Individuals in distress, their allies, and advocates seek help in their neighborhoods and communities, turning to nearby and readily accessible “front doors to care.” Programs where community groups and nearby mental health providers collaborate to increase access to care and treatment are able to address such local concerns as trauma resulting from a tragic event and long-standing social conditions, poor access to services, lack of continuity in care between crisis, inpatient and outpatient services, questions about cultural competency. These community and mental health provider collaborations constitute a second pathway to mental health. They are at the very heart of any Whole Community approach to ending the epidemic of distress and despair. The authors draw on their experience working with faith community mental health provider collaborations to develop a framework of practice and principles to assist other types of voluntary, grassroots organizations with the potential to serve as “mediating structures,” at the local level in the whole community approach to mental health.