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Greetings!
Memorial Day is traditionally filled with picnics and barbeques with family and friends. It marks the unofficial start of summer, usually a carefree time. This Memorial Day, I ask you to join me in taking some time to consider the meaning of Memorial Day and to remember our fallen military men and women and the sacrifices they and their families have made for our country.
With great gratitude for all you do for GAH and our nation's veterans,
Barbara Van Dahlen, Ph.D.
Founder & President of Give an Hour™ |
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 Barbara Van Dahlen Leads Webinar on
Huffington Post
This Memorial Day, PBS's This Emotional Life salutes America's
service members and their families (http://www.pbs.org/thisemotionallife). Join Give an Hour™ Founder and President Dr. Barbara Van Dahlen for a live telecast discussion about the challenges facing military families on May 27 at 2:00 p.m. EST.
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 Give an Hour™ Participates in Ride 2 Recovery
200 Cyclists to Ride 350 Miles from Ft. Myer to Virginia Beach over Six Days Give an Hour™ has assembled a team of four riders joining 200 cyclists in the Ride 2 Recovery Memorial Challenge. GAH's team is led by Georg-Andreas (Andrew) Pogany, SFC,
U.S. Army (ret.), veteran of Iraq and director of military outreach and education for Give an Hour™.
Ride 2 Recovery (R2R) raises money to support Spinning® Recovery Labs and outdoor cycling programs at military and VA locations around the United States to help injured veterans overcome their physical and psychological wounds. The R2R challenge rides are produced by the Fitness Challenge Foundation, in partnership with the Military and VA Volunteer Service Office.
The itinerary for the Memorial Challenge covers a lot of ground:
Monday, May 31, 2010, Whipple Field at Ft. Myer to Manassas, Va.
Tuesday, June 1, 2010, Manassas, Va., to Fredericksburg, Va.
Wednesday, June 2, 2010, Fredericksburg, Va., to Richmond, Va.
Thursday, June 3, 2010, Richmond, Va., to Williamsburg, Va.
Friday, June 4, 2010, Williamsburg, Va., to Virginia Beach, Va.
Saturday, June 5, 2010, Virginia Beach, Va.
We invite all providers, volunteers--anyone in the area--to come out and cheer on these riders. The kickoff celebration will be at Whipple Field (on the Fort Myer base) at 1:00 on Monday, May 31.
Get specifics on locations and times at www.ride2recovery.com |
 Training Opportunity for Florida Providers
Mental Health First Aid is a 12-hour interactive certification course designed to lower stigma surrounding mental illness by increasing one's skill in helping a person cope with a mental health crisis. It gives primary care providers, educators, businesses, and others in the public a tool and a resource to help overcome fear of a mental health crisis. Fear is generally the root of most stigmas. The stigma surrounding mental illnesses in the United States is no different: fear of not understanding the problem, fear of doing or saying the "wrong" thing, and fear of not knowing what to do when someone needs help.
Give an Hour™ partner Seminole Behavioral Healthcare is offering this course to GAH providers at the reduced rate of $160 (down from $200).
Mental Health First Aid USA is managed, operated, and disseminated by three national authorities: the National Council for Community Behavioral Healthcare, the Maryland Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, and the Missouri Department of Mental Health. This course is delivered by certified Mental Health First Aid instructors who complete a five-day training and meet other certification requirements.
This two-day interactive course prepares individuals to provide Mental Health First Aid to those in need.
Remember, the discount code when making a reservation!
Any questions can be sent to lreid@seminolecares.org.
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 Barbara Van Dahlen Receives Maryland Governor's Volunteer Service Award
Lt. Governor Anthony Brown presented an award to Dr. Barbara Van Dahlen and 32 other honorees representing 13 Maryland counties and Baltimore City, during the 27th annual Governor's Volunteer Service Awards ceremony as part of National Volunteer Week in April.
Each year Governor Martin O'Malley recognizes extraordinary volunteers across Maryland at this presentation and reception.
We congratulate Dr. Van Dahlen on drawing attention to and helping provide mental health care for the men, women, and families who serve, while making it easy for people to volunteer by giving them the opportunity to assist in a worthy cause using skills they already have.
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 Everything You Always Wanted to Know about
Give an Hour™ but Were Afraid to Ask!
Please read, even if you think you know all about us...Give an Hour™ does not refer clients directly to providers. Instead, clients locate providers via a zipcode search, based on criteria that fits their needs. If you are a provider and have not yet been contacted by a client, it does not mean that your services are not needed. It just means that military families in your area don't know about us yet. We encourage all providers, old and new, to review our "provider toolkit" located at www.giveanhour.org and click on "For Providers."
We also invite Give an Hour™ providers to consider alternative ways of providing services either in addition to or instead of direct counseling, such as education and training. We frequently send out requests for assistance consulting to partner organizations, speaking at conferences, and staffing information booths, among many other tasks. Feel free to let us know if anything along these lines particularly appeals to you.
Give an Hour™ is a nonpolitical organization whose current project focuses on the mental health needs of military personnel and their families. We are offering a range of mental health services in order to address a variety of needs for the individuals seeking services. Our definition of "family" is quite broad and includes but is not limited to the following: spouses, children, parents, siblings, extended family members, and unmarried partners. We are offering our services to anyone who is or has been affected directly or indirectly (through a relationship with someone in the military) by the current conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The individuals who seek services from Give an Hour™ may benefit from different types of support or treatment. We believe that most of those affected by these conflicts would not need mental health services if not for the unusual and extreme circumstances within which they find themselves. Furthermore, many of those seeking services may not be familiar with counseling or psychotherapy. Therefore, you will see terms such as "services" instead of "therapy" to reflect this philosophy. We believe that being sensitive to the specific circumstances that bring these individuals to our organization is critical for success.
Providers have generously agreed to provide one hour per week of mental health support or treatment at no charge for a minimum of one year. The counseling services provided will be conducted in a provider's office or on the phone. At this time we are not including internet support as part of our services.
A core belief of our organization is that individuals in need benefit from the opportunity to give back once their needs have been addressed. As clients near
the end of their work with you, we ask providers to remind them of the available opportunities posted on our Web site for giving back to their communities. We all have something valuable to give. Our society will benefit as we harness the resources inherent in each of us.
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 Help Give an Hour™ Win $50,000 in the Pepsi Refresh Everything Challenge
All you have to do is vote--and maybe talk about us, too. Please help us prepare to win a Pepsi Refresh Grant by expanding our list of Twitter followers and our Facebook "cause" and "fan" pages. Send an e-mail to your address book, post the news on your Facebook page, and then vote, vote, vote. Our grant idea can be found at www.refresheverything.com, and you can cast one vote every day between June 1 and June 30. Spreading the word and casting your daily vote will help us win much needed operating funds.
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 Give an Hour™ Provides Nearly 27,000 Hours of Free Mental Health Services to Date
Give an Hour™ has now donated nearly 27,000 hours of free mental health services. We thank our providers who have taken the time to respond to our quarterly survey. These surveys allow us to measure our impact. The more respondents, the more accurate our measurements. We
also thank our providers for registering and giving of their
time in so many ways.
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 Supporting Give an Hour™
Give an Hour™ is extremely grateful to our generous sponsors:
Eli Lilly Foundation
Capital One
The Standard Charitable Foundation
If you are interested in individual or corporate giving, please contact Katherine Wilkins, director of development, at kwilkins@giveanhour.org.
Or, you may make an online donation here: http://partners.guidestar.org/controller/searchResults.gs?action_donateReport=1&partner=networkforgood&ein=61-1493378.
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Military Families -- Make Your Voice Heard
 Make your voice heard by taking the 2010 Military Family Lifestyle Survey. Blue Star Families is conducting this survey in partnership with many prominent military and service organizations, including the USO, Military.com, and the American Red Cross. Blue Star Families and partners want to hear the top issues affecting your military family and want your ideas for improving the lives of military families. The survey, open until June 1, offers a unique opportunity for military families to let our civilian and military leaders hear what issues are most important to them. Participants will have the chance to win a randomly selected $300 prize and one of three $1,000 prizes awarded to the best ideas to help military families.
The survey is here:
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