Minnesota Statewide Family Network Youth Advisory Board
The MSFN Youth Advisory Board is composed of teens with mental health needs who are interested in developing leadership skills to help improve services and increase understanding of what it means to be a youth with mental illness.
The MSFN Youth Advisory Board Makes a Difference by:
- Reducing the stigma associated with mental health diagnoses
- Educating the public on the issues faced by youth with mental health concerns
- Influencing children’s mental health policy
- Providing peer support
- Teaching teens to be effective self-advocates
MSFN Youth Advisory Board Activities Include:
- Maintaining a Youth Advisory Board Web presence
- Making presentations at state and national conferences and at school staff trainings
- Providing input for publications, articles, and legislation related to children's mental health
Youth Advisory Board Positions are Available
If you would like to be considered for a position on the MSFN Youth Advisory Board, please contact Renelle Nelson, Youth Advisory Board facilitator, at 952-838-1360. Applicants must be:
- 14 to 19 years old
- on an Individualized Education Program (IEP) for emotional and behavioral disorders or diagnosed with a mental health disability such as anxiety, Asperger syndrome, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, bipolar disorder, depression, or Tourette syndrome
- able to attend monthly meetings at MSFN offices in Minneapolis
Youth Advisory Board Presentations
Youth Advisory Board members make presentations at national and statewide conferences as well as at school staff trainings. Speaking frankly about their experiences with mental health needs, they give audiences insight into the day-to-day struggles of having mental health issues, ways they have managed them, and how teachers, providers, parents, and peers can provide appropriate support.
For more information on having the Youth Advisory Board speak to your group, please contact Renelle Nelson, Youth Advisory Board facilitator, at 952-838-1360.
- New Transition Resource for Teens: A Mental Health Checklist you can use for planning your IEP transition services
Family
- ADHD: A Guide for Families
- The Casey Journalism Center on Children and Families
- Kids Health
- NYU Child Study Center
- Quality Mall
Friends
Community
- ADHD Information and Support to Help Your Child
- Big Brothers Big Sisters
- Boys & Girls Clubs of America
- MENTOR: Expanding the world of quality mentoring
- NAMI: Child & Adolescent Action Center
- National Collaborative on Workforce and Disability for Youth
- Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration
- The U.S. Jaycees
- Voices for America's Children
- Yellow Pages for Kids with Disabilities
- YouthRules!
Self Advocacy and Leadership
- Do Something: Young People Changing Their World
- Global Youth Action Network
- Kids As Self Advocates
- KidsCounsel: Center for Children's Advocacy
- Listen Up! Youth Media Network
- National Youth Leadership Council: Service-Learning's Homepage
- ScenariosUSA - Kids Creating Social Change
A little bit of info from their website... Scenarios USA aims to inspire youth to make healthier and safer decisions by offering them a creative approach to thinking through and discussing their choices, their dreams, and their future.
Scenarios asks youth to write scripts and stories about issues which shape their lives, including HIV/AIDS, teen pregnancy, relationships, sexual orientation, peer pressure, and communication as part of the Scenarios 'What's the Real Deal?' writing contest. The winning writers, partnered with Hollywood filmakers, produce their stories into high-quality, short films in their home towns... (More on the website.)
To go directly to a list of their films: http://www.scenariosusa.com/movies/
From their website: "...without a doubt the hippest, best-edited, most entertaining sex ed videos ever made. The movies are relevant because the scripts are written by teens for teens."
School / Bullying and Harassment
- The purpose of Organized Chaos is to provide you with a "teens/young adults-only" Web Site for learning about OCD from each other, and from treatment providers. You'll be given the tools needed to overcome the isolation OCD often fosters, and a forum for creatively expressing your personal trials, tribulations and triumphs.
