Tag Archives: mental health community engagement

working on non-profit status

We have been mostly quiet here at Why Not Fathers.  Rest assured things have been busy. Currently we are working on incorporating Why Not Fathers as a non-profit.  We are hoping that this will open up opportunities for speaking and further engagement. Potential speaking engagements include the following topics: fatherhood adoption – both as a parent and as a child autism reactive attachment disorder autoimmune disorders – Lupus. advocacy stay at home dad using social media to connect with others who are experiencing similar events disability and you taking care of your own mental health working with the school to achieve a middle ground I am sure that there are other topics that aren’t mentioned here, so please don’t take this list to be all inclusive   Tweet #fighting4answrs

Helping Families in Mental Health Crisis Act – H.R.3717

A letter that I wrote to our Representative in Congress ============== As a parent of a child with severe mental illness, a child who has been in crisis many times, I would like to voice my opinion in regards to this Act and why I would like to recommend that Representative Cramer not co-sponsor the bill. Briefly. We adopted our son David, when he was 18 months old.  He was a special needs adoption not because of his birth history, but because of his ethnic background.  As David grew older, little things began to come out.  Staying awake for 2 and 3 days, destroying property, attacking teachers and family members.  Poisoning family pets.  For 9 years we did every kind of community based therapy that we could access.  We utilized our states Protection and Advocacy Project to work with our school to allow David to continue to attend public school

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community engagement – Thank you Optimists

Today, I had the opportunity to speak to a group of optimists.  The Optimist Club of Bismarck kindly accepted my request to speak to their group.  It went well for my first engagement as a speaker. I spoke about our Family Voices of North Dakota organization.  I answered questions regarding special health care needs and our children. The group was highly inquisitive, and I thoroughly enjoyed speaking there.  Next time, I won’t plan a lunch date for after the meeting, so I can partake of the food enjoyed by the club. That is a bonus. Plus, I was given a Optimist Club Coaster as a gift for speaking.  Color me surprised.  I wasn’t expecting a gift, and was happy just for the opportunity to speak to their group. Related articles I am an Optimist (tbolto.wordpress.com) a new school year – for David too (whynotfathers.com) Bismarck (richardbegone.wordpress.com) After 3 bullets in

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