Comeback Story Filming in Arlington
This February, Arlington Community Media Inc. (ACMI) hosted The NAN Project for an exciting day of filming and recording Peer Mentor Comeback Stories!
ACMI is an organization that is “dedicated to providing an electronic forum for the free exchange of information and ideas which reflect the talents, skills, interests, concerns, and diversity of the Arlington community.” They have two studios for filmmaking and a podcast recording booth that are open for the community to use. Additionally, they offer workshops and volunteering opportunities for those who are interested in film and technology. We were thrilled to be able to team up with ACMI for this project!
Our day at ACMI consisted of some basic introduction to videography and tips on filming. We worked with Jeff, ACMI’s Operations Manager, Katie, the Production and Media Coordinator, and some other staff and interns. Jeff and Katie showed us how to operate the cameras and gave us a run-down on how to set up the camera, microphones, and lights in the studio. Our Peer Mentors – Andrew, Shannon, and Evan – took turns practicing their stories in this new format, in front of the lights and cameras. We also had peer mentors helping out in the studio, by running the teleprompter and helping the interns with the audio soundboard. Everything went so well during the practice take that we decided to film the real take immediately after. The ACMI team filmed the Comeback Stories in a very personal style – it really makes the viewer feel like they’re talking to the Peer Mentor. Our Peer Mentors did a great job adapting to this technology, and having these Comeback Stories captured on film really tells their story of recovery in a creative way. Everyone really worked together very well, and we were excited to return to edit the footage.
The next week, Andrew, Ray Evan and I returned for our follow up day at ACMI, the team tried their hand at editing the footage. We worked with Katie and did some editing on Adobe Premiere Pro. We all learned how to fill in the green screen with other background colors or images and how to combine two shots into one clip and make cuts to get different angles. The folks at ACMi also showed us a trick to apply effects like a dissolve to start and end the final video. During our final session, we finished up the last of our edits and exported all of the files to create the final video. These videos will be useful examples to demonstrate a Peer Mentor’s Comeback Story, in classrooms, in training, or when introducing our programming to a new school!
The NAN Project really would like to thank Jeff, Katie, the interns and all of the staff at ACMI for working with us and imparting some of their knowledge, so that we now have a new way of sharing our stories!
Boston Peer Mentor Training – Jan 2020
In January 2020, The NAN Project held another four-day training in Boston for new Peer Mentors at the Massachusetts Mental Health Center. We had a dozen young adults from all different backgrounds and towns all over Massachusetts sign up for this training.
Throughout the four days, the Peer Mentor trainees learned the QPR a suicide prevention technique, how to craft a Comeback Story and worked on their presentation skills. QPR is the mental health equivalent of CPR. It is non-clinical and meant to give learners the tools to help someone having a mental health crisis, just like CPR empowers people to keep a person with a critical physical ailment alive until help can arrive. This training teaches young people ways to identify the warning signs in a suicidal person, and how to get them to the correct help. We watched a video about Kevin Hines, a suicide prevention speaker who survived jumping off the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, was also shown. Kevin speaks about his ambivalence towards suicide up until the actual attempt and how important it is to reach out to those who may be struggling. Kevin also talks about his struggle with mental health challenges prior to the attempt. There were many warning signs like how he lied about taking medications or opening up to his therapist. He also dropped his college classes and lost his health insurance. These were all the signs that he was struggling with a lot, and if only someone reached out to him and asked if he was okay it may have prevented his attempt. The meat of this training is the actual QPR – Question, Persuade, and Refer – three steps on how to save a life, after which we did role plays in small groups as a way to practice. Everyone left this workshop feeling a little more comfortable reaching out to a friend or loved one who might be struggling.
Some of the other components were helping the trainees tailor their stories of resiliency to our typical high school audiences as well as working on presentation skills. We also worked on some art therapy project, which is another medium we use when engaging students in the classrooms, when we’re not presenting Comeback Stories.
Peer Mentors usually present their Comeback Stories to high schoolers with the goal of opening up a discussion about mental health. There are three main components to a Comeback Story. The first is describing their background and experiences, so the audience connects to the presenter. Next we touch upon the “struggle” piece, or what the young person has overcome. By being so vulnerable and speaking frankly about their mental health challenges, the Peer Mentors create a safe space for students to take about this otherwise stigmatized subject. Lastly, the Comeback Stories highlight the strengths and supports that helped the Peer Mentors overcome their hardships and what gives them hope in the present.
The NAN Project hosts about six Peer Mentor trainings per year, with the next ones coming in Gloucester, Lowell, Lawrence and Malden.
Overall the training went very well and we are looking forward to working with some of the new Peer Mentors that have completed the training.
“I Am More” by Amy Kerr
In the winter of 2019/20, The NAN Project was introduced to an artist from Gloucester, Mass whose messaging of overcoming mental health challenges struck a chord with our own mission of getting people talking about this topic. We were asked by the Greater North Shore NAMI chapter to have several of our Peer Mentors attend and present at the opening of her “I Am More” exhibit in Danvers. Since then, we’ve stayed in closer touch and recently attended another opening, this of an expanded exhibit in Peabody’s North Shore Mall.
Amy Kerr, a pastel portrait painter started this journey in early 2017 after her own struggle with depression, which motivated her to begin the “I am More” project. She initially reached out to 16 local people from the North Shore area of Massachusetts and asked them if they were comfortable sharing their stories of struggle and resiliency. The art showing reminds us that we are more than our current life situation, health diagnosis or physical disability. Each one of Amy’s artistic and realistic portraits has a good meaningful and story behind it. Some of the topics that each individual has experienced are depression, anxiety, addiction, PTSD and suicide.
This portrait is about a United States combat veteran who suffered from PTSD, depression and alcoholism.
One of the portraits is about a United States combat veteran who suffered from PTSD, depression and alcoholism. He describes coming back from war and the challenges he faced re-entering civilian life. The store talks about a retreat that he went on for combat veterans where he finally received the hope he needed and ends on the hopeful note of his entry to college and becoming a mentor for other veterans. This example personal resiliency, finding his purpose and inspiring hope for others very much resembles the Comeback Stories our Peer Mentors share with students.
The exhibit at the North Shore Mall includes 20 new photo-realistic portraits, each with a story of a Massachusetts resident and their own or their family’s words about their struggles with mental illness, disease or other situations that they have faced and overcome.
Amy has exhibited her show in Lawrence, Gloucester, Danvers, Salem and Worcester over the past year and hopes to bring it to Umass Amherst in Western Mass this spring, with a stop at the State House during mental health awareness month in May. To learn where she’ll be next, you can check out her blog at https://amykerrdraws.org/. We look forward to our next collaboration with Amy and the amazing work she is doing.
Fall 2019 Recap
This fall, The NAN Project presented in a few new schools, returned to past schools, and continued expanding our work with middle schools and universities. As we prepare for a new year and some busy months ahead, we can’t believe how much we’ve done in 2019!
As of this December, The NAN Project has reached over 9,000 students with our Peer Mentor Presentations or other suicide prevention training! Our team of Peer Mentors have traveled all across the state this fall, presenting in: Harvard, Salem, Melrose, Stoneham, Billerica, Medway, Plymouth, Milford, Hopedale, Somerville, Chelsea, Andover, Lowell, Tyngsborough, and Lawrence! Our team has returned to Phillips Academy, The Bromfield School, Milford, Greater Lowell Technical, and Andover High School to present comeback stories of resiliency to this year’s health classes! We’ve also began the school year with some new connections at Methuen and Melrose High School, and traveled south to begin work with Medway High School, Hopedale High School and MAP Academy in Plymouth. For a more in-depth article on our last visit to Lowell High School, read Sarah ’s article on the NAN Line Blog!
Not only have we done our typical presentation to schools, we’ve also provided trainings for faculty and some Peer Leadership students to provide them with more knowledge and skills related to mental health and how to help someone who is struggling. We have provided a non-clinical suicide prevention training to schools called, Question, Persuade, Refer or “QPR” to staff and students, in hopes that it will give them more confidence in finding students help when they need it. QPR is a training that teaches someone how to ask a person if they are thinking of suicide, give tips and tools on ways to help persuade the person struggling, and lastly bringing the person to the right support. We also trained Melrose High School’s faculty in Mental Health 101, which is a training Donna Kausek, our Clinical Director has recently offered to staff in schools. This training provides an overview of basic mental health challenges commonly seen in the classroom.
We have returned this fall to speak to the 7th and 8th graders over at Bromfield Middle School in Harvard. Our set up for middle schools are a little different from our regular curriculum, as we want middle schoolers to know and recognize the signs of different mental health disorders, and how to help themselves or a friend if they’re struggling. We adjusted the language we use to cater to the younger audience and made the program a bit more interactive to keep the kids moving. We also provide lots of candy!
Our founder, Ellen Dalton, Executive Director Jake Cavanaugh and Peer Coordinator Elli Peltola were featured on WCVB Channel 5 Boston’s nightly “5 for Good” segment, which covers people and organizations around Massachusetts that do uplifting work.! To read more, check out our article here.
We also held two Peer Mentor trainings in Salem and Lawrence where we trained 9 new young adults. These amazing youth learned how to tell their stories of resiliency and strength, while also undergoing QPR suicide prevention training and picking up skills to help them engage students in the classroom on the difficult topic of mental health.
None of these events could have happened without our incredible team of Peer Mentors! Thank you all for your continued efforts to bring your stories to classrooms across the state. If you’re wondering what our team will do over the cold months– we’ll be hosting more Peer Mentor trainings and continuing to spread the word about mental health! Check out our Peer Mentor Spotlight to learn more about these incredible individuals.
Greta Waag – PM Spotlight
This month, The NAN Project has featured Greta Waag in our regular PM Spotlight piece. Greta has been with us for almost a year, having joined us after several years as a Peer Specialist at Eliot. She brings experience, confidence and most of all lots of good positive energy to our team (along with a hint of quirkiness!).
Thank you, Greta, for taking the time to do an interview for the PM Spotlight. Tell us a few things about yourself and how long have you been working with The NAN Project?
I’ve been working with The NAN Project for just about one year. I am really motivated to get out in the schools and spread the message that it’s ok to talk about mental health and that there is help and there is hope. I have a strong background in DBT, something I’m really passionate about.
Hobby wise I’m so lame. I go for long walks on the beach (hahaha). I love the ocean I love to sail. I also love to do yoga, that’s a great to ground myself after a stressful week.
I remember that you were a Peer Specialist for Eliot a few years back. We knew each other from the Team Meetings and Peer Outings that we had. What made you get into Peer work back then?
I think peer work was something that I had always had calling for. I bounced around in multiple different jobs and different positions. One working as a mental health counselor with adolescents. Another working at a sober living home for adults. I liked all those jobs, but once I moved into peer work, it became clear that’s where I belonged. I was more comfortable working at the peer to peer level, rather than a hierarchial level (did I just make up that word??) I was able to use my life experience for the better good and to relate to what others are going through. In other jobs, the boundaries were stricter so I wasn’t able to use my experience.
I have a good memory of you bringing that frisbee game where you are on teams and either team tries to get the frisbee in the center of the barrels. How did you find out about that game? And have you known about it for a while?
The frisbee game is called Kan Jam and I saw people play it at the beach. I used to play ultimate frisbee competitively. We travelled nationally. Once I saw this new frisbee I knew I had to have it. It is a great game, because it emphasizes teamwork, which is always fun (giggle). Part strategy and part how you will match well with your partner. The game Kan Jam has strategy and you work together to try and win.
I remember that you were pretty good at Kan Jam and you were very good at explaining how to play it. It’s a good game that gets people to interact. Are there any other outdoor games you like to play?
I love Corn Hole which, a bean bag tossing game. Again, you play with a teammate. I used it as a bonding tool. My dad any I made the two ramps that you need to play the game with on our own. It was a good bonding time with my dad to make the two ramps for that game. It was great to have a common connection. It’s great to interact in a less pressured environment. That was fun. I also like to play Badminton and Bocce Ball. I love games. Being outside, hanging with friends.
I know that you have been with The NAN Project for a little while. How was it adjusting from being a Peer Specialist at Eliot to working with The NAN Project?
I was a Certified Peer Specialist with Eliot for six months. It definitely was an adjustment for me going from checking in with individuals one on one that were on my caseload to presenting to larger groups of students at schools. The good thing is I am able to reach more people with my story through The NAN Project and show that recovery is possible.
I remember back when you were a Peer Specialist for Eliot you always had great positive feedback and good input in the Team meetings. Where would you say this positive energy comes from and what inspires it?
I think my positive energy comes from wanting to make a difference. If I can make a difference in one life than that is worth it. I always wanted to stay positive because I wouldn’t want people to feel alone as I did when I was struggling.
It has been really great to interview you Greta for the PM Spotlight. Thanks so much for doing this interview. Lastly, what are your hopes and aspirations for the future both personally and with The NAN Project?
My hope with The NAN Project is to reach as many young students as possible and breakdown stigma that surrounds mental health. My personal goal is I would like to get back to school and get my Masters Degree in Social Work, so I can continue to help others in their times of struggle.
THANK YOU(!)…. to all our amazing Supporters this Fall
The NAN Project could not continue to provide our innovative mental health educational and awareness programming to students across Massachusetts without the generous support of organizations and funders. This fall, we took part in a fundraiser/awareness walk in Stoneham, a 5K run in Lowell and were honored with Tim Parziale selecting us to be the beneficiary of Cummings Properties annual a holiday employee donation! Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!
We truly couldn’t do this without this support, the generosity of our friends who joined us at the Night 4 NAN, and the grantors from CHNA 6, the Nashoba Valley Community Foundation, Winchester Hospital, the Tower Foundation, the Greater Lowell Health Alliance, Cummings Foundation and the Adelaide Breed Bayrd Foundation!
JL11 Donates Proceeds from Walk to TNP
October 26, 2019 several TNP Peer Mentors participated in the second annual JL11Fund Walk at Stoneham High School. The Walk honored James Luti, a wonderful young man who touched many lives and was a talented hockey player for Stoneham High School. James died by suicide in 2017.
The event included several organizations and speakers that promoted mental health awareness and suicide prevention. More than 300 students and families turned out to support JL11 and walk with the Luti family, including the Bruins mascot, Blades. The proceeds from the Walk were donated to The NAN Project. We are so grateful to the Luti family and the JL11Fund for their partnership and support in the fight to stop suicide.
Cummings Community Giving
Cummings Community Giving recognized The NAN Project again in 2019, for the 3rd year in a row! Thank you Tim and the Cummings Community for your ongoing support and encouragement in helping us help the communities Cummings Properties serves here in Massachusetts.
Donation from the Lowell Firefighters 5k Run
We are so thankful to the Lowell Fire Department for donating the money raised at their 5k run to support our suicide prevention and mental health education work throughout the Lowell community. We are continuing our partnerships with with CTI YouthBuild of Greater Lowell to train new peer mentors, Greater Lowell Technical High School & Lowell High School where we have been working to promote greater understanding around mental health, and finally the Greater Lowell Health Alliance which has facilitated many of these partnerships.
TNP on 5 For Good
The NAN Project’s CEO, Ellen Dalton, Executive Director Jake Cavanaugh, and Peer Coordinator Elli Peltola were featured on WCVB Channel 5 Boston’s nightly “5 for Good” segment, which covers people and organizations around Massachusetts that do uplifting work. They were interviewed by anchor Erika Tarantal, which was aired on Thursday November 14, 2019 during the 7PM news. In the interview Ellen, Jake, and Elli discuss The NAN Project and the growing need for mental health awareness and suicide prevention programming in schools!
Ellen speaks passionately about losing her daughter to suicide and it’s the main driver for Ellen and her son Jake to start The NAN Project. The episode went on to describe how The NAN Project’s Peer Mentors use their Comeback Stories as a way to provide mental health education and a message of hope to people who may be struggling. Elli then talks about her battle with self-harm and how she uses coping skills to overcome this and other challenges.
The show brought us lots of good publicity, and in the week since it aired, people representing schools across Massachusetts have reached out expressing an interest in bringing our programming to their districts.
We would like to thank WCVB Channel 5 for featuring The NAN Project on 5 for Good.
The NAN Project on ‘5 for Good’
See the The NAN Project Team on WCVB -TV Channel 5 for their segment “5 for Good.” The team was interviewed by anchor Erika Tarantal. Ellen, Jake, and Elli discuss The NAN Project and the growing need for mental health awareness and suicide prevention programming in schools!
Watch the clip here.
Recap on the Night 4 NAN!
On Thursday October 17th 2019 The NAN Project held the 6th annual Night for NAN at the Danversport Yacht Club for the third year in a row at this beautiful location. The night kicked off right at 6:00 when the doors opened and guests started funneling in, eventually 250 in total! They were met by the live 4-piece band headlined by Eliot’s own Keith Wales which set a mellow vibe for the start of the night.
Once past the band the attendees came across tables full of silent auction items containing everything from signed sports memorabilia to Caribbean vacations, elegant paintings to home woven quilts, and everything in between. There was also a Fund-A-Cause table hosted by The NAN Project’s Peer Mentors where you can see how one’s generosity can directly support the work of these incredible young adults. Next to the Fund-A-Cause was our Mental Health Jeopardy board that we usually bring to school health fairs and contains Mental Health related questions as well as myths and facts. This turned out to be a big hit with the guests! Some folks even took part in our Rake for Cash Raffle where the winning prize was a rake full of lottery tickets.
At 7:00 the doors to the dining room swung open and the guests lined up for the impressive buffet spread, centered around the roast beef station, cooked up by the always skilled Danversport chefs. Once everyone had taken their seats the evening’s program began.
First up Ellen Dalton, The NAN Project’s Founder & CEO welcomed everyone to the Night for NAN and did an opening introduction where she talked about the accomplishments over the past year. Jake then introduced the two star Peer Mentors, Ziona Rivera and Alison Sabean, who presented their Comeback Stories of resiliency. Peer Coordinator Elli Peltola then took over the mic to encourage the guests to donate using the pledge cards on the table. She was so persuasive that this year we had 10x as many fill out cards compared to 2018. Finally it was time for Ellen to present the Friend for Life Award to the Commissioner of DMH, Joan Mikula for all the support she’s given The NAN Project over the past 4 years. The program wrapped up with “thank yous” for all of our donors and supporters and the final Rake for Cash Raffle drawing, which was won by long time supporter Lindsay Nance (who we can only assume is now a millionaire after scratching some winning lottery tickets).
Overall the Night for NAN was a beautiful and successful evening and really honored NAN’s life. It was a very special night for The NAN Project, which raised 150,00 dollars to support our continued work and everyone did agreat job and really came together to make it memorable. We’ll see you again next year.
Senior Peer Mentor Training 2019
Written by Sarah Dickie
This Summer, The NAN Project held our second Senior Peer Mentor Training Camp. This six-week, twelve-part training covered a wide range of topics relating to mental health, suicide prevention, and self-care. As summer tends to be a slow time for the work we do, with high school students on break from school, these trainings have three purposes: to provide our Peer Mentors with work; to build on our presentation and suicide prevention skills; and to strengthen the relationships among our team.
Through our participation in this training camp, our Peer Mentors learned a lot about supporting youth struggling with their mental health. Meghan Diamon of Mindwise introduced us to SOS: Signs of Suicide, a series of universal, school-based depression awareness and suicide prevention programs designed for middle school and high school students, as well as their parents and teachers. SOS is similar to the Question, Persuade, Refer or QPR method that we teach: both involve “asking the question” – that is, asking if a youth is thinking about suicide – and encouraging the youth to seek mental health support. We also learned some “postvention” approaches for providing support to loss survivors after a suicide with Debbie Helms of Samaritans of Merrimack Valley. Later, Kelsey Taylor taught us all about Motivational Interviewing, a method of supporting an individual in taking steps toward changing harmful behavior. MI is appropriate for use by clinicians and us average folks, because of its focus on keeping power in the hands of the individual changing their behavior. Though we don’t work one-on-one with adolescents in our line of work, this method is valuable to us in our everyday lives as we help our colleagues and our loved ones in their recovery journeys.
Our team also enjoyed the opportunity through this training to improve our working relationships and practice our self-care. We began the summer with mindful yoga for anxiety relief, led by art therapist Alex Norby. This was a first for most of our Peer Mentors, and many found it so rejuvenating that they sought to add it to their personal routines. Later, Senior Peer Mentor Greta Waag taught us some self-reflection skills through Dialectical Behavioral Therapy, or DBT, a method that has helped her tremendously in her own recovery and one she’s very passionate about. Additionally, our team clinician Donna Kausek led us in a conversation about healthy work relationships, covering topics like effective communication, fostering mutual respect, and making and keeping boundaries – all skills that will prove invaluable to us in our work with The NAN Project and beyond.
To break up the sometimes intense suicide prevention topics, we got to have some fun and flex our creativity with improvisational activities and artistic projects. Friend of The NAN Project and filmmaker Dan Perez de la Garza led us in a film studio workshop. Last year, Dan helped us create the vignettes about mental health that we’ve released on YouTube. He encouraged us to use film as a medium to express ourselves, given that our work in high schools has already made us storytellers. Building on this theme, Agatha from Salem State University lead us in some public speaking and storytelling exercises. We practiced concise phrasing with six-word stories and answering tough questions with no preparation in front of an audience, which pulled many of our Peer Mentors out of their comfort zones. Though it may have been hard to get through, this exercise showed us that we have the skills to power through an uncomfortable situation. Our team did lots of art, too: Alex returned to lead us in a group painting project for which we connected our individual canvases with one continuous line, illustrating how we are connected as The NAN Project team. Finally, art therapist Fernanda Lopez from Lawrence Arts House helped us to create a three-dimensional mural to represent our work. We used daffodils as a symbol of rebirth and new beginnings in recovery, and arranged them around the word hope, which we hope to instill in the students who attend our presentations. We hung this mural in The NAN Project’s Lexington office as a reminder of our incredible journeys and of the great time we had together this summer.
Following this extensive training, the wonderful group of young people who participated have all graduated to Senior Peer Mentor status. Thank you to our guest instructors for taking time to come work with us; thank you to the Young Adult Vocational Program in Arlington for lending us a beautiful training space; and thank you to Eliot and the Cummings Foundation for the support to make these trainings happen. Our team is more prepared than ever to return to high schools this upcoming fall!
