The Santa Barbara Foundation recently awarded the Transitional-Mental Health Association (T-MHA) a $30,000 grant to fund a new program that will train individuals suffering from mental illness to become effective speakers who can share their experiences with the community.
“This grant is allowing us to create a speaker bureau that’s going to take what has been a personal recovery journey and allow them to share that with others in the community,” said Frank Ricceri, associate director of T-MHA in Santa Barbara County.
The main objectives of the speaker bureau are to tour the community and educate people suffering with a mental illness and inform them about the resources that are available to aid them, such as programs offered by T-MHA. They also hope to combat the negative stigma of mental illness that pervades society.
To achieve these goals, a group of people will be trained to form the speakers bureau whose members will serve as peer speakers and leaders, according to a statement released by T-MHA. The group of roughly 12 to 15 people will undergo six months of intense training to sharpen its skills in communication and speech presentations, as well as be educated on how to deal with a range of mental illnesses.
Ricceri explained the speakers bureau will help guide the mentally ill toward outlets where they can comfortably express themselves with a peer who understands the daily hardships they face.
“With this grant we can reach a lot more people with that one-to-one connection. When you read it in the paper it’s one thing, but when you see someone and you hear that story, it’s hard to not be moved,” he said.
Speakers will be chosen from a pool of aspiring candidates. All candidates must be participants of T-MHA’s Recovery Learning Communities, where they will have gained experience in dealing with people with mental illness.
“It’s about who’s ready to take this on,” Ricceri said. “Because you have to come out. You’re showing up and telling your story. That is powerful.”
T-MHA plans to have the speakers bureau visit a number of organizations around the community, such as schools and hospitals. They aim to educate an array of citizens, from politicians and police to students.
At the moment, Ricceri said the program is still being planned and improved. But he said this is just the start.
“Santa Barbara Foundation said this is the beginning of a good change. I told them in the interview we’re going to come back to them next year—$30,000 isn’t going to get this done. We’re going to need to build,” he said.
Intern Jason Banania compiled this week’s Community Corner. Send comments or ideas to the Sun via e-mail at intern@santamariasun.com.
This article appears in Feb 2-9, 2012.