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What's New This Week?
VOCAL's Mental Health Recovery
News for May 3, 2012
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Dear Reader,
You are receiving the VOCAL Network Digest because you are on our email list. The Network Digest is a twice-weekly update of mental health announcements throughout Virginia and the nation. If you prefer not to receive these updates, please click the "unsubscribe" button at the bottom of this email. Thank you!
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Conference Scholarship Update and Registration News ********************************************* We are sorry, but there are no more scholarships available to the conference.
Please do not send in any more registration forms or checks because we are unable to accept them.If you have sent in your registration form but no payment, we will keep you on a waiting list in case some extra scholarship funds become available.
If you are a full paying registrant - we have openings available but must have your registration form and payment by NEXT MONDAY at the latest (May 7th) because we must turn in our registration numbers to JMU.
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VOCAL's Annual Member Meeting Scheduled for May 22 at Conference
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Tuesday, May 22 from 1:00-2:30 p.m. in the ballroom of Festival Conference Center on the James Madison University campus.
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A Message from Brian Parrish, VOCAL's Executive Director
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Dear folks-
It has been my great pleasure to have served the peers of Virginia over the past 11 years. In that time, VOCAL has grown from being a shoestring nonprofit operating at the fringes of the mental health system, to a midsize organization involved in state-wide decision-making. It has been a rewarding experience to me, personally, to have been able to share a space at the table with other statewide agencies and organizations, working together to transform the system for the betterment of all. I would like to offer my sincerest appreciation to that group of peers, who in 1999, attended a Leadership Academy led by our friends at CONTAC in West Virginia. It was there that the decision was made for VOCAL to become more than just a volunteer advocacy group, and would begin to offer services to fellow peers throughout the state. It was your hard work, your sweat as well as vision, that brought us to the possibilities we see today. On May 8, 2012, I will be moving on from VOCAL. Throughout this transition, the important work of our statewide peer network will go on. As many of us have learned though our Firewalkers stories, the journey may not be easy, but often the rewards and understandings achieved by the time we reach the other side make it all worthwhile. Many thanks to all of you, VOCAL's membership, for being part of that journey. Thank you to our funders, for believing in the vision. Thank you to our Board members, and to our hard-working staff who, over the years, carried out that vision.
I wish you all the best of luck in your continuing adventures, wherever they may lead you.
All best,
Brian
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VOCAL Conference Registration Form Available for Download***************************************************GO TO: http://www.vocalvirginia.org/#/vocal-conference/4534274248and scroll down to the bottom of the page to this section shown below, and click on 'here'. You will be able to download and print the form!!! How Do I Register for "Strength and Diversity and Purpose"???For a conference registration form, click here. NOTE: This link may not work from cell phones, but does work from a computer.
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******************************************** NAMI is Seeking a New Director for the STAR Center
******************************************** The STAR Center provides Support, Technical Assistance and Resources to assist consumer-operated and consumer-supporter programs in meeting the needs of under-served populations. Specifically, the STAR Center's focus areas are cultural competence and diversity in the context of mental health recovery and consumer self-help and self-empowerment. NAMI is seeking a highly able leader to serve as Director of the STAR Center. The STAR Center Project Director provides for the overall program vision, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of consumer support project activities of this grant-funded Consumer-Supporter Technical Assistance Center. The Project Director/STAR Center Director is a member of the NAMI Senior Management Team and works closely with the SAMHSA GPO staff in grant implementation. NAMI is an equal opportunity employer. For more information about the position and for application processes, please visit them online.
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Eastern Henrico Mental Health Peer- To- Peer Support Group
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I am currently looking for individuals interested in starting a peer run support group to serve the Eastern Henrico/New Kent community mental health consumers. If you are from the area and interested in framing and supporting the development of this group, I encourage you to please attend the first meeting May 17th at the Sandston Branch Library, 23 E. Williamsburg Road in Sandston from 6:00-7:00 p.m.
If you have any questions, please e-mail: lalmarode@live.com or call Larry Almarode 804-986-7129.
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Scholarships Available for MHA Annual Conference ******************************************
Scholarships are available for the 2012 National Zarrow Mental Health Symposium and Mental Health America Annual Conference.
The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration's (SAMHSA) Center for Mental Health Services (CMHS) is providing financial support to consumers of mental health services who wish to attend the 2012 National Zarrow Mental Health Symposium & Mental Health America Annual Conference.
Focused on housing and recovery support services for people with mental illnesses and co-occurring disorders, this conference is an ideal venue for people with mental illnesses and co-occurring disorder to come together to hear about best practice programs as well as share theirstories of recovery.
For additional information about consumer scholarships and to view the application, please visit http://www.fromhousingtorecovery.org/scholarship-info/.
Consumer scholarship applications are due May 15, 2012.
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Please Check Out This Wonderful Film Festival!
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ReelAbilities Film Festival in Richmond
May 13th -17th
On May 17th there will be two screenings of "Crooked Beauty", a beautiful and unusual film about mental health. The first happens at JMU at noon, the second is at "The Shop" and will be preceded by an open poetry reading. See the trailer here: http://www.youtube.com/embed/qgAaIBlq-cs
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Nationwide Survey of Peer Run Organizations and Consumer Operated
Services is Under Way
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A Johns Hopkins School of Public Health researcher is conducting a study that will provide evidence of the impact of peer-run organizations and consumer-operated services on the mental health system and the community. The study will yield data for planning, reimbursement, and sustainability, and will be important for spreading the peer-run model and educating the government and the field, said Laysha Ostrow, MPP, an NIMH Services Training Fellow at Johns Hopkins. "It will also allow us to understand the challenges faced by peer-run organizations as the system changes and reforms are implemented," she said. "Participation by organizations in all states is necessary. Results will be shared with peers, advocates, and government agencies that support mental health." For progress so far, click on the following link; the page will be updated as the numbers increase: http://www.peersri.org/project-updates.html. Ostrow is also hoping to increase survey response rates.
Source: http://www.peersri.org/projects.html
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Celebrate Mental Health Awareness Month and Join the STAR Center for These Upcoming Teleconferences
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"Honoring & Supporting Our Spiritual Wellness During Times of Crisis: The Diverse Personal, Cultural and Spiritual Experiences of Mental Health Consumers"
May 10th at 2:00 p.m.
Join participants from the STAR Center's Workshop on Multicultural Competence, Intense Spiritual Experiences and Mental Health in exploring how culture and spirituality contribute to recovery and wellness, and what helps spiritually when one is in crisis. Self-Help, Peer Support and Service Provider Technical Assistance Tool Kit author Laura Mancuso will be joined by Workshop and Tool Kit contributors Can Truong, Gitane Williams, Jimi Kelley and Catherine Quinerly in a discussion with teleconference participants. This call is intended for those with lived experience of mental illness who are interested in exploring how spirituality, culture and mental health have intersected in their own lives during times of emotional or mental crisis.
Register online here for the May 10 teleconference. You will receive a confirmation email with call-in information.
"Spiritual Wellness During Times of Crisis: How Consumer-Supporters Can Honor and Support Diverse Personal, Cultural and Spiritual Experiences of Mental Health Consumers"
May 31st at 2:00 p.m.
Join participants from the STAR Center's Workshop on Multicultural Competence, Intense Spiritual Experiences and Mental Health in exploring how consumer-supporters and service providers can honor and support consumers' spiritual wellness during times of crisis. Self-Help, Peer Support and Service Provider Technical Assistance Tool Kit author Laura Mancuso will be joined by Workshop and Tool Kit contributors Can Truong, Gitane Williams, Jimi Kelley and Catherine Quinerly. This call is intended for those who support consumers (family members, friends, service providers) who wish to be supportive in ways that honor a real diversity of experiences.
Register online here for the May 31 teleconference. You will receive a confirmation email with call-in information.
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phone:
804-343-1777
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DISCLAIMER: This page is offered strictly for informational and support purposes. We assume no liability whatsoever for any consequences arising out your use of information or connections provided through any of the above organizations. VOCAL does not necessarily agree with information provided by these organizations, their websites, members or other affiliations.
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