2013 Federation of Families for Children's Mental Health conference

Session: YouthMove West Virginia and their website

By Ladona Strouse

Key learning point: Youth Voice / Choice in creating the website

• It makes sense for the Youth and Family Members to assist in the creation / monitoring of the pieces of the SOC website that is pertinent to them.

Key learning point: Discussion of how the process occurred from after school meetings, to summer time programming to focus groups and then following up with online participation & development of their YouthMove chapter.

• This particular piece was very interesting as to how to develop / transform youth movement in Pennsylvania. I believe that we could utilize a great deal of their information and resources to assist in the furthering of their movement.

Key learning point: Blog type of thing embedded in their website

• They talked a great deal about how their blog operates in a similar manner to Facebook – which many are familiar with. They discussed at length how secure this is on their site in contrast to Facebook and how easy it is to hack into other people’s accounts.

See, Believe and Achieve: Mental Health Policy and Advocacy - 2013 Federation of Families conference

2013 Federation of Families for Children's Mental Health conference

Session: See, Believe and Achieve: Mental Health Policy and Advocacy

By Crystal Karenchak

One of the trainings I attended was called “See, Believe and Achieve: Mental Health Policy and Advocacy” the presenter was Ane Romero who is the Sr. legislative Assistant / Mental Health Advisor to US Congresswoman Grace F. Napolitano.  Ane spoke about her early experiences within her family with mental health as well as her close friend when she was a teenager who ended her life and the profound effect this had on her and the decisions she made as a career choice.  Ane as a teen decided to compete in beauty pageants, and even though at first she was not successful Ane   keep competing and with her platform on mental health and stigma platform won Miss New Mexico. 

While in college Ane took on making policy change at the state level around mental health, and she ended up writing legislation.  She also organized her college peers  as well as high school students  so they could attend sessions at the Capitol.  Collectively,  those youth and older adults advocated on a consistent basis for the policy change that was eventually voted on and passed. 

Ane described the different types of legislation and how anyone can write legislation.  She further explained how she worked to receive sponsorship from the legislature in order to have the policy she wrote make it through committee to the floor to be voted on.  Although the policy she wrote for had no funding attached it did have the effect of making change over a long period of time.   One change example from the audience was that schools in New Mexico are having school personnel trained in Youth Mental Health First Aid.
This was a very informative training and explained how legislation works its way from an idea or thought, written format, signed onto , committee discussion then to the floor for a vote.  Ane also explained resolutions and joint resolutions and how that happens and what they mean. 

She also spent time looking at the historical background of how mental health has been viewed including the  stigma.  Ane noted the language around mental health has helped increase the stigma and create barriers to change.  

INTRODUCTION TO SOCIAL MEDIA & SOCIAL NETWORKING - Federation of Families conference session

2013 Federation of Families for Children's Mental Health Conference

Session: An Introduction to Social Media & Social Networking for family governed & youth led organizations

By Dianna Brocious - Family Partner

First I should tell you that my experience with social media is almost purely hearsay. I am pretty clueless though not totally thanks to Michele Baugh at the Systems of Care Office. She is the guru of “the cloud” and anything associated in any way with it!

Pat Cambri and Crystal Karenchak were in collusion regarding my attendance of this workshop and I can say I am so glad I attended! The previous introduction to social media by Michele Baugh laid the groundwork for this one. 

Without a doubt spreading information fast and in bursts or fast and in length exists today along with a site that enables you to create your pages, date them and set them for release all at once. That site is called Hootsuite. This can put you in the position of setting up all your releases to various sites such as Facebook, Twitter etc. for an extended period of time thereby cutting your dedicated time to these efforts. In their words from their website - Improve productivity by managing all of your social networks within www.hootsuite.com The dashboard is designed for you and your team to listen engage and measure all from one simple interface.

Everyone knows about YouTube I think. If you have a video that is the place to put it to get your word out. There is also a specific channel for non-profits to use and at a billion users a month it is worth some thoughtful possibilities regarding your group!

Pinterest was a surprise for me as I am used to seeing it pop up in regards to crafts and decorating but I never thought of it in our world. The age group each of these draws in is very different as well. This is effective with the 20’s to the 40’s and not really appealing to youth. It seems you create a “board” with items of interest.

Twitter is microblogging. 140 characters total with each tweet. It may include links and users seem to be in the 25-34 yrs of age. Journalists are now using and following twitter in their fields of interest and politicians are now as well. A great way to advertise events articles but does not lend itself easily to conversations.

Facebook is the most popular and ages 13-25 and the over 60 gang use it the most. Not for Profits have done pages to great success and the recommendation is to always have two administrators. Posts with images get shared more and the more “likes” you have the better!

Tumblr is another microblog. A social network it appeals to ages 18-34. It allows users to share anything! Music, photos, color text…whatever! 

Snapchat is an app for your phone. You can send pictures/videos but only for a second or so and then it is gone!

A place called plug.dj is a public API where you can build custom extensions of plug.dj with our public API. Customize the experience for yourself and the community. plug.dj is a real-time social media experience combining music and video discovery in a fun and interactive online environment, complete with dancing avatars to match people’s personalities.

A parenting blog one of the trainers does with her sister is called www.weknowstuff.us.com.  This is a site with a host of different topics including special needs, education and autism. It looks very time consuming but how large or small you create is up to you!

A quick definition which may be helpful for clarification is that social media is a strategy and social networking is when you use that media as a tool to connect. In conclusion they gave us some sites to look at and I will list them here. Both of the trainers are out of Long Island New York and they have been at this for sometime. 

Without a doubt this is largely an untapped gold mine for advertising, educating and promoting! The ability to expand your reach, distribute information and lobby for legislative change is at your fingertips literally! You can connect with supporters, those of like minds, find similar organizations, promote your events, raise funds, call for volunteers, display articles, share resources and I could go on and on..! And I can tell you there are always more popping up as geek gurus find more nifty ways to communicate.

2nd Family Partner call

2^nd Family Partner call Nov. 19^th

Family partners from SOC County Leadership teams are invite to join the discussion.

Strengths:

• Green County is dedicated to engaging family members to join the County Leadership Team.  They’ve been successful in recruiting youth partners through the Independent Living program.
• Chester County is making progress on the System of Care longitudinal study.
• Crawford County had a very successful SOC kickoff. There were 182 people that attended the two day event and Family Partners assisted with the PR and the Youth Partners greeted and signed in the attendees.
• Montgomery County Family Partners are involved in sub-committee groups which include focusing on schools and natural supports.

Challenges:

• Family voice still needs recognition.  Family partners share their ideas but system barriers remain.

Next call Jan. 21st - Contact Crystal to learn more.

Shatter the Stigma Awareness Day - t-shirt winner!

Ashley from Greene County won an Awareness Day t-shirt for being a System of Care champion!

My name is Ashley. I have been volunteering for Greene county human services on and off for about 6 years. Volunteering is something I love to do.

My volunteer work includes. Going to CSP meetings, Working for basketball camp and soccer camp with youth from Greene county. I even just go to help shred paper work. I try to go to all the meetings that I can. It is all volunteer work.

I was involved in a lot of systems as a child. With my volunteer work I want to Shatter the Stigma because I was there.. Faced with people having stigma every day.

I have been working with the county for System of Care (SOC) work. I love it. I want nothing more than to help children in placements and in the system to get help and have support. I was given the opportunity to go speak with youth who are in placement and give them hope and support. I want kids to know that there is hope on the other side.

I have won awards and I still continue to give my time and support for Greene County. I hope to Shatter the Stigma in any way possible that I can.

I love the t-shirts and I would love to be able to were it around Waynesburg.

"Made by Me" - video contest

National commercial challenge for teens 13- 18 to share their ideas for the next `Above The Influence' commercial. The "Made by Me" challenge allows teens to submit 60 second video entries that capture their commercial ideas. The winner will take part in the commercial production video shoot.  Commercial to premiere on `Above The Influence Day' on October 17th.

More info
http://partners.atipartnerships.com/partner-resources/made-by-me-national-psa-challenge//

Suicide Prevention - App contest

Awesome Challenge!

• To develop innovative app that will provide continuity of care and follow-up care for people at risk for suicide after discharged from an inpatient unit or emergency department
• Deadline: August 9, 2013
• 3 prizes of $20,000, $30,000 and $50,000 

More info- http://suicidepreventionapp.challenge.gov/