National Federation of Families for Children's Mental Health
 | |
| Abbreviation | NFFCMH |
|---|---|
| Formation | 1989 |
| Type | NPO |
| Legal status | Association |
| Purpose | Public Health/Educational |
| Headquarters |
12320 Parklawn Drive Rockville, Maryland 20852 |
Region served | United States |
Membership | 120+ Chapter and State Organizations |
Official language | English |
Executive Director | Lynda Gargan |
Staff | 5 |
| Website | http://www.ffcmh.org |
The National Federation of Families for Children’s Mental Health is a national advocacy organization. It is a family-run, 501 (c)(3) non-profit organization. The National Federation's headquarters is in Rockville, Maryland with satellite staff in Arizona and Tennessee.
Formation
The National Federation of Families started in 1989 when 18 individuals, consisting primarily of parents and family members, convened in Arlington, Virginia to start a family-run organization. They decided to call themselves the Federation of Families for Children's Mental Health to emphasize the strong presence of families banding together to support each other and provide advocacy for their children.
Membership
The National Federation of Families has over a thousand members and more than 100 partners, chapters, and state organizations.
State organizations
In contrast to local chapters, state organizations often are the foremost family-run organization, providing support to the local chapters through individualized technical assistance (TA), training, and support that the National Federation would otherwise not be able to provide due to regional differences. Many state organizations, such as Georgia, have upward to dozens of individual local chapters that report directly back to the state organization. In addition, numerous youth-led organizations that do similar work are often housed under the state organization.
Local chapters
Local chapters provide services to an individual town, county, tribe, or designated area. In contrast to the state organization, these local chapters often have a specific demographic they are reaching out to. They still provide, on occasion, individuated TA, training, and support in absence of a state organization.
Partner organizations
Partner organizations are organizations who believe in the mission of the National Federation but may not have an organization that provides either TA, training, or direct line services. Instead, they are allowed to sign up to become a partner organization and receive many of the same benefits that local chapters and state organizations have.
Individual membership
The National Federation currently has over 2500 individual members signed up to promote and further the mission of the National Federation. Individuals who may not be associated with a local chapter and/or a state or partner organization may sign up for individual membership which provides them with a different set of benefits.
Green Ribbon Campaign
Each year, beginning in January and running into the first full week of May (National Children's Mental Health Awareness Week), the National Federation runs their Green Ribbon Campaign. Started in mid-2005, this fundraising initiative aims to raise awareness of children's mental health issues and educate the general public on the needs of children with emotional, behavioral, or mental health needs and their families. Green ribbons, symbolizing the cause, as well as green lapel pins are sold and distributed to its membership base with the message for these individuals to wear them during National Children's Mental Health Awareness Week to help spread the cause wide and far. The Green Ribbon Campaign has proven to be very successful with 75,000 ribbons being distributed each year.
Legislative briefing
For many years, the National Federation of Families has held a legislative briefing, done in partnership with the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Mental Health America. These briefings, usually held on National Children's Mental Health Awareness Day (a separate day, held by SAMHSA that falls during National Children's Mental Health Awareness Week), aim to educate and make aware to legislators the issues facing children with emotional, behavioral, or mental health needs and their families so that change can be made at the national level to help support these individuals. The legislative briefing is held in downtown Washington D.C., usually in the United States House of Representatives or United States Senate buildings.
Annual conference
The National Federation holds an annual conference each year. These conferences, usually held over a three-day period occur each fall (usually November). They serve as a meeting point for families, providers, youth, and the general public to attend different workshops geared toward educating individuals about family driven care, youth guided care and various other topics of interest. They are often anchored with a relevant keynote speaker that officially opens up the main conference events. Past speakers have included Holly Robinson, Wes Moore, Jimmy Wayne, and Elizabeth Smart. The 2018 Conference will be in Houston, Texas with Dr. Victor Rios and Liza Long as keynotes.
National Federation conferences are known to be less formal than other conferences, focusing on celebrating children, youth, and their families' strengths. It is a conference where families, youth, parent support providers and professionals come together to learn from each other. Luncheons are often accompanied by local talent to help bring a positive spirit and message to the overall conference event and get people actively engaged for the duration of the event.
Certified parent support providers
The National Federation of Families for Children's Mental Health is the national certifying body for peer parent and family support providers. This certification was conceived and developed from a workgroup that started in the late 2000s. It has since grown to become a major factor in getting peer specialists in each state certified as Parent Support Providers, a designation that allows individuals to practice providing support and services for children, youth, and families. The National Federation aims to certify this growing profession so that individuals practicing this career can gain equal, fair, and reputable status.
Certified Parent Support Provider is the official name for the certified individuals who practice peer support for families, youth, and children in the various states. This is a professional certification developed in accordance with ISO17024 guidelines. The core competencies were completed in December 2010, job task analysis in June 2011, and first national exam in April 2012.
Technical assistance
The National Federation, in conjunction with other organizations, currently take part in providing technical assistance to various funded system of care communities through topics such as sustainbility planning, family-driven care, cultural and linguistic competency and social marketing.
Technical Assistance Partnership
The Technical Assistance Partnership is a collaboration between the National Federation of Families and the American Institutes for Research. It aims to provide technical assistance to federally funded system of care communities. Technical Assistance Coordinators, as they are called, provide these communities with information on sustaining their system of care through things such as sustainability planning, partnership building, etc. About half of the Technical Assistance Coordinators come from the National Federation, providing oversight on general technical assistance needs, as well as more fine tuned topics such as family-driven care (i.e. involving families in the planning of the system of care).[1]
Caring for Every Child's Mental Health Campaign
In addition to the Technical Assistance Partnership, the National Federation also has a collaboration between Vanguard Communications, the National Association of State and Mental Health Project Directors, providing social marketing technical assistance to the aforementioned federally funded system of care communities. National Federation individuals on this team provide oversight on general social marketing needs, while also providing more fine tuned topics such as family-driven and youth-guided care.