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NAMI President's Corner: A Message from Gordon Bopp Having just returned from the 2007 edition of NAMI-National’s Leadership Conference in New Orleans, I thought I’d pass along some of the notable information and developments that were shared during the conference. I should note also that Laurel Lemke, our State Consumer Representative and one of our two new NAMI-WA Board members, also participated in the conference. Let me say at the outset that these events put on by National are not only important for their content, but as importantly, they provide a great opportunity for advocates and leaders from all of the states to do some 'networking' and sharing of information, issues, problems and solutions. Thus, overall, the conference was very rewarding! National was able to offer stipends to the participants again this year to help offset the costs to the state organizations. The conference started out with a joint meeting of the several NAMI councils including the Consumer Council, the Veterans Council and the State President’s Council. Discussion centered around the NAMI Basics Program, cultural competence and the challenges ahead for NAMI leadership. Following this session, the various councils held separate meetings as did the Executive Directors Group. Participants were given updates on NAMI’s Strategic Plan, upcoming Grading the States plans that include another report in 2008, and a legislative update including Medicare and parity. Details of all of the presentations can be accessed by logging on to the NAMI National website at: www.nami.org. NAMI Connection Program One of the more important and informative discussions at the Leadership Conference concerned NAMI’s new recovery support program called: NAMI Connection. The goal is to have this program up and running in all 50 states within a 3 year time span. The first 15 states were chosen in March of this year. Washington is among the second year states being targeted for rollout by NAMI National next year. The process takes place in two steps:
NAMI National provides a start up stipend of $10,000 to each state for the rollout and initial startup of the program. They fund the rollout phase in its entirety including the provision of regional coordination, training of facilitators and funding of two weekend training sessions 6 months apart in each state. Our regional Field Manager is Beth Gould, who has already briefed our Board of Directors on the program. You may wonder why we need the Connection Program and I too asked this question when it first came to the Board of Directors. The answer is actually quite simple and compelling: The Connection Program is a logical continuation of a support system that is designed to pick up where the Peer-to-Peer training leaves off. It’s a response to the question: What does NAMI do to help sustain recovery once consumers have taken the P to P course? In the past, there has not been any NAMI sponsored, specific, focused recovery program for on-going support. The Connection Program fills this void and vastly improves the chances for recovery. This is why the program is so important to all of us who work hard in our advocacy roles! I have asked Laurel Lemke to assume primary responsibility on behalf of the NAMI-WA Board to coordinate the rollout of the Connection Program. She will serve as the primary contact person for our statewide effort and will work with Beth and others to get things rolling. Among the first 'tasks' that we will have is to identify three affiliates that are interested in starting a Connection Group in their local communities. If your affiliate is interested, please let Laurel (253-761-7533) or me (509-946-8291) know as soon as possible so that we can plan accordingly. The first facilitator training should happen around April of 2008. We will need to identify 30 individuals who are willing to take the training and become certified Connection Facilitators. NAMI-DAY NAMI-DAY plans are underway and we will start the day by holding a 'kickoff' meeting on the morning of January 21 (Martin Luther King Day) in Olympia at the same church as last year. More information will be forthcoming on the details of the kickoff. As in the past, an open meeting of the Board will be held at the same church on Sunday, January 20 starting at 3:00 p.m. A short business meeting will be held followed by an open forum with participation by the affiliates. We urge all affiliates to participate in this event—iit’s a great opportunity to meet your Directors and to get to know each other in a relatively informal setting. We are planning to have a short presentation by Stephanie Lane, who will give us an update on what’s happening within the Office of Consumer Partnerships. We’ll also have a discussion of the new national Connection Program. Finally, we’re thinking that it would be valuable to convene an early evening meeting of consumers and Laurel Lemke is working on that activity. Again, more details will follow soon. As to NAMI-DAY itself, you all are aware that the purpose of that event is to bring NAMI-WA’s Legislative Agenda to Olympia and interact with our local area legislators to advocate on behalf of the most important issues that we’ve identified for the current legislative session. As you know, NAMI-WA has a very active Public Policy Committee (PPC), chaired by Jim Bloss, that works with our affiliates and the NAMI-WA Board to put together an agenda that we can all support and bring to Olympia. Jim is putting the finishing touches on the agenda, and we expect that it will be presented to the Board of Directors within the next couple of weeks for final approval. If you have any questions, you may contact Jim Bloss at (425) 231-5186. Other Matters of Interest I’m sorry to report that Larry Richardson, President of NAMI-Whatcom, has had to resign his seat on the Board of Directors because of health issues. We will miss Larry’s calm and thoughtful leadership on the Board and we wish him the best as he redirects his retirement activities. We now have two Board openings and we are looking for candidates to fill those positions. If any of you reading this message know of individuals who have shown leadership abilities and who have demonstrated a strong personal commitment to the objectives of NAMI, I would appreciate your submitting their names to the Board. We especially would like to have candidates with an interest in and experience in fund raising. Let me take this opportunity to thank all of you in our statewide NAMI Family for your dedication and efforts to improve the lives of people who suffer from mental illness. May you all have a wonderful holiday season and a healthy, prosperous New Year!! From Gordon Bopp, President: NAMI-WA
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