Community Events

Statewide Program Trainings:

All program trainings, through the first week of April, have been cancelled. This means that both Family Support Group (FSG) and In Our Own Voice (IOOV) are postponed until further notice.  We will make every effort to reschedule when it is safe to do so. We will continue to monitor COVID-19 and make decisions about other trainings and in-person events later this spring as we continue to monitor the most appropriate health recommendations. In the meantime:

1. Continue to collect applications for Children’s Challenging Behaviors (CCB),  Family-to-Family (F2F) and Connection.  When screening your applicants, please alert them that the dates of the training may change based on developments of COVID-19.

2. For those of you who have applicants signed up for FSG and IOOV, please reach out and make sure they know the training is cancelled. They were all alerted by state office staff, but having the coordinator reach out additionally will help with confusion and provides an opportunity to discuss their role until a training is next available.

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In Person Programs & Meetings:

Based on the recent state of emergency, and requested distancing measures, NAMI Virginia is canceling all in person programs and meetings for the next three weeks. Due to our legal relationship, all Model B Affiliates must follow suit and cancel all in person programs and meetings effective immediately. We strongly encourage Model A Affiliates to do the same, as soon as possible.  Below is a communication plan we have drafted which we encourage you to use in alerting your members and community. We are also currently researching online and remote options for continuing our education and support efforts. We hope to have more robust guidance about these options by the end of the week.

Communication Plan:

1. Alert all your program leaders that you are closing all programs for the next three weeks.  Let them know that the affiliate will soon be making decisions about the potential of moving some programming online or remote.

2. Alert the public that due to the state of emergency, the request for social distancing, and NAMI Hampton/Newport News’s desire to keep everyone as safe as possible, NAMI Hampton/Newport News will be canceling all programs for the next three weeks. We are currently looking into online and remote options, and should we be able to move some of our programming to those platforms during this time. We will be sharing those resources as soon as they are available. Until then, please utilize our Helpline for support at 757-690-1370.

3. Place a public message on all of your communication platforms (FB, website, Instagram, twitter, email blasts).  NAMI Virginia created an announcement on our website and a section with resources detailing COVID-19 updates for members. Feel free to use as an example in creating your own messaging. https://namivirginia.org/

4. We continue to recommend that you monitor COVID-19 information on the Center for Disease Control (CDC) and the Virginia Department of Health (VDH) websites.