Today I went in with my mother to her work at the Department of Health for Principal's Play Day and had the wonderful opportunity to listen to a lecture given by the Director of the Schenectady City Mission, Mike Saccocio, and some of his associates. The program was centered around the Bridges Out of Poverty program that is being implemented in Schenectady and across the country to help eradicate generational poverty (2 or more generations in poverty). Before I dive into the connection I found in this program to NAMI, I wanted to go over what I thought to be some of the most interesting points of the discussion:
Of course many people living with a mental illness face poverty and homelessness (especially considering the lack of housing available to them). This is one direct connection to the lecture, but more loosely a lot of the ideas they expressed about the mental models that shape out perceptions, the necessity of respect and understanding, the the importance of collaboration, and the change over time of different issues were very closely related to the issues of decreasing the stigma surrounding mental illness. I can't yet say what I hope to do with this newly gained knowledge, but I do know that I'm very happy to have had this opportunity to reevaluate the best ways to solve problems in a community, which I think will prove to be useful for my project.
1 Comment
Jon Calos
3/8/2016 08:02:15 am
Thanks for the terrific updates, Katherine! I am impressed with your ideas and productivity, as always. You are making things happen on and off campus, involving some of your schoolmates, and hopefully affecting other students in regional schools. You are making progress on many fronts, local and distant, for which you should be very proud. I am looking forward to how this all comes together for your presentation in may. Keep up the stellar effort!
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Mental illness is nothing to be ashamed of, but stigma and bias shame us all. -Bill Clinton
Katherine WallaceEmma Willard Class of 2017. Archives
May 2017
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