Dylan Tête

Returning home after serving in Iraq was hard for Dylan Tête, a West Point graduate. He wasn’t the same and home wasn’t the same. Many army buddies were now living with traumatic brain injuries and post-traumatic stress. Nine months after he came home to New Orleans, Hurricane Katrina struck, washing out neighborhoods and lives.

Tête promised himself he would find home again for himself and his friends. He learned various restorative practices and studied public health. He rebuilt housing in communities devastated by Katrina. The eureka moment came when he realized that having a community, being connected to people and a place, was the key to healing. Many of the military families he knew struggled alone without support beyond hospitals and medical care.

Tête imagined an intentional community designed and built from the ground up to help people recover physically and emotionally. He raised money for five years and opened the Bastion Community of Resilience in 2017, where 58 families now live, work and support each other. It’s home for both military families, including veterans living with injuries, and civilians. At Bastion, everyone gives and receives help in ways that heal trauma and bridge divides.

Tête has worked for Military.com and the City of New Orleans. He is a faculty member of the Center for Mind-Body Medicine, and recently led mind-body groups for social workers in Ukraine. He spoke at the  2019 Aspen Ideas Festival and is a recipient of the George W. Bush Military Service Citation.