The Commerce City Rotary Club’s Mental Health Initiative was very proud to have been a House of Friendship exhibitor at the June 2017 Rotary International Convention in Atlanta!
CCRC members, President Rhonda Hathaway, George Maybee and Sharon Maybee manned the exhibit for over 50 hours during the convention and had the distinct opportunity and pleasure of speaking directly with over 360 Rotarians from 35 different countries that visited the exhibit. Most indicated that mental health awareness and education was seriously needed in their countries and remarked about how the Mental Health First Aid course offering would be a great way to start talking and reduce the stigma of mental illness. CCRC has already been in contact post convention with several of these Rotarians and is in the early stages of developing a plan to offer a webinar to Rotarians in Pakistan and India on the subject of how to kickoff a mental health initiative type project in their communities. So yes, the CCRC Mental Health Initiative (CCRC-MHI) has indeed gone international!
Back home in Colorado, several noteworthy developments for the CCRC Mental Health Initiative (CCRC-MHI) include:
- A $2,000 grant was awarded to the CCRC-MHI by the City of Commerce City’s Quality Community Foundation to specifically fund outreach, awareness and education for Veterans and their family members.
- A $1,050 grant was awarded to the CCRC-MHI by the United Power Roundup Foundation to specifically fund Mental Health First Aid training materials for Veterans and their family members.
- A $2,500 Rotary District Matching grant was awarded by D5450 and The Rotary Foundation to support the 2017-2018 approved work program of the initiative in the areas of community support for outreach, awareness and education in the Commerce City community and the Adams 14 School District.
- Lastly, and perhaps most importantly, the CCRC-MHI has the first reported, evidenced based case where one life was saved utilizing the crisis intervention information contained on the mental health resource and awareness information cards distributed within the community. To date, the CCRC-MHI has distributed over 30,000 of these cards; 7,500 will be included in the registration packets for Adams 14 district schools in August 2017.
- Efforts in mental health and wellness by Rotarians CAN and WILL preserve life, prevent further harm, promote recovery resiliency and provide comfort and support to those desperately in need.
When you greet person, “How are you doing?” STOP right there and LISTEN; don’t go on your merry way. LISTEN to that person…for you may be the only person that has asked. LISTEN to what they have to say. THIS is the first step in HELPING a PERSON with a mental illness. You are not alone, I will LISTEN; Let’s talk!
Contact us
Norma Portnoy Commerce City Rotary Club – Mental Health Initiative Chair nsportnoy@adams14.org – 303.853.3279
Sharon Maybee Commerce City Rotary Club – Mental Health Initiative Co-Chair semaybee@aol.com – 303.532.7069
info@R4MH.org