President's Report - July 7, 2023
July Greetings!
As a grassroots regional affiliate of NAMI MN, we educate, support and advocate for adults and children living with mental illnesses in Ramsey County and their family and friends. July 1st starts our new program and fiscal year at NAMI Ramsey County. Soon our board will meet to make plans for 2023-2024, building on our current priorities. Do you have suggestions and ideas? Please share them here.
I'd like to highlight exciting accomplishments from the past year which reflect the commitment, teamwork and support of our board, committees, and partners:
- We developed advocacy priorities including launching Ramsey County's first-ever mental health clubhouse for adults living with mental illnesses. This evidence-based empowerment model for recovery is found in over 30 countries. We're excited to partner with Vail Place which operates two mental health clubhouses in Hennepin County. We're building momentum to bring this dream to reality! Learn more here by clicking on the clubhouse fact sheet.
- We organized and offered a Spring Webinar Series in collaboration with the Ramsey Public Library. Topics included: an overview of the mental health clubhouse and its benefits; a panel presentation of consumers, providers, and family members on clozapine--the gold standard treatment for psychosis yet highly under-utilized; an introduction to anosognosia--its consequences as well as tools for addressing; and a discussion of childhood healing and trauma. For recordings of our four programs, visit this link.
- We added a new weekly in-person Connections group which along with our weekly zoom group is a peer-led support group for adults living with mental illnesses. To sign up, click here.
- Our wonderful 2022 NAMI Walks team raised nearly $10,000, coming in second in the state among all affiliates.
- We joined the Ramsey County League of Local Governments to be able to connect with jurisdictions across our county on mental health needs, issues, policy opportunities, and partnerships.
- We built our board's capacity to carry out our diversity, equity, inclusion accessibility values through trainings and discussions.
- We started to send out packets to new and renewing members to share resources and identify ways to get involved from social gatherings such as our summer picnic and holiday party to committees and events like NAMI Walks.
At our Annual Meeting on June 6th, we conducted board and officer elections. We welcome Andy Dawkins and Margaret Humphrey to our board! Re-elected to the board are: Debbi Gunsell, Ana Kaveh, Larry Nelsen, Christine Tharseo and Marly Yang. Congratulations to Debbi Gunsell and to Kathy Jackson who were elected to one year terms as board secretary and vice president, respectively!
We thanked outgoing board members Lynn Carey, Kathleen O'Reilly and Carrie Roach for their many contributions to our work. We honored Jennifer LaForgia who completed two terms as our Vice President and Mindy Greiling who has transitioned from her past-president ex offico role on the board to serving as an advisor. Arbdella Hudson, Colleen Oftedahl and Ann Resemius were also appointed as advisors. We also approved our 2023-2024 annual operating budget. If you would like more information and access to the annual meeting presentation, please email affiliatecoordinator@namimn.org.
I'm excited to work together this coming year to advance our mission and plans! Thank you so much for your support and participation.
Best regards,
Joan
NAMI Ramsey County Board
July Greetings!
As a grassroots regional affiliate of NAMI MN, we educate, support and advocate for adults and children living with mental illnesses in Ramsey County and their family and friends. July 1st starts our new program and fiscal year at NAMI Ramsey County. Soon our board will meet to make plans for 2023-2024, building on our current priorities. Do you have suggestions and ideas? Please share them here.
I'd like to highlight exciting accomplishments from the past year which reflect the commitment, teamwork and support of our board, committees, and partners:
- We developed advocacy priorities including launching Ramsey County's first-ever mental health clubhouse for adults living with mental illnesses. This evidence-based empowerment model for recovery is found in over 30 countries. We're excited to partner with Vail Place which operates two mental health clubhouses in Hennepin County. We're building momentum to bring this dream to reality! Learn more here by clicking on the clubhouse fact sheet.
- We organized and offered a Spring Webinar Series in collaboration with the Ramsey Public Library. Topics included: an overview of the mental health clubhouse and its benefits; a panel presentation of consumers, providers, and family members on clozapine--the gold standard treatment for psychosis yet highly under-utilized; an introduction to anosognosia--its consequences as well as tools for addressing; and a discussion of childhood healing and trauma. For recordings of our four programs, visit this link.
- We added a new weekly in-person Connections group which along with our weekly zoom group is a peer-led support group for adults living with mental illnesses. To sign up, click here.
- Our wonderful 2022 NAMI Walks team raised nearly $10,000, coming in second in the state among all affiliates.
- We joined the Ramsey County League of Local Governments to be able to connect with jurisdictions across our county on mental health needs, issues, policy opportunities, and partnerships.
- We built our board's capacity to carry out our diversity, equity, inclusion accessibility values through trainings and discussions.
- We started to send out packets to new and renewing members to share resources and identify ways to get involved from social gatherings such as our summer picnic and holiday party to committees and events like NAMI Walks.
At our Annual Meeting on June 6th, we conducted board and officer elections. We welcome Andy Dawkins and Margaret Humphrey to our board! Re-elected to the board are: Debbi Gunsell, Ana Kaveh, Larry Nelsen, Christine Tharseo and Marly Yang. Congratulations to Debbi Gunsell and to Kathy Jackson who were elected to one year terms as board secretary and vice president, respectively!
We thanked outgoing board members Lynn Carey, Kathleen O'Reilly and Carrie Roach for their many contributions to our work. We honored Jennifer LaForgia who completed two terms as our Vice President and Mindy Greiling who has transitioned from her past-president ex offico role on the board to serving as an advisor. Arbdella Hudson, Colleen Oftedahl and Ann Resemius were also appointed as advisors. We also approved our 2023-2024 annual operating budget. If you would like more information and access to the annual meeting presentation, please email affiliatecoordinator@namimn.org.
I'm excited to work together this coming year to advance our mission and plans! Thank you so much for your support and participation.
Best regards,
Joan
NAMI Ramsey County Board
NAMI Ramsey County in the News
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