Substance Abuse & Mental Health Services Administration

CMHS Consumer Affairs E-News
March 8, 2004, Vol. 04-26

FREE TRAINING CALL ON TOWN HALL MEETINGS

You are invited to participate in a free training session, via telephone, on Organizing Town Hall Meetings to Counter the Stigma and Discrimination Associated with Mental Illness: Gaining Consensus and Obtaining Opinions.

Date: Wednesday, March 31, 2004
Time: 3:00 p.m. - 4:30 p.m. (Eastern Time)

Town Hall Meetings are a great way to gauge public opinion about the stigma and discrimination associated with mental illness or provide your own opinions on the topic. They can also jumpstart relationships with community leaders and aid media relations efforts.

The training will be led by a public relation expert on the subject and two advocacy groups who have successfully conducted Town Hall Meetings to combat the stigma associated with mental health issues. These speakers are:

Sarah Armstrong, Mosaic Company. Armstrong has more than 20 years of experience in creating Town Hall Meetings and open dialogues on "hot issues" for several nonprofit organizations (Audubon Institute, American Red Cross, AARP, American Zoos and Aquariums, etc.) and while working for Porter Novelli, an international public relations firm.

Iris Carroll, Programs for People. In honor of the organization's 25th anniversary, Programs for People organized (in 2000) a community-wide public forum in the Boston area that dealt specifically with mental health stigma. This Town Hall Meeting featured well-known experts on the topic and was moderated by a member of the media.

Latonya Slack, California Black Women's Health Project. In July 2003, the organization began several Town Hall Meetings to discuss mental and physical health issues affecting African American women. Eight Town Hall Meetings were conducted, each with a legislative co-sponsor.

Participants in the call will learn how to raise funds and recruit partners and audience members for a Town Hall Meeting -- and how to measure the success of their efforts.

The presentations will take place during the first hour, to be followed by a 30-minute period of discussion between the participants and the presenters. All participants will receive confirmation by e-mail after responding to this invitation. Before the call, participants will receive an online link to presentation materials and log-in instructions for the call.

This session is sponsored by the Resource Center to Address Discrimination and Stigma (ADS Center), a project of the Center for Mental Health Services of the Substance Abuse and Mental Health ServicesAdministration, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The session is free to participants.

To register for this teleconference, please reply via e-mail to info@adscenter.org indicating that you want to participate. Please indicate the subject heading as "ADS Center Teleconference." Please also feel free to pass this invitation on to others who might be interested.

For more information, please contact Jennifer Melinn at info@adscenter.org.

Please let them know if you will be calling from outside the Continental United States, as we will need to make special arrangements for your participation.

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The Center for Mental Health Services is a component of the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, United States Department of Health and Human Services.