NAMI In Our Own Voice

NAMI In Our Own Voice presentations change attitudes, assumptions and stereotypes by describing the reality of living with mental illness. People with mental health conditions share their powerful personal stories in this presentation, which can be facilitated in 40, 60, or 90 minutes.

What You’ll Gain

In Our Own Voice adds a critical perspective to the popular understanding of what people with mental illness are like. Attending a presentation will provide you:

• A first-hand account of what it’s like to live with a mental illness. Presenters humanize this misunderstood topic by demonstrating that it’s possible – and common – to live well with mental illness.
• A chance to ask the presenters questions, which allows for a deeper understanding of mental health conditions.
• The understanding that every person with a mental illness can hope for a bright future.

Schedule a Presentation

In Our Own Voice is open to all audiences who are interested in understanding mental health and wellness. Presentations can be accommodated to groups of any size. There is an In Our Own Voice program fee for workshop materials and facilitation. To schedule an In Our Own Voice presentation for your group or organization, please click the button below and complete a request form. For any additional questions, contact Senior Director of Programs, Jaime Clark, jebersole@namibaltimore.org.

Virtual Voices

Virtual Voices is an experiential workshop that simulates auditory hallucinations that a person with a mental illness may experience. Participants listen to a 45-minute recording while visiting 5 stations where they must complete various tasks while hearing distressing voices.

What You’ll Gain

Briefing and de-briefing discussions allow the audience to contextualize the experience and apply it to interactions with persons with psychiatric disabilities. Audiences will:

• Understand the day-to-day challenges that people with psychiatric disabilities face
• Become more empathetic and compassionate towards people who hear distressing voices
• Change practices to better address the needs of people who hear distressing voices

Schedule a Workshop

Virtual Voices is beneficial to audiences who work with individuals living with mental health conditions and their families. This experiential workshop is ideal for audiences of 20-30 people. There is a Virtual Voices program fee for workshop materials and facilitation. To learn more and schedule a workshop, please contact Senior Director of Programs, Jaime Clark, jebersole@namibaltimore.org.

NAMI Ending the Silence for Youth

NAMI Ending the Silence is an engaging presentation that helps audience members learn about the warning signs of mental health conditions and what steps to take if you or a loved one are showing symptoms of a mental health condition.

NAMI Ending the Silence presentations include two leaders: one who shares an informative presentation and a young adult with a mental health condition who shares their journey of recovery. Audience members can ask questions and gain understanding of an often-misunderstood topic. Through dialogue, we can help grow the movement to end stigma.

What You’ll Gain

NAMI Ending the Silence presentations are free-of-cost to schools and communities. We offer three unique presentation formats for students, school staff and families to tailor education and support to each audience.

• NAMI Ending the Silence for Students: 50-minute presentation designed for middle and high school students that includes warning signs, facts and statistics and how to get help for themselves or a friend. Research has shown that NAMI Ending the Silence for Students is effective in changing middle and high school students’ knowledge and attitudes toward mental health conditions and toward seeking help
• NAMI Ending the Silence for School Staff: 1-hour presentation for school staff members that includes information about warning signs, facts and statistics, how to approach students and how to work with families
• NAMI Ending the Silence for Families: 1-hour presentation for adults with middle or high school aged youth that includes warning signs, facts and statistics, how to talk with your child and how to work with school staff

Schedule a Presentation

To bring a NAMI Ending the Silence presentation to your school or organization, please fill out this form and contact Volunteer and Outreach Manager, Sarah Arndt, sarndt@namibaltimore.org .

NAMI Youth Mental Health Resource Guides

These are 3 resource guides designed to deliver key information about mental health and how individuals can access local support for a young one in their lives.

Click the images below to download a PDF of the resource guide of your interest.

These guides were made possible by the contributions of school counselors and social workers, mental health advocates, and community partners local to Baltimore, Maryland. We wish to give a special thanks to our Youth Programming Advisory Council, and for the insights and guidance they shared as we navigated how we could best lend our resources to support youth mental health during the COVID-19 Pandemic.

I Will Listen Campaign

In 2016, NAMI Metro Baltimore activated I Will Listen in Baltimore, and developed a week-long campaign engaging college students, faculty, and staff. Since then, the I Will Listen campaign has grown from 3 to 16 campus partners in the Metropolitan Baltimore region.

NAMI Metro Baltimore has also created resources to bring the message of the I Will Listen campaign into the workplace. We partner with companies of all sizes to engage employees in taking action to build a stigma-free work culture.

Year after year, we have seen the I Will Listen campaign engage communities in powerful discussions about mental health and wellness.

Bring I Will Listen to Your Community

To bring the I Will Listen Campaign to your school or organization, please contact Senior Director of Programs & Community Engagement, Jaime Clark at jebersole@namibaltimore.org.