Written by: Jasmine Boatwright
Children’s Mental Health Awareness Day aims to shine a light on the importance of children’s mental wellness. Generally celebrated the first Thursday in May every year, awareness day started in 2005 as a day that families use to highlight children’s mental health matters. Over the years CMHA day has grown to be one of the most celebrated National Observance days in the children’s mental health system.
Each year thousands of local, youth, and family-run organizations host activities, develop advocacy and anti-stigma campaigns to heighten awareness and support of children’s mental health services. Past projects have included events like:
- Storytelling at the capitol
- Video and social media campaigns
- Community picnics
- Resource fairs
- Game nights
Some advocacy projects have been geared towards increasing funding for children’s services, making additions to current policies in services to enhance the treatment and voices of youth and young adults.
This year’s Youth MOVE National will be hosting the sixth annual MOVE It Forward campaign! MOVE It Forward is a chance for all of us to work together on a singular issue at the same time.
MOVE It Forward is the slogan for much deeper work—uniting individual youth from Youth MOVE Chapters across the country in crafting and presenting a message, a demand for change. Each year the most pressing issue for our network may change, but Youth MOVE will still be here to MOVE It Forward.
This year’s theme is Reflect : Connect. Reflect | Connect is about taking what we learned and sharing it; reflections on how we engaged in self-care, reflections on how we able to adapt to changes in school or work, and reflections about the culture and world around us.
Youth MOVE National will be hosting a variety of events throughout the month of May to celebrate Children’s Mental Health Awareness Day –
- The Importance of Youth Voice Live Twitter Chat, May 4th @ 3pm EST
- IDentity: A Storytelling Advocacy Project
- 10-Day Youth Engagement Challenge
- Chapter Fundraising Project: REConnection
For more information or to get connected to these activities visit our website: MOVE It Forward 2021 | Youth MOVE National
