The 6th Community Building Forum and 14th Annual Conference on Advancing School Mental Health (November 1-4, 2009, Minneapolis, MN) were sponsored by the Center for School Mental Health (CSMH) and the IDEA Partnership.
The theme of this year’s conference was School Mental Health: Promoting Success for All Students. The conference featured twelve specialty tracks and offered speakers and participants numerous opportunities to network and advance knowledge and skills related to school mental health practice, research, training, and policy.
The keynote speaker, Jordan Burnham, kicked of the conference and the Youth Leadership Forum that included students form MN Public Schools and national youth leaders. Jordan is a national speaker for the National Mental Health Awareness Campaign (http://www.nostigma.org/jordan_burnham.php). The Youth Forum participants had chance to spend more time with Jordan and develop Dialogue Guides on Youth Engagement and Leadership.
The Community meeting began with the Share Fair featuring 18 sessions. The goal of the Share Fair was to provide a repository of materials and strategies that can be used by all states, all stakeholder groups and all organizations in their mental health efforts. Some examples include: NH dropout prevention strategy, SC strategy for addressing stigma issues, VT Early Childhood Mental Health Competencies and Family engagement model. All these and other resources can be found in the Share Fair 2009 folder.
The 6th Community meeting was focused on the Value of the National Community of Practice, Community Tools for Building Connections, and Stakeholder Developed Repositories. The overall purpose was to broker connections among groups, model leadership and engagement at all levels, champion more meaningful youth roles, deepen the community work by using organizational networks and state connections, and create a community work plan for 2009-2010.
Participants:
13 States:
HI, IL, MD, MO, NH, NM, NC, OH, PA, SC, SD, VT and WV.
17 National organizations:
American Council for School Social Work
American Occupational Therapy Association
American Psychological Association
American School Counselor Association
Children and Adults with Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder
Council for Children with Behavioral Disorders
Council for Exceptional Children
Federation of Families for Children's Mental Health
National Assembly on School-Based Health Care
National Association of State Directors of Special Education
National Association of Elementary School Principals
National Association of School Psychologists
National Education Association
National Fiesta Educativa
National Disability Rights Network
School Social Work Association of America American Association of School Administrators
7 National Technical Assistance Centers:
Center for School Mental Health
IDEA Partnership
National Technical Assistance Center for Children’s Mental Health
Parent Advocacy Coalition for Educational Rights
Southeast Regional Resource Center
Technical Assistance Coordination Center
Technical Assistance Partnership for Child and Family Mental Health
3 Federal Partners:
Substance Abuse & Mental Health Services Administration
Health Resources and Services Administration
Office of Special Education Programs, US DOE