The online evaluation will have five Likert (rating) questions and one open-ended question. The five questions address the helpfulness of the materials, information, skill-building, effectiveness of the leaders and recommendation level – similar to questions on current program evaluations. There are a few demographic questions as well.

Yes, participants are asked if they would like to receive more information about NAMI and if they want to volunteer. NAMI State Organizations and NAMI Affiliates can access participants’ answers and contact them accordingly.

NAMI State Organizations and NAMI Affiliates can access to this information via the online portal at any time.

NAMI State Organizations and NAMI Affiliates can access the registration list via the online portal at any time. Registration information includes first name, last name and email address.

As with most NAMI programs, we cannot guarantee that the NAMI Family & Friends seminar will be eligible for CEUs. However, NAMI may be able to provide a certificate that indicates the number of contact hours if needed.

There is a financial incentive of $1,000 for being involved in the pilot and to help with any expenses. We don’t expect the cost of offering the 2 required seminars to exceed this amount and you can use the surplus funds as needed.

One of the requirements of being a pilot site is to use the NAMI Portal registration system. You will not receive the seminar materials or the grant monies if you do not use the system.

We need to determine if we can standardize some aspects of registration, participant management, participation reporting and evaluation while also allowing the flexibility each part of the alliance requires. This registration system is an initial step to better inform how to best leverage technology and meet the unique needs across NAMI.

NAMI staff and volunteers involved with this pilot (affiliate leaders, seminar leaders, etc.) will have an opportunity to provide feedback by completing an online survey which will be released in late November/early December. If you provide permission, NAMI may also schedule a follow-up phone conversation prior to the national roll-out. We hope the NAMI State Organizations and NAMI Affiliates that are part of the pilot will provide honest feedback on what worked and what didn’t. Having everyone involved will help make our alliance stronger!

Registrant information will only be used for activities related to the seminar including emailed reminders the seminar and the evaluation. NAMI will not be soliciting the pilot participants.

NAMI requires all NAMI State Organizations and NAMI Affiliates to have liability insurance. Before offering childcare please consult with your insurance agent or broker to confirm that your organization has the appropriate insurance policy in place to offer childcare and that you are fully aware of the liabilities. Also, you should check with your state’s Child Care Resource and Referral agency, or child care licensing agency to find out if your state requires you to have a certain type, or amount, of liability insurance to offer childcare.

NAMI State Organizations and NAMI Affiliates that do not have adequate liability insurance policies should not offer childcare. If your organization has secured appropriate liability insurance coverage (and you are fully aware of the liabilities associated with offering childcare) and you decide to offer childcare you will be able to include specific details when you enter seminar information in the online portal. For example, the email confirmation the attendee receives could include instructions to contact your office to register for childcare. You might also include information such as which door to enter, where to park, meeting room number, etc.

If NAMI State Organizations and NAMI Affiliates need to collect specific information for grant reporting—such as the participant’s employer or if the participant has a family member receiving SSI/SSDI or is enrolled in a specific program—the state/affiliate will need to ask for this information directly. Seminar leaders can obtain this information from participants on-site or your organization could ask for this information via email (before or after the seminar).

The pilot officially ends December 31, 2017. Seminars must be offered prior to that date to be eligible for the grant monies.

NAMI will assess the evaluation data on both the seminar and NAMI Portal in the first quarter of 2018 and update as necessary. Assuming the results are positive, we expect the national roll-out to begin in the second quarter of 2018.

NAMI has tested the following three devices: The Kindle Fire, the Kindle Paper White and the Nook. Of the three, the Kindle Fire performed the best and is the only one in color. The other devices performed well, but are slightly smaller and not as responsive to touch as the Kindle Fire. We also tested on the Android Galaxy S8 smart phone using the both the Nook and Kindle apps; both apps worked similarly.

It is not necessary to view the eBook in color.

To get the eBook for either Kindle or Nook, search for NAMI Family & Friends and purchase the eBook. The cost is $0.00 (free).

It’s not NAM’s intention to ask NAMI State Organizations and NAMI Affiliates to purchase devices for this seminar so participants can read the eBook. However, if you wish to do so, we recommend you buy one device and make sure it meets your needs before buying more.

If you choose to use Kindles, each device will require its own user account. If the goal is to purchase 15 devices, you’ll want to have 15 different accounts—one for each device—or conflicts can occur between devices sharing accounts.

Keep in mind that many participants may already have a device that they can use to read the eBook. Registered participants will be able to download the eBook prior to the class and can bring their device with them.

Note: Both the paper and eBook versions of the participant manual are for reference and are not required to attend the seminar.

We are glad to hear that seminar leaders are excited about the program! Please remember that the NAMI Family & Friends requires two presenters to lead the seminar.

The goal is to release the program leader manual at the end of August. Once the manual is released NAMI State Organizations and NAMI Affiliates can begin using the online portal to schedule NAMI Family & Friends seminars.

The English version of the eBook is available for download on Amazon and Barnes & Noble, search for NAMI Family & Friends. The cost is $0.00 (free). The six other eBooks translations will be available later this year.

NAMI State Organizations and NAMI Affiliates can designate a registration cutoff date when entering the seminar details in the online portal. Overall, supplies should be minimal. Part of the pilot is supplying the participant manual as an eBook although you will have a print-ready file of the manual as well.