Volunteers are needed in many capacities: Office Assistance, Fund Raising, Political Advocacy, Web Work, Bloggers, Posters, PR Writers, Stigma Busters, Board Members, Instructors, support group leaders and the list goes on.
Family-to-Family Teacher Training Registration form
NAMI Colorado is presently looking for volunteers who would be interested in training to teach the NAMI Colorado Family-to-Family Education program.
To be eligible, you must (1) be a family member or caregiver of an individual having a mental illness, (2) be a member of NAMI Colorado, and (3) commit to teaching two 12-week Family-to-Family courses within a 2 year period.
Since this training is a weekend training, you must plan to stay overnight on both Friday and Saturday nights at the hotel. Hotel check-in is at 9 AM Friday, and the training begins at 10:00 AM on Friday and ends on Sunday at 3:00 PM. Costs for lodging, meals, and materials will be provided for by NAMI Colorado. This is an intensive training and you must attend all 3 days in order to receive your Family-to-Family teacher certificate. If you are interested in taking this training, please contact Cheri Bishop at 303-518-1289, or by email at cbishopnami@aol.com .
NOTE: The next Family-to-Family teacher training will be offered on the weekend of August 26-28, 2011.
If you are interested in becoming a facilitator you will need to contact the NAMI office nearest you for information as you will be required to go through an application and screening process before being approved to attend a training event. NAMI Connection facilitators are certified by attending and graduating from a 3-day training event. The training event is designed for facilitators to learn and practice specific skills that will guarantee a meaningful support group experience for all participants. After the training event, certified facilitators know how to encourage the group to make room for all of its voices; short-circuit personal sagas; engage the group in subjects of collective interest; encourage collective thought; and circumvent negative interactions by identifying common ground for real discussion among group participants. NAMI Connection support group facilitators make use of the strategies, structures, and processes they have learned from the training events to ensure the group provides a place that is safe and maintains group guidelines. In every community,
NAMI will be looking for "Connection Champions" to help ensure that NAMI Connection recovery support groups take root, grow, and flourish. Some of the tasks a champion might perform are securing support group locations, assisting with securing transportation for facilitators, ensuring an adequate supply of resource materials and possibly refreshments for the groups and pomoting the NAMI Connection support groups in your community. Dedicated champions will help NAMI make history by greatly increasing the number of people with mental illnesses whom we help and the number of people who learn about NAMI.
"COLORADO VISIONS" Teacher TrainingNAMI Colorado conducts several Colorado Visions Teacher Trainings each year. They are one day trainings usually held on a Saturday from 8 AM - 6 PM. Training locations vary. To be eligible, you must (1) be a parent or caregiver of a child or adolescent with mental health issues, (2) be a member of NAMI Colorado, and (3) commit to teaching 2 Colorado Visions 5-week courses within a two year time period. It's helpful to have taken the Colorado Visions class previously, but it is not a requirement. For information on how you can become a volunteer teacher contact Cheri Bishop by email at cbishopnami@aol.com or by calling 303-518-1289 or 303-321-3104.
