NAMI In Our Own Voice presentations change attitudes, assumptions and ideas about people with mental health conditions. These free, 40-, 60- or 90-minute presentations provide a personal perspective of mental health conditions, as leaders with lived experience talk openly about what it’s like to have a mental health condition.

What You Should Expect
  • Led by a team of two trained presenters who are living in recovery from mental illness
  • Includes stories, videos, and discussion
Why You Should Attend
  • More accurate view of a stigmatized and misunderstood experience
  • Humanized perception of what people living with mental illness are like
  • Concrete examples of what living in recovery means
  • Opportunity to ask questions in a safe and friendly environment
  • Give audience members a chance to ask program leaders questions, allowing for a deeper understanding of mental health conditions
  • Dispel stereotypes and misconceptions
  • Audience members leave with an understanding that every person with a mental health condition can hope for a brighter future
  • Provide information on how to learn more about mental health and get involved with the mental health community

Whether you have contact with mental illness in a professional capacity or want to learn more on a personal level, your interest and questions are welcome. Your participation also provides a valuable opportunity to the speakers to gain confidence as they share their experience of recovery and transformation.

Who can participate
  • NAMI In Our Own Voice is open to the public
Who can present
  • Any adult in recovery with a mental health condition may apply to be trained as a program leader for IOOV. All potential program leaders are screened to determine whether the opportunity is a good fit for the individual and for the organization
  • Prospective program leaders attend an intensive training to become certified and must be members of NAMI
What Others Say About IOOV

“Amazing presentation with amazing presenters!!!  Thank you for taking time out of your day to educate us – so helpful and informative.  You 100 percent erased any stigma I used to associate with mental illness.” – Audience member

“Several of the mental health staff stated that they saw recovery as a real option for the first time ever [after seeing the presentation].” – Audience member

“Presenting this program is the single most effective thing I am doing to maintain my mental health. Time after time, I see the audience respond with curiosity and interest. I know I am changing the face of mental illness and that I have transformed my pain into the power to make a difference.” -IOOV Program Leader

Learn more at https://www.nami.org/Support-Education/Mental-Health-Education/NAMI-In-Our-Own-Voice. 

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