November 15, 2017 - In This Issue:
Fall Together
By Trish Larsen, Executive Director

Fall marks the beginning of a long stretch of special occasions, friendly get-togethers, and family gatherings.  This year we started early; on September 24th Minding Your Mind celebrated our 10th Anniversary. It was an event to remember filled with love, emotion, and inspiration. In this issue you'll read about this incredible milestone event as well as many other interesting and exciting activities that we have been involved with here at MYM. I hope you enjoy the news. 

Happy Fall!
Grace & Gratitude
Grants Received since 
September 2017
Elsie Lee Garthwaite Memorial Foundation
Foundations Community Partnership
Regional Updates
MASSACHUSETTS
Minding Your Mind continues to present at conferences and be invited to schools throughout Massachusetts. To date, over 150 presentations are booked for the 2017-2018 school year with more to come.

Looking for a few good people...
Minding Your Mind is forming an Advisory Committee to help guide our public events and fundraising activities in Massachusetts. If you are interested in being a part of the great work we are doing in the area, please contact Drew Bergman. The group's first meeting is in mid-December.

We are actively recruiting young adult speakers that are local to Massachusetts. If you are or  know of someone who may be qualified and interested in working with us, please visit the EMPLOYMENT section of our website.
  
NEW JERSEY
New Jersey Regional Director, Guy Iacono, is taking the Garden State by storm. Here are just a few places MYM has presented since September:

Academy of Allied Health & Science
Burlington High School
Chatham High School
Eagle Academy
Franklin Township School 
Freehold Intermediate School
Freehold Regional High School
Moorestown Beard School
Princeton Day
Rumson Fair Haven Regional High School
Rutgers University
Sterling High School
Stockton University
Watchung Hills High School


A very special event...first time in NJ!  
Please join us on Wednesday, November 29, at Manasquan High School for "The Secret Life
 of Teens." 
Presented by Minding Your Mind's Jon Mattleman, a mental health counselor and trainer with 30 years of experience working with youth, parents, and families. His dynamic presentations have been presented to thousands of parents in all over New England.
Registration is FREE, RSVP online here. 

November 16

November 28

November 29
Manasquan High School, Manasquan, NJ

November 30
Wednesday, November 15, 2017
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MYM hosts an active and ever-growing community of individuals who are interested in making mental health education a priority in our society. We have over 5,000 followers on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and LinkedIn, and there is always room for one more. On our networks we share information about events, partnerships, and timely news and articles relevant to the mental health community. Come see what everyone is talking about! 

   
In Our Next Issue...
...Five runners complete the TCS New York City Marathon and raised over $23,000 for MYM

...the third anual  A Celebration of Life: New York brought together over 300 young professionals and raised more than $75,000 for MYM programs in NY, NJ, and CT
Looking Back
MYM Celebrates 10 Years of 
Mental Health Education
Student volunteers Flynn and Molly welcome guests to 10th Anniversary Blue Gene Gala
On Sunday, September 24, more than 350 people gathered to celebrate Minding Your Mind's 10th Anniversary. The 2017 Blue Gene Gala returned to Temple Beth Hillel-Beth El, the home of Minding Your Mind's very first public forum in 2007. The evening included a retrospective what has been accomplished by Minding Your Mind over the past ten years, as well as recognition for communities and individuals who contributed to the organization's development. Through the generosity of sponsors and loyal donors, this was the most successful gala in our 10 years.

The evening's honorees included:

10th Anniversary Media Advocate Award
Tracy Davidson
NBC10 News anchor & advocate


2017 Changing Minds Award: 
The Craig Family
Chip, Andrea, Derek & Jordan


Gerry Cuddy, president and CEO of Beneficial Bank, acted as the event's Master of Ceremonies, and author Alan Schwarz  presented an enlightening keynote address on the topic of his book, "A.D.H.D Nation: Children, Doctors, Big Pharma and the Making of an American Epidemic." 

The evening was closed by Minding Your Mind
speaker Jordan Burnham, who gave a  powerful, moving, and inspiring account of  his experience as the first Minding Your Mind young adult speaker and the journey his life has taken since.

LookingForward2 Looking Forward
MYM Launches  Corporate Education Program
Mental health research has forecast that by 2020 the prevalence of mental health issues - such as emotional disorders and substance dependence - will surpass all physical diseases as the leading cause of disability in the U.S. Beyond self-care, employees can be living with children or other family members struggling with a mental health issue.  In an average week in the U.S., five million people miss work due to stress and an estimated four million work days are lost due to depression. 

Minding Your Mind has developed a 90-minute workshop designed to educate adults on basic mental health issues and how they impact daily life in the workplace, at home, and during interactions with others. 

Appropriate for small businesses to large corporations, this program is facilitated by one of Minding Your Mind's professional clinicians and includes a presentation by a young adult speakers to attach real-life experiences to the topics being discussed. To read more details about the program, including fees and how to schedule, please visit the Corporate Education Program page on our website.
Speaker Ali participated in the WTREX (Women-in-Fire Training Exchange) Burn at Yosemite National Park in California. There were two wildfires actively burning in the park while Ali was there and she was able to practice her wildland firefighting skills and learn along side the other women. WTREX also invited Ali to share her story with the attendees and talk about her work with Minding Your Mind.
Congratulations to speaker Melissa  on the arrival of her son, Parker. He joins his big sister, Hope, and Melissa is spending time bonding with her growing family. She will return in January, resuming her speaking engagements and work with the growing list of Minding Your Mind School Clubs.

Featured Speaker
Kristen is resilient and hopeful, with a future full of potential.
As a child, Kristen experienced significant trauma, including her mother attempting and completing suicide.
When she reached her preteen years, Kristen didn't know how to manage what she was feeling and turned to alcohol, drugs, and self-harm to mask the pain that she so desperately wanted to keep locked away. The alternative was facing the issues related to her childhood trauma and she did not know how to do that. 

The result was debilitating depression and anxiety that affected Kristen in her everyday life. She continued these negative coping skills, including negative self-talk, which drove her down to a very dark place. Quickly, she arrived to a bottom she thought she would never leave.

After going to treatment, where she learned how to replace her negative coping skills with positive ones, she worked hard to incorporate those habits into her life. Kristen attended a recovery high school to finish her education and went on to college. She has many therapy experiences that have proven to be wildly successful, and attends support groups regularly to maintain her ongoing sobriety and abstinence from negative coping skills. Kristen, being a young person in recovery, proves it's never too late or too early to get the help you need. She has spoken on panels and at board meetings to help educate others in an effective manner break the stigma around mental health and substance use disorder.

To schedule a Speaker Program for your school or community, please  click here.