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African American Faith-Based Initiative

Recovery for All
December 2007

As we have learned from our grassroots leaders, spirituality and faith play a very important role in the African American community. Researchers have found evidence that African Americans seek help from the clergy more frequently than from other professionals. Mental health issues are no exception.

Unfortunately, faith leaders and their congregations often times do not understand mental illnesses, do not know how to help families dealing with these illnesses, or provide misguided recommendations. It is in respect of this information that the Multicultural Action Center will develop and pilot a program targeting African American congregations.

The program will be for use in reaching out to African American families through the faith community. We will develop a toolkit consisting of a video with an accompanying booklet,   containing a variety of helpful resources and templates that can be modified to fit a specific locale. This program will not have a training component.

Our goal is to utilize existing successful models and create a foot-in-the-door education piece to serve as a gateway to other NAMI programs. We value the continued offering of expertise from the African American Leaders Group and are excited to work on this very important initiative.

Please contact us at macenter@nami.org to get involved with this initiative and/or the NAMI African American Leaders Groups.

 

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