The 6th Community Building Forum and 14th Annual Conference on Advancing School Mental Health (November 1-4, 2009, Minneapolis, MN) were sponsored by the Center for School Mental Health (CSMH) and the IDEA Partnership. The theme of this year’s conference was School Mental Health: Promoting Success for All Students. The conference featured twelve specialty tracks and offered speakers and participants numerous opportunities to network and advance knowledge and skills related to school mental health practice, research, training, and policy. The keynote speaker, Jordan Burnham, kicked of the conference and the Youth Leadership Forum that included students form MN Public Schools and national youth leaders. Jordan is a national speaker for the National Mental Health Awareness Campaign (http://www.nostigma.org/jordan_burnham.php). The Youth Forum participants had chance to spend more time with Jordan and develop Dialogue Guides on Youth Engagement and Leadership.
The Community meeting began with the Share Fair featuring 18 sessions. The goal of the Share Fair was to provide a repository of materials and strategies that can be used by all states, all stakeholder groups and all organizations in their mental health efforts. Some examples include: NH dropout prevention strategy, SC strategy for addressing stigma issues, VT Early Childhood Mental Health Competencies and Family engagement model. All these and other resources can be found in the Share Fair 2009 folder.
The 6th Community meeting was focused on the Value of the National Community of Practice, Community Tools for Building Connections, and Stakeholder Developed Repositories. The overall purpose was to broker connections among groups, model leadership and engagement at all levels, champion more meaningful youth roles, deepen the community work by using organizational networks and state connections, and create a community work plan for 2009-2010.
Participants:
13 States: HI, IL, MD, MO, NH, NM, NC, OH, PA, SC, SD, VT and WV.
17 National organizations:
American Association of School Administrators
American Council for School Social Work
American Occupational Therapy Association
American Psychological Association
American School Counselor Association
Children and Adults with Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder
Council for Children with Behavioral Disorders
Council for Exceptional Children
Federation of Families for Children's Mental Health
National Assembly on School-Based Health Care
National Association of State Directors of Special Education
National Association of Elementary School Principals
National Association of School Psychologists
National Education Association
National Fiesta Educativa
National Disability Rights Network
School Social Work Association of America

7 National Technical Assistance Centers:
Center for School Mental Health
IDEA Partenrship
National Technical Assistance Center for Children’s Mental Health
Parent Advocacy Coalition for Educational Rights
Southeast Regional Resource Center
Technical Assistance Coordination Center
Technical Assistance Partnership for Child and Family Mental Health

3 Federal Partners
Substance Abuse & Mental Health Services Administration
Health Resources and Services Administration
Office of Special Education Programs, US DOE

The National Community of Practice is working with one of its members, the REACH Institute, in their quest to shorten the time required for evidence-based practice to reach the field and become commonplace.
REACH trains pediatricians, family practitioners, child psychiatrists, psychologists, social workers, nurse practitioners, school personnel and parents and their advocates in evidence-based practices. They are conducting the national survey to assess the needs of the field. REACH wants to hear from front line practitioners, administrators, youth and families.

As a participant at this national meeting, you are being invited to have your voice heard. Please access and respond the REACH Survey of School Mental Health Needs by December 4, 2009 hosted at the link below: https://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=VvWR7WhvpKW67MJISQkDBQ_3d_3d

Dear Community Members,
For the last few years the IDEA Partnership and Center for School Mental Health have been building a network of involved individual form many roles that care deeply about school mental health. This network is described as the National Community of Practice (CoP) on School Behavioral Health because:
• We work with multiple federal agencies that deal with health and mental health
• We work with states that are bridging across education and mental health
• We work with national organizations that have behavioral health as a major piece of their work
• We work with individuals that give and receive services in behavioral health
We have been working to bring the members of this community closer together around issues and to use the collective experience that the members bring to issues that we all care about. Working with the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Administration (SAMHSA), our CoP is using its network to seek input on a major piece of the public information campaign. SAMHSA wants to develop a glossary of terms that are commonly used but have varying meanings according to the system. The National CoP is taking on the project of supporting the development of this ‘glossary’ through our Practice Group, Learning the Language. This practice group, composed of practitioners’ and consumers, is broadly focused on the same issue and will be helping to lead this work.
You and your colleagues can inform this important national project by:
• completing the survey that is online at : https://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=rAxEdCW1smFQc_2b6smsX0tw_3d_3d
• redistributing this message to all your networks

Far too often, practitioners and consumers comment that national policy work is remote and does not reflect their views. This is your opportunity to share what you know about ways in which vocabulary can advance or inhibit our work. Only those that do this work can know the full extent of miscommunication based on terms that are not commonly understood across key groups. Please share your insights on this national issue…and invite all your colleagues to do the same!