News

Preney (left) receives Mover and Shaker Award from Sue Henri-McKenzie, Director, Southern Maine Parent Awareness

   Lisa Preney Honored for Behind the Scenes Work for Family Organizations

SANFORD – Southern Maine Parent Awareness (SMPA) honored Lisa Preney, Social Marketing Coordinator, THRIVE System of Care, Lewiston, with its Behind the Scenes Mover and Shaker of the Year Award. Preney, who lives in Falmouth, received the award at SMPA’s Annual Awards Luncheon October 4.

“Lisa hung in there with seven sometimes cantankerous family organizations to help us define the public face of the Maine Alliance of Family Organizations (MAFO),” says Sue Henri-MacKenzie, SMPA Executive Director. “She kept us focused on creating an identity statement and image, which sustained our forward momentum.”

Over a year ago, SMPA, Learning Disabilities Association of Maine, Maine Parent Federation, G.E.A.R. Parent Network, Autism Society of Maine, Adoptive and Foster Families of Maine and the National Alliance on Mental Illness-Maine began forming an alliance to help families of children with disabilities and special health care needs and to strengthen family voice.

“This year, it was about choosing words and an image to define them collectively,” Preney said. “They are such distinct entities, yet share common vital goals for families. The photo they developed to brand themselves depicts seven authentic family members hands joined high looking out across a Maine lake. The camera is behind them, so the focus is on the future, which the alliance has chosen to face together.” 

MAFO promotes the family role in influencing policies and procedures governing care for all children.

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Southern Maine Parent Awareness (www.somepa.org) is dedicated to providing information and referral, support, and education to families who have children with special needs throughout Maine.

Thrive System of Care (www.thriveinitiative.org) helps providers and community organizations in Maine transform the way services are delivered to children, families of children, and to youth who are affected by serious emotional and behavioral challenges. Thrive trauma-informed trainings and technical assistance are family-driven, youth-guided and culturally and linguistically competent. Thrive is a partnership of Maine’s Children’s Behavioral Health Services, Tri-County Mental Health Services, and the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration in collaboration with local provider agencies.

Youth Advocates, NASCAR Pro Series Driver
Launch Awareness Campaign
at Children’s Mental Health Awareness Day

            Click here for Sun Journal story and photo caption

     AUGUSTA — Maine’s premiere youth aadvocacy group, Youth Motivating Others through Voices of Experience (“Youth MOVE Maine”) launched its 2010 public awareness campaign at the Children’s Mental Health Awareness Day celebration, May 6, State House, Hall of Flags, Augusta.

Youth MOVE joined a line-up of youth and family speakers that also included James VanOver, a Morse High School senior, who credited his biological mother’s hard choice, adoptive family’s love, group home’s perseverance and teachers’ supports with getting him to graduation day and a focused future.  Twelve-year-old Kala Grant, a Girl Scout with her troop mate at her side, spoke of her efforts to educate and build awareness in Scouts and middle school about being the sibling of “My Very Special Brother” who is autistic.

Youth MOVE speakers were: operations lead Ryun Anderson, who explained the history of this youth movement in Maine; Jenn McLaughlin who introduced the public service message “You Decide!“; and, Jenn, Allie Spear, Rodney Keisman and Brendon Venable  who performed “Shift your mind, drive your dreams,” a poem by Stephanie Knaus-Tucker, Brendon and Jenn.

NASCAR Pro Series rookie driver Travis Dunbar described how his life from chaotic home life to teenage track star to a two-time All-American with hopes of an Olympic run overcame the results of an auto accident that ended his running career to become a race car owner/driver and mentor of the Youth MOVE Maine Racing Team.

“Travis is the perfect spokesman for our 2010 awareness campaign,” says Brianne Masselli, Youth MOVE Maine’s co-founder. “His life is literally all about shifting gears. He is a role model for what youth stand for— resiliency, self-determination and hope— key factors in mental health and wellness.”

“I’m so pleased to represent these young people,” says Dunbar. “Their commitment to unite their voices and inspire others mirrors my own desire to mentor and motivate young people who persevere through adversity and keep driving their dream.”

Through youth-adult partnerships Youth MOVE trains providers, collaborates with family members, advocates in the community and works with policy makers and program administrators to enhance governance and evaluation.

“We are always getting new members that come from backgrounds where they don’t have access to resources,” says member Matt Brooks, “and Youth MOVE is a perfect place for them to find the help that they need.”

“Through Youth MOVE I am helping to improve the mental health system where youth are concerned,” says Kyle Prior, “I am able to help make the mental health system more accessible to youth.”

“What means the most to me is knowing that I’m helping people,” says Brooks.

“And sometimes, it’s just about getting together and having fun!” Masselli says.

There is lots of fun in store these parallel rookie seasons starting with the Youth MOVE Racing Team’s 2010 Season Opener scheduled for May 29, 6:30 pm at Beech Ridge Motor Speedway in Scarborough.

Youth MOVE Maine (www.youthmovemaine.org), the state chapter of Youth Move National, works to ensure that youth in Maine’s youth-serving systems are prepared for life. Youth MOVE Maine is dedicated to the redevelopment of systems and services, and advocates for youth to use their power and expertise to make change within their communities and within their own lives.

National Association of Social Workers Honors
Trauma-Informed Initiative

LEWISTON – Thrive System of Care received the National Association of Social Workers – Maine Chapter 2010 Agency of the Year award in an awards ceremony during the NASW Maine annual conference, Friday, April 9, at the Samoset Resort in Rockport.     Read Sun Journal announcement…

“We chose Thrive based on how it improves the lives of people in Maine,” says Bonnie Swartz, LCSW and NASW Maine Chapter President, “and for its excellence in promoting social work values as defined in the NASW Code of Ethics for employees, clients and the community.”

“Social workers value the inherent dignity and worth of a person,” says Thrive Director Arabella Perez. “At Thrive we know that treating each other in a caring and respectful manner mindful of our cultural and individual differences leads to growth, health, engagement and empowerment.”

Thrive, in the fifth year of its six-year grant from the federal Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, provides training, technical assistance and consultation on the effects of trauma and the related trauma-informed service principles of safety, choice, collaboration and trustworthiness. In addition to training providers and agencies, Thrive supports local family- and youth-led advocacy organizations.

“Families and youth are experts who can inform and drive services,” says Perez. “Thrive believes that only by partnering with them can child-serving systems be enhanced and ultimately make a difference.”

NASW Maine submits calls for nominations in several categories.

“Though anyone can nominate an agency,” says Swartz, “we typically hear from social workers who have had experience with the agency or program and are impressed with it and how well it responds to client and community needs.”

Past NASW Maine Agency of the Year winners include: Community Counseling Center – PRISM program, Pine Tree Legal, United Society of Shakers, Maine Equal Justice Partners, and Rape Response Services of Bangor.

From left: Arabella Perez, Lisa Preney, Chris Copeland, Rep. Brian Bolduc, Dustin Strout, Ani Sebastian, Matt Brooks, Cheyenna Spelman, Hillary Groves, Allie Spear, Rep. Peggy Rotundo, Kyle Prior, Ryun Anderson, Ryan Conrad, Brianne Masselli, Enrico Herring

LEWISTON- Young people who say they now have hope for the future because of life-saving mental health and social services shared their stories with local legislators January 25 at a “Legislative Dialogue Café” hosted by Tri-County Mental Health Services at the Carriage House. 

Five members of Youth M.O.V.E. Maine told Rep. Peggy Rotundo (D-Lewiston) and Rep. Brian Bolduc (D-Auburn) individual stories of how combinations of mental health services, area homeless shelters, subsidized housing, drug court, case management, community-based services, a system of care youth committee, and natural peer supports have helped them and/or their immediate family members manage depression, self-abuse, and the effects of trauma, neglect, and violence. 

• “If services get cut, then I won’t be able to continue working towards my goal to get off disability and go to college to be a nurse or CSI. I want to provide my son the best life. I won’t be able to do these things and stop the abuse in my family if cuts are made.”

• “It costs taxpayers more to keep a person in jail than it does to provide them community-based services. Before I went to drug court, I didn’t know help was out there, and I did not know how to ask for it. In drug court, I learned about services that have helped me stay safe and drug-free so that I can finish high school.”

• “Without all the resources that the foster care and mental health systems have provided me, I wouldn’t be sober now and in college. Because of services, I am studying to become a social worker to help kids like I was– in group homes, foster homes, and homeless.”

The Legislators congratulated the youth on their compelling stories, their strength and their resilience. They explained the struggle Maine is in to close its budget gap, and why the largest cuts are aimed at education and health and human services. 

“I encourage you all to continue telling your stories,” said Rep. Rotundo, who acknowledged the young people’s emphasis that cuts in services will have a negative ripple effect on them, their famlies and their peer supports.

Rep. Bolduc agreed with the youth that short-term gains have long-term consequences, and that services are cost-effective in supporting recovery and independence.

For more information on youth-guided opportunties, go to:  http://thriveinitiative.org/youth-guided/ For more information on youth voice, youth advocacy and Youth M.O.V.E. - Maine, go to:  http://www.youthmovemaine.org/ or call Brianne Masselli at 207-782-5783 x1602.

Arabella Perez, THRIVE Director (left), receives Catalyst for Change Award from Sue Henri-MacKenzie, SMPA Executive Coordinator (right), while Brenda Bennett, Executive Director of Learning Disabilities Association of Maine, looks on.

LEWISTON – THRIVE System of Care is pleased to announce that Arabella Perez, Director, received the first-ever Catalyst for Change Award from Southern Maine Parent Awareness (SMPA) at its October 17 Fall Family Conference in Wells.

“Arabella has been instrumental to Maine family organizations working to define a collaborative approach to service,” says Sue Henri-MacKenzie, SMPA Executive Coordinator. “Her dedication to transformational activities for families regardless of barriers is an inspiration to us all.”

SMPA, Learning Disabilities Association of Maine, Maine Parent Federation, G.E.A.R. Parent Network, Autism Society of Maine, Foster and Adoptive Parenting, National Alliance on Mental Illness-Maine, and Helping Hands have formed a coalition to further “family voice” in Maine’s child welfare, mental health, health care, juvenile justice and education systems of care.

“Maine is at a crossroads with statewide initiatives, such as High-Fidelity Wraparound and the Parent Empowerment Program-STEPS,” says Perez, “that are identifying the role of family support partners in the various systems. It’s important for family organizations to come together to define and sustain this peer-to-peer partnering, rather than have it be dictated by outside parties.”

The newly formed coalition also plans to identify shared training opportunities and maximize the uses of its collective data.

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Southern Maine Parent Awareness (www.somepa.org) is dedicated to providing information and referral, support, and education to families who have children with special needs.

Tri-County Network of Care Supports Self-Care and Emotional Wellness

Maine Children’s Behavioral Health Services, Thrive System of Care Initiative and The Community Collaborative for Children, Youth and Families of Tri-County announce the launch of Tri-County Network of Care (www.tricounty.me.networkofcare.org).

Network of Care is a breakthrough, multi-lingual website empowering families and youth who are exploring physical and emotional wellness. The site is a community-based resource with “no wrong doors” for researching mental health issues, storing and controlling access to health information, and advocating directly with legislators. Site features include:

             ▪ An easily searchable regional mental health service directory

            ▪ Confidential, HIPPA-compliant folders for family health information

            ▪ Social networking forums for peer-to-peer support

            ▪ The latest nationwide mental health news

            ▪ 30,000 articles on mental illness, medications, recovery and more

            ▪ Advocacy and legislative information

Providers can use the site’s message boards and community calendars to share challenges and ideas, and brainstorm system of care solutions within their own agency or in collaboration with other entities.

The site is accessible regardless of literacy or income level through a text-only version and other adaptive technologies, including large print sizes. It is fully ADA-compliant, Bobby-approved and available in several languages, including French, Italian, Somali, Spanish and Vietnamese.

Please join us in promoting this valuable resource for empowering families and improving the coordination of care in Maine!  For further information, please contact: Melanie Swift at 782-5783 x1611 or mswift@tcmhs.org

LEWISTON and PORTLAND — A group of multicultural Maine educators and health care professionals was recognized nationally with a 2009 Excellence in Community Communications and Outreach (ECCO) award July 31 in Anaheim, CA. The group’s Healing Invisible Wounds conference last fall celebrated resiliency in the face of trauma, and won gold for “Partnership Development” from ECCO sponsor, the Comprehensive Community Mental Health Services Program for Children and Their Families.

Healing Invisible Wounds, based on a book by the same title, was a collaboration of the: Portland Schools Multilingual & Multicultural Center, Caring Across Communities Project (Portland), Thrive Initiative (Lewiston), The Children’s Initiative (Portland) and Maine’s Office of Minority Health. The conference drew 180 mental health and health care providers, educators, law enforcement and refugee resettlement workers, families and youth from Maine and the region.

“Seventy percent of conference presenters were racially and ethnically diverse,” says Arabella Perez, Thrive program director. “They used the the power of native language and indigenous healing practices to demonstrate the individual and collective capacity for resiliency and healing.”

From forced displacement to slave trading, holocaust, genocide, ethnic cleansing, civil war, combat, exposure to substance abuse, natural disasters, severe accidents, and all manner of domestic violence, most human beings experience trauma and its related stressors, either directly or indirectly.

“Our people (Passamaquoddy) were told our language was from the devil,” keynote speaker Allen Sockabasin says. Years later, he was in Germany listening to Germans speaking their mother tongue absolutely unconcerned whether non-native speakers understood them.

“I saw a smile in them,” Sockabasin says, “and, from that moment in 1970, I resolved to bring that smile back to my people.”

Sockabasin brought tears as well as smiles to the faces of conference goers when he sang “Amazing Grace” in Passamaquoddy. Other keynote speakers were Kana Enomoto, Acting Deputy Administrator for the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), and Nancy Carter, a leading mental health advocate for communities of color.

The ECCO Recognition Program is sponsored by the Comprehensive Community Mental Health Services Program for Children and Their Families, Federal Center for Mental Health Services, SAMHSA, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

THRIVE System of Care Initiative www.thriveinitiative.org helps providers and community organizations in Androscoggin, Franklin and Oxford counties transform the way services are delivered to children, families of children, and to youth who are affected by serious emotional and behavioral challenges. Thrive trauma-informed trainings and technical assistance are family-driven, youth-guided, and culturally and linguistically competent. The Thrive Initiative is a partnership of Maine’s Children’s Behavioral Health Division, Tri-County Mental Health Services, and SAMHSA in collaboration with local provider agencies.

CONTACT: Lisa Preney
Social Marketing Coordinator
782-5783 x 1608

Hillary-Groves, Jennifer-Thompson, Dustin-Strout

LEWISTON – Three area youth advocates will represent THRIVE System of Care Initiative and Youth M.O.V.E. Maine at the June 22, 2009 Youth Summit in Portland, OR.

Jennifer Thompson and Dustin Strout, both of Lewiston, and Hillary Groves of Mechanics Falls will join 40 mental health and systems-experienced youth and young adult leaders for a day of peer-led activities. They will focus on uncovering shared experiences, gaps in youth-focused services, priorities and strategies for service and system change, and research and resource needs.

The resulting youth-voiced “Call to Action” will outline positive solutions to improve the health and human services that young people like themselves receive.

A national board of peers is planning and will facilitate the Summit, which is hosted by the Research and Training Center on Family Support and Children’s Mental Health in Portland, OR.

THRIVE System of Care Initiative is building a network of services and supports for children and youth who have experienced severe emotional disturbance and their families in Androscoggin, Franklin and Oxford counties. The Thrive Initiative promotes family-driven, youth-guided, culturally and linguistically competent, and trauma-informed services. It is a partnership of Maine’s Children’s Behavioral Health Division, Tri-County Mental Health Services, and the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration in collaboration with local provider agencies.

Youth M.O.V.E. (Motivating Others Through Voices Of Experience) is a national youth led organization devoted to improving services and systems that support positive growth and development by uniting the voices of individuals who have lived experience in various systems including mental health, juvenile justice, education, and child welfare.

The THRIVE System of Care Initiative in Lewiston, Maine, hosted, participated in, and/or helped organize the following activities during the month of May 2009, to celebrate and promote Children’s Mental Health and its national awareness week.

May 7: “Digital Stories: Where there is help, there is hope” and Community Dialog

Premiere of an 11-minute video filmed at original locations of two separate autobiographical stories of youth resiliency in the face of foster care/homelessness and suicide/substance abuse. In addition to the moving stories, the video displays relevant statistics as well as crisis hotlines and shelter numbers. It stars, as well as is written, directed and produced by Thrive Youth. Following the showing, a youth panel hosted a community dialog.

Outcomes: In addition to media publicity, 25-30 community members attended, including a middle school principal, school staff, youth and adults. Discussion is ongoing about offering Digital Stories to area middle and high schools and/or using at conferences.

May 8-31: “Digital Stories: Where there is help, there is hope”

Digital Stories aired full-length prior to “Wolverine” at Flagship Cinema, Auburn, Maine, each Fri-Sat-Sun during the month of May.

Outcomes: Two full-size movie posters with movie stills, shelter and crisis phone numbers were posted in and outside the cinema for the month of May. Older youth and general movie audiences saw youth-narrated and produced stories of hope and recovery from homelessness and suicide. Posters will be reused at other venues.

May 8: Hall of Flags “Know Us, Know Our Stories”

Hosted by Maine’s Children Behavioral Health Services with organizational planning by G.E.A.R. Parent Network and THRIVE, which managed agenda, exhibitor coordination and provided five speakers, including two youth and a parent. Thrive youth told stories of hope and recovery from homelessness and suicide/substance abuse. Thrive family member and a Thrive family partner explained the elements and benefits of the family partner program. Thrive staff summarized Family and Youth programs.

Outcomes: Event coverage by local ABC afilliate WMTW-TV 8; more than 60 attended, including exhibitors, youth, visitors and legislators. The 32 exhibiting organizations were nearly double the number from the prior year.

May 11, 18 and 26: THRIVE Family Committee Open Houses

Outcomes: These *first-time* events hosted by Thrive Parent Partners in three separate counties received both print and repeat radio publicity. Participation was: 15 providers and families in Lewiston, ME; 20 in Farmington, ME; and 13 in Norway, ME. Area families learned more about community resources, including family organizations, and providers. THRIVE networked with all participants increasing awareness of its supports.

LEWISTON – The THRIVE System of Care Initiative is holding open houses in Lewiston, Farmington and Norway during the month of May to honor Children’s Mental Health Awareness.

Hosted by Thrive Family Committee members, the open houses offer families, service providers and other community representatives the opportunity to get to know each other one-on-one in a convenient, informal setting.

• LEWISTON: May 11: 3:30-6:30 pm, Central Maine Medical Center, Conference Rooms A, B and C.
• FARMINGTON: May 18, 3:30-6:30 pm, North Dining Hall, Section C, University of Maine at Farmington.
• NORWAY: May 26, 5-7 pm, Stephens Memorial Hospital, Harper Conference Center. Light refreshments will be served at each venue.

For more information, call Alice Preble, Thrive Family Coordinator, 1-877-784-4705 x1603.

THRIVE System of Care Initiative is building a network of services and supports for children and youth who have experienced severe emotional disturbance and their families in Androscoggin, Franklin and Oxford counties. The Thrive Initiative promotes family-driven, youth-guided, culturally and linguistically competent, and trauma-informed services. It is a partnership of Maine’s Children’s Behavioral Health Division, Tri-County Mental Health Services, and the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration in collaboration with local provider agencies.