NAMI Awareness Program Receives Athens Foundation Funding

NAMI's proposal for an "Expanded Program to Build Awareness and Break Stigma about Mental Illness in Athens" was funded by the Athens Foundation.  The grant will enable NAMI to do three more things in 2009:

1.) Purchase power point equipment to be used by our volunteers who teach Family to Family and speak before non-profit organizations, classes at OU and Hocking College, and groups of mental health workers.

2.) Make Crisis Intervention Training for regional law enforcement officers more accessible to small, financially-strapped departments.  Already, in November 2008, we have made one $500 grant available to the Nelsonville Police Department so that they can afford to send one officer to get CIT training.  The Athens Foundation grant will enable us to assist several other departments in 2009.  Most CIT trained officers are instrumental in getting mentally ill "offenders" help rather than taking them to jail.  Some have even saved lives.  Enabling small departments to have more CIT trained officers will be a great thing.

3.) Enable us to afford a really great keynote speaker at our April 18th Conference on "Mental Illness: Recovery And Hope."  Held every two years, these day-long conferences attract audiences in excess of 150 people - consumers, family members, health care professionals, student nurses, etc.  The keynote speaker whose honorarium will be paid for with money from the Athens Foundation will be Dr. Jane Mountain, the author of Beyond Bipolar: 7 Steps to Wellness.  She'll be talking about "Living with Bipolar Disorder."

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