The quiet work of becoming yourself again.
Becoming U Foundation was built on a simple belief — no one should have to navigate life's hardest seasons alone.
Becoming U began with something Jackie Sweeney didn't learn until she was twenty-five years old: what she had been carrying had a name. And there were people trained to help with exactly that.
For twenty-five years, she didn't know. She thought something was wrong with her. She didn't know help was real, that what felt like a permanent flaw in her character was something she didn't have to carry alone. By the time she found out, she had lost years to a silence no one should have to sit in.
That experience never left her. It shaped the way she works — as a behavioral health professional, as an educator, as someone who has spent her career making sure young people don't have to wait as long as she did. And it shaped this Foundation.
Because what Jackie learned is that the problem is rarely a lack of strength. It's a lack of information. A lack of connection. A lack of someone saying: you are not broken. Help is real. You don't have to do this alone.
Too many people are still inside that silence. They are carrying things that have names, navigating seasons that feel permanent, wondering if anyone else feels the way they do. The support exists — but it's scattered, clinical, hard to find, and rarely speaks to the whole person behind the struggle.
Becoming U Foundation was built to change that. To be the thing Jackie didn't have at twenty-five. A place where people feel seen before they reach a breaking point. Where connection is the starting place, not the last resort. Where no one has to become themselves alone.
Our story
Our vision
We envision a world where no one mistakes a difficult season for a permanent identity.
Where seeking support is as natural as seeking any other kind of care. Where connection is available before crisis. Where every person — regardless of background, income, or circumstance — has access to the community, resources, and human connection they need to feel whole.
We are building toward that world one person, one conversation, one community at a time.
Our Mission
To help each person feel more connected, more supported, and able to fully participate in their own life.
Becoming U Foundation is a community support organization. We provide connection, resources, education, and community care. We are not a therapy provider, clinical organization, or crisis service. If you are in crisis, please call or text 988.
Leadership
Becoming U Foundation is governed by a volunteer board of directors committed to transparency, accountability, and mission-driven leadership.
Jackie Sweeney
Jackie Sweeney, M.Ed., is the founder of Becoming U and a behavioral health professional whose work spans clinical counseling, school-based mental health, and systems design. She has provided trauma-informed therapy to youth and families, leads integrated student-support systems in a K–12 setting, and is completing her doctorate in Educational Leadership. Her commitment to this work is also personal: she spent twenty-five years not knowing that help was real or that what she carried had a name, and she built Becoming U so others wouldn't have to wait that long.
Founder, President, & ClerkMegan Sweeney
Megan Sweeney serves as Treasurer of Becoming U Foundation, where she brings financial discipline and analytical rigor to the foundation's stewardship of its resources. A graduate of the University of Notre Dame's Mendoza College of Business with a degree in finance, she is Director of Analytics at 1stDibs and has spent her career in analytics and profit management. She oversees the foundation's financial integrity and reporting, helping ensure that every dollar advances the mission with transparency and accountability.
TreasurerA note from our founder
"I started Becoming U because I believe no one should have to become themselves alone. Connection and dignity shouldn't be luxuries."
Jackie Sweeney · Founder & President