Resources for Families

Mindfest: Celebrating the Mind and Nourishing the Soul is a free community event to celebrate and to promote mental health with music, entertainment, art, vendors, panel discussions and more. Mindfest is an informative, inspiring and inclusive health and wellness festival that brings diverse communities together. It will be held on May 7, 2023 with the intention of promoting dialogue about mental health and connecting people to the resources and services they need to thrive.

This event has something for everyone. All are welcome!

Mindfest: Celebrating the Mind and Nourishing the Soul was created by the Mental Health Matters of Washington team: Ana Thompson, Annika Sahota, Jody Early, Nohemi Rivera and Sandra Huber. MHM of WA is funded by Verdant Health, UW Bothell, Skagit County Public Health, and North Sound Accountable Communities of Health.

5 ways you can advocate for yourself and others in your school and community:

- Knowledge is power! Learn about how to navigate your school/ district website and communications
- Build relationships with school staff
- Build relationships with other families/ parents
- Share information & resources with other families/ parents
- Practice self-care and compassion

During our Natural Leaders trainings, we have an exercise in which parents/ families and staff create an "I am from..." poem. It can be in a written or spoken, and it surely brings out the inner poet in each of the participants and makes us feel honored to be able to share the experience.
Here is an example from a previous session:

"I am from mother and love.
I am from kindness,
From caring and a big heart.
I am from the oldest culture in the world.
I am from Farsi and English and Persian. From
having over ten friends I can talk to,
From gathering and laughing.
I am from strong feelings and hopefulness."

The terms "College" and "University" can be confusing, especially because they are used interchangeably but they do have quite a few difference. We broke down some of the differences in the image and below:

College
Offers only undergraduate programs
Can be smaller than universities
It is less costly

University
Offers undergraduate as well as graduate programs
Larger than colleges, can be divided in colleges or schools
Due to multiple facilities and programs available, it can be more costly