Press Release for Creating Community Solutions on mental health

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Peggy Holman

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Jun 6, 2013, 4:41:04 PM6/6/13
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Hi all,

If anyone is interested in getting involved locally or even just announcing a national conversation on mental health, a press release and information that went to dialogue and deliberation practictioners is below.

The effort, kicked off by the White House, is being led by dialogue and deliberation organizations, principally the newly formed National Institute for Civil Discourse at the University of Arizona - http://nicd.arizona.edu - and the National Coalition for Dialogue and Deliberation - http://ncdd.org.

I think this initiative raises some important questions for journalists about the role they wish to play in civic discourse.  In fact, I wonder what your responses are to something like this?

appreciatively,
Peggy


__________________________________
Peggy Holman
Journalism that Matters
15347 SE 49th Place
Bellevue, WA  98006
Twitter: @peggyholman
JTM Twitter: @JTMStream






Begin forwarded message:



PRESS RELEASE

WASHINGTON, D.C. June 3rd 2013 – At a White House event this morning, President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden began a National Conference on Mental Health as part of the Administration’s effort to launch a national conversation to increase understanding and awareness of mental health.

In support of this effort, a number of deliberative democracy organizations are joining together to engage citizens through “Creating Community Solutions,” a series of events around the country that will focus dialogue and action on mental health issues. The organizations include:  The National Institute for Civil Discourse, AmericaSpeaks, Everyday Democracy, Deliberative Democracy Consortium, The National Issues Forums Institute and the National Coalition for Dialogue and Deliberation, working in concert with the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) of the Department of Health and Human Services.

Creating Community Solutions will bring thousands of Americans to the table in a wide range of settings: large forums, large-scale deliberative events at ten lead sites, online conversations and small-group discussions. Supported by an array of health care providers, professional associations, non-profit organizations, foundations and local officials, these activities will use proven public engagement methods to assist participants to make progress on the issue of mental health.

Americans will be able to hold a Community Solutions event and upload the outcomes at www.creatingcommunitysolutions.org, a website maintained by the National Institute for Civil Discourse. A toolkit of materials, including a discussion guide, organizing guide and an information brief will also be available at the site.

In a number of lead sites, mayors have already begun working with the deliberative democracy groups to plan large-scale events that will involve at least 200 people in each city. The lead sites include: Sacramento, CA; Albuquerque, NM; Birmingham, AL; Washington, D.C, Akron, OH, and Kansas City, MO and KS. At each event, a representative cross-section of the community will learn about mental health issues and consider a range of options for supporting the mental health of our young people.

In addition, a number of national associations are asking their members or affiliates to organize local events. These groups include the United Way, American Bar Association, National League of Cities, YWCA, National School Public Relations Association, 4-H, Grassroots Grantmakers, Alliance for Children and Families, National Physicians Alliance, Association for Rural and Small Libraries, and the International Association for Public Participation, among others.

Creating Community Solutions will utilize Twitter (@MentalHealthCCS) and Facebook (www.facebook.com/creatingcommunitysolutions) to promote local events and provide an opportunity to share outcomes. The National Hashtag is #MentalHealthMatters.

A link on www.creatingcommunitysolutions.org will also allow anyone to participate in an online conversation about mental illness, hosted by Civic Commons. In these moderated forums, participants can identify actions to improve mental health in their families, schools and communities.               





********************
Message to the National Coalition for Dialogue and Deliberation:

From: Sandy Heierbacher <sa...@NCDD.ORG>
Subject: [NCDD-DISCUSSION] Intro webinar on Creating Community Solutions on mental health tmw 2pm
Date: June 5, 2013 11:55:15 PM EDT
Reply-To: Sandy Heierbacher <sa...@NCDD.ORG>

Hi, NCDDers!


As many of you know, Obama launched a national conversation on mental health on Monday at the White House.  I've been working with some great colleagues over the past few months to help ensure that our community plays an important role in this effort.  Our team, led by the National Institute for Civil Discourse at the University of Arizona, launched a website at www.creatingcommunitysolutions.org for this effort, and we've set the stage for online dialogue at www.theciviccommons.com/mentalhealth -- with a group of extraordinary NCDD members volunteering as moderators.

The project is called Creating Community Solutions. There will be opportunities for all of you who are interested to get involved.  I think this will be an extraordinary opportunity for us -- the dialogue and deliberation community -- to not only make an impact on a critically important public issue, but to demonstrate to people and groups we usually can't reach that there IS a better way to engage communities on complex issues.  This is also a unique learning opportunity for NCDD, and for all of us, to see what we can accomplish when we combine our forces and our know-how.

See Monday's press release for the project below for more details -- and feel free to share it and post it!!

Sandy Heierbacher
Director, National Coalition for Dialogue & Deliberation
sa...@ncdd.org • www.ncdd.org • @ncdd & @heierbacher



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