Children's Mental Health Awareness Week was a Rousing Success!

Send us pictures of your events this past week and we will post them!

The National Federation of Families for Children’s Mental Health again declared the first full week in May, May 4 - 10 as National Children’s Mental Health Awareness Week. All across the country Federation Chapters and State Organizations conducted successful activities and events that focused on promoting positive children's mental health.

As the pictures and accounts come in we will post them. Here are just a few with many more to come!

Pictures from Awareness Day!

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Awareness Day

The Capitol Hill briefing on Children’s Mental Health; Meeting Their Needs to Achieve Success in Schools and Communities. Panelists include Laurel L. Stine - Director of Federal Relations, Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law, Representative Tim Murphy, Wilfredo Soto, Youth Coordinator for the Partnership for Kids/PARK Project, Stanley Bernard - Program Director, Greater Bridgeport Systems of Care.
TJ Curtis, Chairman Youth MOVE National, Lorrin Gehring National Federation of Families for Children’s Mental Health and Antonio Wilson Youth MOVE National, hanging out after the successful Awareness Day at the Lincoln Theater in Washington DC.
TJ Curtis, Chairman, Youth M.O.V.E. National
Herschel Walker with Sandra Spencer, Executive Director, National Federation of Families for Children's Mental Health

Here are some great shots from the Arizona Poster Campaign

And how about the great article with Carol Tiernan and Brianne Masselli in Maine?

Andi Everingham from Bear Paw KMA in Montana shared these great pics!

Curious about how Federation chapters and state organizations prepared for Children's Mental Health Awareness week? Take a look and see!

Dare to Dream America!

Youth MOVE National, a subsidiary of the National Federation of Families for Children’s Mental Health, is launching Dare to Dream America; based on the successful Dare to Dream Program in Ontario, Canada. The Dare to Dream America Program provides an opportunity for youth (23 years of age and under) to get involved in mental health awareness activities. Successful applicants are awarded a grant up to $1000 to do projects that promote mental health awareness.

Learn more about Dare to Dream and find out how to apply here!

The Dare to Dream America is coordinated by youth and designed for youth, like you, who are interested in making your peers and community more aware of mental illness and decreasing the stigma that is typically associated with it. This is your chance to stand up and help youth in your school and community who struggle with mental illness on a daily basis.

Download the Details Download the Application

Call to Action

Executive Director Sandra A. Spencer issued a powerful charge to the National Federation membership during the Annual Conference in Washington, D.C., December 9, 2007. Her charge is focused on addressing the issue that too many times tragic outcomes result from law enforcement’s response to children and youth in mental health crisis.

Read the Charge to the Membership

Sandra Spencer charged all members to build upon the very promising and collegial relationship built between the National Federation and the International Association of Chiefs of Police. Read more about that relationship and the September Roundtable on Law Enforcement and Children’s Mental Health.

Families and Youth:

Help to create guidelines on how, why, and when to engage law enforcement. Join one of three National Federation teleconferences to provide your input.
Create forums for dialog between all stakeholders, families, youth, and police officers
Learn local police policies
Advocate to develop model policies for positive police intervention

Mental Health Providers:

Identify the gaps in service (Emergency crisis services are severely lacking leaving police without appropriate options.)
Develop crisis responses together with police, families, and youth
Promote advance crisis planning to avoid being overly reliant on police departments

All of Us:

Help us promote the vision of the National Federation:

Through a family and youth guided approach, children and youth with emotion behavior and mental health challenges can obtain needed supports and services to grow up healthy and enable them to maximize their potential.

Sandra Spencer’s speech was preceded by comments from Ronald Ruecker, President of the International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP). He began, “On behalf of IACP we are pleased to work with you. IACP is the world’s oldest and largest law enforcement association. Our leadership is made up of executives from international, local, state, and tribal agencies around the world. Since 1893 we have been serving needs of law enforcement with research, services, and programs such as the FBI finger printing.” After describing the progress made in the relationship between the National Federation and the IACP, he concluded with his own statement of hope for the future, stating “We hope that our collaboration will allow us to be in better understanding of children with mental illnesses. Some of you had tragic and unfortunate interactions with police. … We want to make a difference. Our children’s and youth’s lives depend on it.”

Check these out!

Definition of Family-Driven

Other Resources

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