Heroes for Hope Community Chapter a Guide for Perspective Chapter Leaders

Introduction

A Long Standing History in the Community

For more than 20 years, United Advocates for Children and Families (UACF) has remained an organization committed to empowering the parent voice for families with children and youth with mental, emotional, and behavioral challenges. It all began at a kitchen table in Emeryville, California in 1992 when Nancy May, Carolyn Cooper, and Karen Hart dedicated themselves to transforming the mental health, educational, and legal systems that often failed to meet the needs of their children. At a time when the children’s mental health dialogue was just beginning, these 3 extraordinary mothers were the driving force behind a grassroots, community based movement that, 20 years later, has expanded to a statewide family run organization.

Driven to make a difference not only on a local level, they, along with other parents developed their voice through this early movement, and a small group of 10 parents became strong, assertive leaders, moving forward to develop United Advocates for Children of California (UACC), known today as United Advocates for Children and Families (UACF). With a vision of helping families across California, they navigated through child serving systems, gaining the ability to meet the needs of children and youth with mental health conditions. Shortly thereafter, with help from Mental Health Association in California (MHAC), UACC incorporated and began to form and develop new roles for family members within the public child serving systems in California.

UACF has rapidly grown to become California’s premier non-profit advocacy group for families of children with mental health care needs. Built upon a solid foundation of community based support and networking, UACF has set the stage for even greater achievements, forging a path to educate, advocate for, and empower the parents, caregivers, and families caring for children and youth in the mental health care system.

About UACF

With more than two decades of experience working in communities across California, UACF has developed successful education, advocacy, and parent/family empowerment programs across a wide spectrum of populations including those involved in child welfare and juvenile justice in addition to a focus on the underserved and unserved communities.

The UACF Leadership Institute (Institute) was created to further the “EPIC Initiative”. EPIC, or “Empower Parents, Invest in Children” serves as the inspiration to empower families to coach, mentor, lead, and use their ‘lived experience’ to bring positive transformation to the children’s mental health system. Through natural community support systems that connect families to existing local resources, the Institute builds bridges between family members, providers, and mental health professionals to help children, youth, and their families experiencing mental health issues.

The Institute provides education and training programs to help facilitate peer to peer support and technical assistance for parents/caregivers, faith based organizations, UACF regional chapters, community support groups, and the Parent Partner/Family Advocates employed in the mental health system.

Mission, Vision, Guiding Principles, and Goals

VISION STATEMENT

Inspire Hope and Courage

MISSION STATEMENT

Promote the emotional, behavioral and social well-being of children, youth and families through transformational leadership.

SEVEN GUIDING PRINCIPLES

Family Driven, Hope Centered, and Youth Guided
Full Domain and Environment of the Child
Community Based Support Services
Culturally and Linguistically Competent
Prevention and Early Intervention
Strength Based Intervention
Interagency Collaboration

Our Goals

Provide a voice for family members;
Empower family members and health care professionals through training and technical assistance and
Form strategic partnerships to leverage local and statewide resources.

Past, Present, and Future

During the last several decades, family members have gained progressively more central roles in their children’s mental health care. In the past, the child was viewed as a patient and a passive recipient of professional treatment, and the family had no role beyond observing and supporting the service system. Later, as the role of families increased, they became participants in the planning and delivery of services for their children.

Because of the dedicated work of advocates like Nancy May, Carolyn Cooper and Karen Hart, UACF is proud to be part of a movement that now recognizes families as full partners and active decision makers in their children’s care. The commitment to providing families with the education and access to resources is at the heart of the grassroots foundation of UACF and can be carried on through the development of local community chapters.

What is a Community Chapter?

Community Chapters are volunteer-run, family-led groups in local communities that will support the UACF initiatives to facilitate the main functions of membership, advocacy, education, training and information and support for families with children and youth with emotional, behavioral and mental health challenges. Chapters are a volunteer led, divisional component of UACF and are not independent non-profit organizations.

Chapters are required to have five (5) parent/ family members identified as participants of the prospective chapter. A “family member” is defined as “an individual who is a primary caregiver for a child, youth, adolescent, or young adult with a serious emotional disturbance (an emotional, behavioral or mental disorder). The primary caregiver may be provided a significant level of support by extended family members. Families who have children, youth, adolescents and young adults with emotional disturbance are organized in a wide variety of configurations regardless of social or economic status. Families can include biological parents, adoptive parents and their partners, foster parents and their partners, grandparents and their partners, siblings and their partners, kinship caregivers, friends, and others as defined by the family.”

UACFis committed to providing grassroots, community oriented regional, county and city groups engaged in work on behalf of children, youth and families an opportunity to become Community Chapter and join a statewide collaborative effort designed to improve the lives of children, youth and families.

What are the main functions of a chapter?

The main functions of a Community Chapter include the following activities:

Membership

When becoming a member of a local Community Chapter, the individual also becomes a member of the UACF organization. This enables children, youth and their families to join with a large statewide group of other family members united in the message for social justice regarding children’s mental health needs. Some of the benefits of membership in the UACF organization are:

Access to our quarterly newsletters and other publications and materials
Access to e-News, information, events, advocacy updates, and training opportunities
Discounts on all UACF training
Exclusive notification of stipend and scholarship opportunities

Advocacy

UACF is dedicated to educating policy makers about important issues involving families, youth and children with mental health disorders. Community Chapters offer families the opportunity for direct involvement, legislative bill monitoring, and participation in the annual Advocacy Day activities. UACF will develop the policy agenda for the organization and educate chapters on all policy issues affecting children and youth with mental health challenges. Each chapter will be encouraged to participate in activities and events that educate policy makers about the impact of policies on families, informing families about policy changes and raising awareness about mental health disparities, as well as attending local mental health agency meetings and community forums.

Technical Assistance

One of the main components of the Community Chapters will be the development of a local resource guide. These guides will be available to families whose children are experiencing emotional, behavioral and mental health challenges. These resource guides will help families and Parent Partners get information on available mental health resources in their area and on how to access those resources. These guides will also be incorporated into UACF’s database and available through the UACF website. Additionally, families in your region will be able to contact local chapters through an 800 number, allowing chapter members to easily help connect families to these local resources and information.

Training

As education is a crucial part of UACF’s mission, chapters will be provided with extensive opportunities to be trained to help educate their members and local communities about children’s mental health, the importance of sharing their stories, and how to effectively advocate for systems change. The UACF Leadership Institute was established to provide extensive training and education for families and caregivers navigating the children’s mental health system while learning to manage the diverse needs of their children. Chapter members will receive training in various areas of mental health advocacy and awareness including Educate, Equip, and Support (EES): Building Hope and How To Tell Your Story: Storytelling Change Agents.

Support

Forming a support group is a great way to get your community involved in the chapter. It is the most direct way that families and youth members can get the support they need from their peers. UACF will be able to help you with starting your support group by providing contact information for families who have completed the EES Training in a community. Support group participants can also provide resources to each other, peer-to-peer support, and the opportunity to problem solve with others who share similar situations.

UACF and theCommunity Chapter Partnership

One important aspect of developing a Community Chapter in your community is the relationship with the statewide network. In addition to providing information and resources to help parents in your community, from policy to support issues, UACF will also offer numerous educational opportunities for chapter and community members. UACF will conduct scheduled conference calls for chapter leaders, allowing members to easily connect and access information and contacts. UACF will also provide technical assistance for issues related to chapter development, including the setup of a toll free phone number, mailing address, and email address.

Whatare therequirementsof a chapter?

Organizational structure

Chapters are required to have five (5) parent/caregivers and/or family members identified as members of the prospective chapter. There are a number of ways that chapters can organize their leadership structure. At a minimum, all chapters must have a president, vice president, and a secretary. These positions may not be filled by the same person.

Reporting Requirements

All chapters will be asked to submit monthly reports to UACF. These reports may include any support groups or activities, new community contacts and members, as well as attendance at local policy meetings and forums, trainings hosted and/or attended. These tools will be used to get a sense of not only chapter activity but to help highlight accomplishments of the chapters across the state. UACF will assist the chapters with effective reporting by providing templates and access to the UACF SharePoint site to retrieve and submit all reporting tools.

Training and Education

UACF will provide train the trainer education opportunities to chapter leaders as part of the chapter’s team development. Once certified, trainers are required to conduct a designated number of trainings to maintain certification. Becoming a certified trainer is a great way to not only create a sustainability for your chapter, but enables chapter; leaders to work at the grassroots level of their community, empowering parents and families to become stronger advocates for their children and youth.

What are the steps to forming a chapter?

Determine if a Community Chapter is the right fit for your community

It is important that chapter groups know the expectations and requirements of being an official partner before they become chapters. Please make sure your group is as informed as possible by reviewing this toolkit carefully and fully understands not only the volunteer aspect, but the time commitment as well. Remember that forming a chapter is not a requirement for participating in UACF programs and initiatives.

Identify membership

Forming and running a Community Chapter is a group effort. You will need a significant number of family members committed to participating in the Chapter. Getting others involved, including local mental health administrators, community based mental health organizations, or local parent partners will enhance outreach efforts and awareness.

Choose the Chapter President

All Community Chapters are required to have a Chapter President. The President must be a family member of a child/youth with emotional, behavioral or mental health challenges. Take time to find someone who cares about the cause of children’s mental health issues, and who has the time required to volunteer for your Chapter.

Fill out Community Chapter application form

Complete the application and follow the directions for submission at the end of the application.

Schedulea meeting with the UACF

Upon receiving your application form, you will be contacted byUACF to schedule an interview. This interview is a critical component of the application process. Chapters cannot be approved unless they have completed the entire application process.

The Three C’s of Community Chapter Partnership

UACF recommends that all chapters build a collaborative relationship with other community chapters. The collaborative relationship is a goal to work toward. It is not expected that you will be at this stage at the beginning of your relationship with UACF.

On the road to this collaborative relationship there are two proceeding steps which are coordination and cooperation. You can use the following to help determine the current stage of your relationship.

Coordination

Periodic check-in regarding chapter plans, accomplishments
Chapter sets goals and checks in with UACF
UACF educates the chapter about the organization
UACF identifies a support staff person to serve as liaison to the chapters

Cooperation

UACF and the chapter work together on fund raising, public policy, education, training and advocacy
UACF assists the chapter in goal-setting process and ensures that chapter goals are in alignment with UACF goals, mission, and vision
UACF will work to familiarize new chapter leaders with policy, procedure, and set up of chapter.

Collaboration

Chapter and UACF create one joint plan for fund raising, public policy, education, training and advocacy
Chapter and UACF set goals together
Committee members from chapter sit on corresponding committee of UACF