Project AWARE Laconia - The goal of Project AWARE Laconia is to increase the awareness and ability of youth-serving adults in the Laconia public schools and community to adequately support and help youth who may be experiencing a mental health or substance use challenge or who may be in crisis, by training eight (8) individuals as Youth Mental Health First Aid (YMHFA) instructors and five hundred (500) community YMHFA first aiders. We will accomplish this by increasing the mental health literacy of adults who interact with school-aged youth and increase awareness of mental health issues among school-aged youth. By increasing the awareness and ability of Laconia youth-serving adults to detect and respond to mental illness in youth, we anticipate increasing the number of youth who access behavioral and/or mental health services. We will be targeting all populations of youth, aged 12-18, by requiring all middle and high school staff, faculty, and volunteers to become YMHFA first aiders. We will be partnering with key community organizations and agencies that interface, support and/or serve sub-populations of youth, aged 12-18 in Laconia. The three measurable goals of Project AWARE Laconia are: 1) Implement the evidenced-based Youth Mental Health First Aid (YMHFA) Program in the Laconia community to enhance the awareness and ability of youth-serving adults to detect and respond to mental illness in youth, 2) Establish and maintain a cadre of YMHFA instructors and YMHFA first aiders in Laconia, NH, where there are currently no other implementation efforts of YMHFA taking place or YMHFA trainings being conducted, and 3) Link planning and implementation of Project AWARE Laconia grant initiatives with efforts to coordinate planning across state and local education, mental health, juvenile justice, and other child serving systems.
