THE NAMI-SAVANNAH AFFILIATE ANNUAL REPORT

SEPTEMBER 1, 2005

NAMI-Savannah, Inc., is dedicated to serving multiple counties in the coastal region of Southeast Georgia and provides advocacy, education, and support to families and citizens struggling with the burden of mental illness. With more than 230,000 members, nationally, NAMI is the leading grassroots advocacy organization solely dedicated to improving the lives of persons with severe mental illness including Schizophrenia, Bipolar Disorder, Major Depression, Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, and Severe Anxiety Disorders.

 

This report is a synopsis of our goals, progress, and successes achieved during the past fiscal year as well as the difficulties that lie ahead for us and how we plan on overcoming them. Attachments include a list of 2004-2005 executive officers and board members and a financial report.

 

THE NAMI-SAVANNAH AFFILIATE ANNUAL REPORT

During the 2004-2005 year, the NAMI-Savannah affiliate continued to move smoothly through a year focused on growth and improvement in the lives of our consumers and their families and friends. A strong focus was placed on our mentally ill loved ones who, because of brain disorders that impair judgment and reasoning skills, often end up in jails. E. Fuller Torrey, M.D., Ph.D., believes there are approximately 750,000 people currently in jails or prisons throughout American whose principal offense is being mentally ill. Had they received proper treatment, serious and sometimes heinous crimes could have been prevented and they would be free and living independent and meaningful lives.

With this in mind, and in collaboration with local and state community leaders and officials, NAMI-Savannah began implementation of the Crisis Intervention Team (CIT). In August of 2004, under the leadership of NAMI-GA and Georgia Bureau of Investigation Director, Vernon Keenan, NAMI-Savannah hosted a forum in which community stakeholders and law enforcement were invited to hear Major Sam Cochran present the "Memphis Model" of Crisis Intervention Training. This program diverts those with behavioral health issues who interface with law enforcement from jail into mental health resources in the community.

In October of 2004 a delegation that included the Department of Human Resources Regional Director, health providers, and our jail administrator traveled to Memphis for orientation and to experience the jail diversion process first hand. Those delegates identified others in our region who are stakeholders as we began plans for training law enforcement and coordinating the treatment in the community.

In February of 2005 those stakeholders who were identified and included two Savannah-Chatham police captains traveled to Memphis. Captain Larry Branson became our Crisis Intervention Team law enforcement coordinator. He and Sgt. Jeff Olson trained in Atlanta to do the de-escalation segment of the course.

In May of 2005 the first law enforcement training program was held. Eighteen officers from Savannah/Chatham Metropolitan Police Department (SCMPD) graduated along with two officers from Hinesville,GA and a probation officer from Savannah Impact Program. There was tremendous support from the community providing professional educators for our training needs as well as local restaurants who provided lunch.

The second training program took place in June, 2005 and was attended by police officers from Statesboro and St. Mary’s as well as more Savannah police officers. Future trainings have been scheduled for September and October, 2005. Captain Larry Branson will be serving as coordinator and moderator of a statewide "Train the Trainer" program at the Georgia Public Safety Training Center in Forsyth, GA September 6-10. Five officers and two clinicians from our region will be attending. The will then be qualified to do training throughout this region. This program has by far been NAMI-Savannah’s proudest moment and most progressive accomplishment.

However, this was by far not our only accomplishment. Most notable was our steady progression of moving our affiliate forward by effecting improvements, sponsoring events, focusing on consumers, and our constant striving to fulfill our mission by providing support, advocacy, and education. The following are further examples of how NAMI-Savannah proudly reached goals during the past fiscal year which assisted us in assessing needs not yet met, and goals not yet accomplished.

During the 2004-2005 Fiscal Year,

NAMI-Savannah observed Mental Illness Awareness Week by hosting a successful open house, a featured newspaper article, and a letter campaign to our local faith based community.

The Board of Directors appointed an Office Manager and Volunteer Coordinator. She has spent the better part of this fiscal year organizing the office and setting up a new and efficient volunteer program. Currently, our office is staffed by volunteers five days a week. This improvement has enabled us to better serve our membership and community by being available when needed and offering an effective phone link through which we can support and refer, particularly when people are in crisis. The volunteer program has been enhanced by the development of a new volunteer orientation program as well as regularly scheduled volunteer meetings and special observance of National Volunteer Week during the past fiscal year.

The Board of Directors approved upgrading office equipment in the form of a new computer, new colored printer, a new copier and new software such as Microsoft Publishing and Microsoft Access. As a result, the Office Manager continues to publish high quality monthly newsletters for distribution throughout the state of Georgia. Further, our membership database has been updated and loaded into the new Access software resulting in up-to-date records and the ability to run needed reports.

Two Family to Family classes were taught; one in the fall and one in the spring.

Two NAMI-Savannah members were trained as Family to Family teachers.

Three NAMI-Savannah members were trained as Peer to Peer teachers and they are currently deep in preparation for teaching a fall Peer to Peer class.

NAMI-Savannah received a grant from The Savannah Community Foundation, Inc. which allowed ten mental health consumers from our community to attend the 14^th Annual Conference hosted by the Georgia Mental Health Consumer Network at St. Simons Island, GA.

NAMI-Savannah sponsored a Christmas Party at the Georgia Regional Hospital. Patients were presented with enough Christmas cookies to last throughout the entire holiday season and every patient received a Christmas gift during the party.

Christmas gifts were presented to every NAMI-Savannah consumer member as well as consumers whose families are members.

A program was initiated whereby letters are mailed to various businesses and corporations throughout the local Savannah area offering them a sponsorship in NAMI-Savannah. If they choose to donate, they receive plaques for their businesses. So far, donations have been received from three local businesses.

A Spring Fling and Picnic in the Park was held in the spring which included a program entitled, "Choices in Recovery," a picnic lunch, games with prizes and a fundraising raffle event. This event was enormously successful and focused on and appealed particularly to our consumers.

Our advocacy program remained strong during the past year with one member representing NAMI on the Gateway Community Services Board, and another member representing NAMI as a member of the Southeastern Regional Planning Board, Chair, Legislative Committee Regional Board, member of Georgia Regional Hospital-South Hospital Advisory Committee, member of the Multi-Disciplinary Team for Elder Abuse and Mental Illness, member, Partners for Community Health (Chatham County and Savannah), member, Savannah Disability Committee, and member, SALT Committee (Seniors and Law Enforcement Team). Another NAMI-Savannah member is the Region 5 Education Director.

During the past year the NAMI-Savannah Speaker’s Bureau provided speakers for local civic groups throughout the city of Savannah as well as communities and towns outside Savannah.

A member of NAMI-Savannah was elected to the NAMI-GEORGIA Board of Directors.

NAMI-Savannah continued its bookmark project which consists of producing, marketing, and selling bookmarks to bookstores, museums, and high end gift shops throughout the Savannah area. Money received from the sale of these bookmarks goes directly to support NAMI-Savannah programs.

NAMI-Savannah was represented at the annual DASH meeting.

NAMI-Savannah held monthly affiliate meetings and we succeeded in our goal of providing quality speakers and/or presentations for our attending membership and quests at each meeting. General meetings were preceded by two support groups; one for family members and another for consumers, and members took turns providing refreshments for every meeting in order for attendees to have a time for fellowship and bonding with one another.

Our success only served to create a drive and desire in us to continue to move forward with an even greater zeal. Future goals and visions include:

 

More CIT training and implementation

More education programs such as Visions for Tomorrow, a Family to Family class taught in Spanish; and branching into our area colleges

An annual retreat for executive officers, board members and advisors

Review and update bylaws

A clubhouse for the mentally ill consumers.

Greater and continued advocacy

Grant writing and increased fund raising efforts

A paid office manager

The difficulties we face are the same that advocates throughout the state of Georgia face. We are concerned over the constant lack of funding and the cutting back on services for mental health consumers in every area. A recent concern is the reduced funding for medications.

NAMI-Savannah is particularly concerned over the fact that the state of Georgia has 60 million dollars to distribute throughout the state over the next year for mental health care. We, in Region 5, have typically and traditionally been under-funded. Recently our district has been expanded to include 44 counties. This is one-fourth of the state of Georgia. The state has undertaken to allow certain districts to bid for increases in funding and although eight requests for bids were distributed, none of them were offered to District 5, the most under-funded of all the districts. This is the dilemma we face and the type of constraints we so arduously work under in our efforts to improve the quality of life, basic medical needs, and services to our mentally ill consumers.

Respectfully Submitted,

TED BANTA

Interim President, NAMI-Savannah

	July	August	Sept	Oct	Nov	Dec	Jan	Feb	March	April	May	June	Total
REVENUES:
Beginning Balance	9723.73	9281.34	8413.45	6884.22	10516.48	12536.54	12280.99	15535.25	15391.80	13878.94	18192.68	13778.22
1. Contributions	20.00	670.00	400.00	2500.00	10.00	750.00	1047.00		170.00	4520.00	1385.00		11472.00
2. Grants			153.53	2000.00			2500.00			132.99			4786.52
3. Dues	30.00	61.00		120.00		241.00	120.00	240.00	635.00	120.00	210.00	90.00	1867.00
4. Garage Sale													0.00
5 Bookmarks	309.90					82.50	127.50	186.45	114.95	94.50	206.40	103.95	1226.15
6. CIT Reimbursement			2110.65										2110.65
7. Other		17.00		127.54	10844.44					3.25			10992.23
													0.00
TOTAL REVENUES	359.90	748.00	2664.18	4747.54	10854.44	1073.50	3794.50	426.45	919.95	4870.74	1801.40	193.95	32454.55
OPERATING EXPENSES:
1. Office Expense	82.95		192.97	94.63	257.39	52.25		186.08	431.72	241.18	300.83	699.88	2539.88
Printer Ink				71.80		369.88					67.80		509.48
3. Printing	32.65		2.01										34.66
2. Postage	179.50	74.00	81.40	84.66	115.05	148.00	155.40	41.80	148.00	148.00	81.40	81.40	1338.61
Postal Box Rental									38.00				38.00
4. Equipment			850.00		1872.20								2722.20
5. Telephone	431.74		509.05		87.34	172.26	90.10		220.15	95.69	214.76		1821.09
6. Electric	75.45	101.89	113.43	112.53	72.40	58.80	54.74	69.38	69.94	52.27	79.86	57.23	917.92
7. Consumer Gifts						500.00	100.00					116.50	716.50
8. Travel expenses													0.00
9. Event Expenses			135.66					210.96				54.00	400.62
10. State & Nat. Dues		100.00		1.00	201.00		80.00	40.00	581.00			160.00	1163.00
11. Utility Bill		19.86		21.66		19.86		21.68		19.86		21.78	124.70
12. Program Expense												200.00	200.00
13. Office Lease		700.00	700.00	700.00	4200.00						4335.21		10635.21
14. Corp. Reg. Fees									30.00				30.00
15. Insurance Liability									854.00		1076.00		1930.00
16. CIT Expenses		620.14	1608.89		2000.00								4229.03
17. Bellsouth Advertising				29.00	29.00		58.00		60.00		60.00		236.00
18. Other						8.00	2.00					27.50	37.50
TOTAL EXPENDITURES	802.29	1615.89	4193.41	1115.28	8834.38	1329.05	540.24	569.90	2432.81	557.00	6215.86	1418.29	29624.40