Suggestions for Schools, Libraries or Other Community Organizations

• Set up a MIAW information booth in a plaza or shopping mall.
  
  
• Organize a walk-a-thon to promote awareness of mental illness.
  
  
• Organize lectures, seminars, workshops or an open house around this year's MIAW theme at community centres.
  
  
• Give a lecture or screen a film on mental illnesses for students, teachers and the general public at a neighbourhood school or library. After the screening discuss what it would be like to have a mental illness or how best to deal with people who have been diagnosed with a disease. Discuss some of the myths about mental illness.
  
  
• Ask your mayor to officially proclaim the first full week in October as Mental Illness Awareness Week.
  
  
• Write to your city councillor, provincial representative, provincial and federal health ministers and request that they put mental illness on their agendas. You can also ask them to participate in a MIAW function. For example, they might host a breakfast or luncheon for colleagues, featuring a speaker who has experienced a mental illness or someone who can speak on some aspect of this year's theme.
  
  
• Meet with local, regional, provincial and federal representatives to discuss mental illness issues one-on-one.
  
  
• Organize a poster or essay-writing contest. Have the winning entries published in the local newspaper and/or post them on the bulletin board at the school or community centre.
  
  
• Work with schools, the community and/or the library to plan a fun and educational event with games and prizes for children and adolescents.
  
  
• Organize a social event such as a pancake breakfast, a fall picnic, or kite-flying festival hosted by local celebrities. Organize a community party and have educational activities for children and informational brochures about mental illness that people can read while waiting in line to get their food.
  
  
• Organize a quilting bee. Each section of the quilt could represent some aspect of mental illness.
  
  
• Ask the library to set up a book display and hold a "Reading about Mental Illness" day in which community members read stories dealing with mental illness.
  
  
• Distribute information about mental illness at local community centres, grocery or health food stores, universities or sports centres. Drop off materials at libraries, bookstores, pharmacies and doctors' offices. Set up an information table.
  
  
• Create a visual display on mental illness at school or the community centre.
  
  
• Organize a training session during MIAW to help community members understand how best to help people with a mental illness. Then, encourage the community members to volunteer in this capacity whenever they can.
  
  
• Encourage people to make a list of improvements they would like to see in the community and workplace for people who have been diagnosed with mental illnesses. You could begin by listing some ways the community could improve the quality of life for people who have mental illnesses. Discuss ways that individuals, organizations and institutions can address these concerns.
  
  
• Create a newsletter about mental illness and share it with the rest of the community.