Refers to a positive form of stress that has beneficial effects on health, motivation, performance, and emotional well-being. Unlike negative stress (distress), which can be harmful, eustress arises from positive challenges or exciting experiences. For instance, receiving a promotion or going on vacation can trigger eustress, leading to the release of feel-good chemicals like endorphins. It’s like feeling nervously excited about something - So, think of it as stress that works in your favor!

EUSTRESS

“I founded P.A.R.T.N.E.R in hopes of creating a platform where all first responders can access the local and national resources available to them that help balance the challenges that they face within their careers.” - Kyle Baker, 11-year Veteran of Law Enforcement.

What kind of resources do we provide? Resources that produce Eustress through various avenues. These can be activities like water sports, hunting, fishing, sky diving and much more, all while also providing resources for the more concerning issues like financial burdens, career advice and mental well-being. “Our goal is not to recreate the wheel; we just want to help them get the tires changed and balanced once and a while”.

The Public Safety Officer Medal of Valor is the highest decoration for bravery exhibited by public safety officers in the United States, comparable to the military’s Medal of Honor. It is presented by the President of the United States. Only 108 first responders nationally have ever been awarded this prestigious honor, Kyle being one of them.

“At the time of this award, I was at my worst, in a deep fog. But you wouldn’t know it looking at this image. I was still struggling with the outcome of December 16th; I let the stigma prevail and I suffered in silence. The few failed times I did reach out, it ended in disappointment and let downs by those I reached out to within my agency, dead end roads as I describe them. I stacked a lot of guilt on myself, and I was beating myself up over it daily. I learned quickly how to put on a fake smile, get through the day and avoid triggers hoping it would fix itself. Sadley, I let the stigma control my actions.”

Kyle’s own officer involved shooting in 2020, along with other life traumas at the time, pushed both he and his family to the far edge of mental fatigue and burnout. As the stress began to pile on so did the recurring and uncontrollable panic attacks, nightmares, sleepless nights and PTS. In the years following, he struggled to find any guidance from his employing agency, the employer’s assistance programs (EAP) or his medical care providers that he entrusted with such a task. This, which happens all too often, resulted in prolonged, and unnecessary exposure to more stress and anxiety that pushed him further into that fog. 

In time, both Kyle and Christina recognized the need for self-regulation and the dangerous path they were on if they did not find it, it was then, through God’s grace and answered prayer, they came together to make a change. They invested their own time and money and set out to find alternative resources that they needed to regain their mental and physical health, put these resources into action and become better than they were prior.

For them, they both found that peace in the healing waters of Lake Norman, in a sport called Wakesurfing and through a non-profit, Operation Wake Surf. In this process, they found something inspiring, a newfound desire to gather the outside resources they had found and bring them all under one roof to help other first responders balance the same stress, P.A.R.T.N.E.R was born.

The career's daily challenges can take a toll on first responder’s and their family. When the tell-tale signs are missed or ignored by agencies, friends, or family it can lead the first responder dangerously close to suicide, and for some, those thoughts are unfortunately carried out. Through The Partner Foundation, Kyle openly shares his own experience within the fog and encourages other first responders to help change the stigma that is bringing so many down that same path. Kyle speaks about his battles with PTS and invites anyone to reach out if needing assistance of any kind. (Philippians 4:6-7)

Please join The Partner Foundation as it continues its quest in gathering and uniting first responders with resources that have common objectives: Providing first responders and their families with the knowledge and opportunities to help balance the stresses of a career of unpredictability and intensity, all at no cost to the first responders and their families.