Okay, it was suggested to me years ago by Francine Smith, “You should have a blog.” So, I’m doing it… nine years later. Let’s see if I can keep it up this time, or if this will be another one-hit-wonder in the history of my journals.
What’s up?
I am conducting my first NAMI In Our Own Voice (IOOV) [http://www.nami.org/Template.cfm?section=In_Our_Own_Voice] training this weekend. Another trainer and I will be teaching 16 attendees how to give the In Our Own Voice presentation to an audience. NAMI-SF is trying to grow the number of people in the public speaker’s bureau as soon as possible to accommodate a grant received from the Mental Health Services Act (Proposition 63) [http://www.dmh.ca.gov/Prop_63/mhsa/]. Six Northern California counties are included in this grant and will be represented at the training tomorrow and Sunday, which will begin at 8:30 am and end by 5:00 pm on both days. Yes, that is our entire weekend, pretty much, and I won’t be partying at all because I am one of two required trainers and really want to be on my “A” game. Also, as I mentioned, it’s my first one. I am the only trainer in San Francisco, so the second trainer is coming in from Solano County.
Cal-MHSA is requiring us to do 36 IOOV presentations by this June! Since each presentation requires two speakers, we will need to train as many consumers as possible in a short timeframe. As far as I know, there are currently two of us who have been actively presenting on behalf of NAMI-SF, David Brunn and me. There is one other extremely polished speaker, Cara Hoepner, who has been inactive for a while, but is a trained and poised presenter, who is very interested in getting back in the saddle with us.
I am hoping everything goes well tomorrow. The NAMI-SF Program Coordinator has not added much value in the way of planning or organization. I do not have a lot of confidence in her. I am really hoping everyone shows up tomorrow when they are supposed to and that the materials, food, etc. are all there and all goes smoothly. Keep your fingers crossed!
