Now, Goldfinch workshops incorporate hands-on creative experiences that invite participants to explore expression without pressure. “It’s not about creating this masterpiece,” Liz says. “It’s about just getting creative.”
Again and again, teens arrive unsure and leave surprised. “You have to experience those things to really get it,” she tells us. Those moments of shared creativity often open the door to conversation, trust, and connection — the very things many young people are missing.
Donate $50 today to The Goldfinch Foundation.
Education is another cornerstone of Goldfinch’s work, delivered in ways that feel human and accessible.
“I felt like there’s a barrier to how we, as a community, get education from our healthcare providers,” Liz says. So, she brings those experts into real-life environments. Rather than waiting months to see a specialist, participants can engage in open, expert-led discussions that make mental health knowledge approachable and actionable.
“You’re not waiting three months to see a therapist that you find out you don’t really connect with,” Liz says. “We’re having open discussions.” Goldfinch doesn’t replace therapy or medication, but it expands the ecosystem of support around them. “It’s a different space for people to thrive,” she says.
Donate $50 today to The Goldfinch Foundation.
One of Goldfinch’s most impactful programs is its Youth Ambassador Initiative. Thirty-eight student ambassadors from six area high schools meet monthly in small groups to learn, connect, and experience programming firsthand. Then, they bring it back to their schools.
“It’s kind of a do one, learn one, experience one, and then go teach one,” Liz explains. “It’s paying it forward to the community.”
Early feedback suggests meaningful impact. Using a validated flourishing index, Liz has begun tracking shifts in well-being among ambassadors. “What we found is that life satisfaction and happiness seem to correlate with the number of Goldfinch events attended,” she says. “It’s enough data for me to know that we’re onto something really good.”
Sometimes, Liz tells us, the anecdotes matter just as much. “It’s pretty amazing to have people come and say, ‘My kid’s in a better spot because of being part of this organization.’”
So, what can your $50 do?
Goldfinch’s programs are free to participants, but they are not free to provide. Donations help fund creative materials, educational programming, expert speakers, community events, and the youth ambassador network that allows the mission to ripple outward across Nashville.
A $50 donation helps cover the real costs of building safe, welcoming spaces where young people can connect, unplug, and feel seen.
“If I can walk away and feel like there’s someone out there who no longer thinks they’re the only one struggling,” Liz says, “then that makes us feel more connected as a community.”
That connection is what Goldfinch exists to create — in Owen’s honor, and in service of a generation that needs it now more than ever.
Healing doesn’t always begin in a hospital. Sometimes it begins when someone realizes they’re not alone.
And at The Goldfinch Foundation, that moment is where everything starts. Your support makes that possible.
Donate $50 today and help bring light, hope, and connection to Nashville’s youth.
**********
Discover more amazing Southern people and places. Follow us on Instagram!
Jenna von Oy Bratcher
Jenna von Oy Bratcher is StyleBlueprint's Associate Editor and Lead Nashville Writer. The East Coast native moved to Nashville almost two decades years ago, by way of Los Angeles. She is a lover of dogs, strong coffee, traveling, and exploring the local restaurant scene bite by bite.