November Meeting and Other Announcements

Good morning all!

A reminder that we will hold our monthly meeting this Sunday at our Glenside office (100 So. Keswick Avenue). Our doors open at 1:30 PM with refreshments and socializing; and our meeting and program begin at 2 PM. We are very pleased to welcome Fred McLaren, Certified Peer Specialist (CPS) NAMI MontCo Board member.

Fred will share the story of his journey with mental illness and his passage from being homeless and on the street to serving as regional CSP (Community Support program) Chair for southeastern Pennsylvania. Fred will be joined by co-Certified Peer Specialist Berta Britz, who will tell us about our very exciting CPS program at CHOC, the homeless shelter in Norristown (funds raised by our 2008 Greater Philadelphia NAMIWalks provided stipends for these two Certified Peer Specialists).

So I hope you will plan on joining us for this very exciting and uplifting program.

Other announcements:

We will be hosting a Speakers Bureau training at the end of January. Based on the NAMI Ambassador's program developed by NAMI Metro Baltimore, this free training will help family members to feel more confident when presenting to groups about all that NAMI does and the importance of NAMI membership. This training will be open to our members as well as our neighboring NAMI affiliates. It will be held at our Glenside office and the date will be set soon. For more information or to register please call us at 215-886-0350 ior email at montconami@aol.com.

On Friday December 5th we will host a self-advocacy training, presented by Community Advocates of Montgomery County. This training is also free of charge and is open to consumers and family members. It will be held at the Human Services Center in Norristown from 9 AM to 3 PM. For more information and to register please contact kathy Mitchell at 610-270-0375.

Our Pottstown office will be re-locating at the beginning of the year. We will move into the new headquarters of Creative Health Services, at Robinson Street. This will not only provide us with more visibility but will also make our NAMI services more available to the community. We will provide more details when they arer available. Our spring Family to family class (starting February 18th) will be held there (the date for our Glenside class will be scheduled soon).

Please let me know if you have any questions on any of the above. As always, thank you for all that you do for persons with mental illness and their families!

Carol Cruso
Executive Director