Please consider making a tax-deductible donation to Mothers on the Frontline.
Click here to make a tax-deductible donation
Mothers on the Frontline began earlier this year with the idea that mothers of children with mental health needs are on the frontline of our most intractable social problems, from epidemic youth suicide to the school-to-prison pipeline. Because mothers are often the only constant among the many fragmented systems meant to serve their children, they have a unique insight into those systems, how they intersect, where they work, and where they fail. Our mission was to find a way to collect and share their stories, which all too often are silenced by stigma. Our hope was that these stories would help increase understanding and reduce stigma for the purpose of children’s mental health advocacy.
Along the way, it became clear that these stories were doing something else as well. Mothers were thanking us for the opportunity to be heard, telling us how transformative the experience was for them. We came to understand our project to be as much about healing as about advocacy, with storytelling being central to both.
We are proud of how far we have come in 2017! This year we created a unique interview methodology that respects and empowers mothers. We recorded over 25 interviews (10 of which are already published as podcast episodes). We designed a website and gave several presentations (including at the Please Pass the Love Iowa Parents of Children with Behavioral Health Conference and the Black Women for Wellness Annual Reproductive Justice conference.) We also gave our first storytelling workshop at the National Federation of Families for Children’s Mental Health Annual Conference.
It has been an incredible year! We have met amazing people, learned a lot, and are excited to be registered as an official non-profit public charity with 501(c)(3) tax status.
Won’t you become part of this movement? Your tax-deductible donation will help us make 2018 even better! Your donation will allow us to:
- Offer new “Just Ask Mom” podcast episodes
- Air our new Podcast series called “Ask the Advocate”, in which mental health advocates share their advocacy journey
- Offer new Storytelling workshops that help mothers tell their stories
- for healing and wellness
- to advocate for their children’s needs
- to advocate for positive change in children’s mental health policy and programming
- to advocate for their needs as caregivers
- Partner with Grinnell College to create an online story bank in the Digital Grinnell Archives, which can be used by advocates, scholars, and the public to better understand children’s mental health issues.
- Train and provide mothers around the country with recording equipment to record interviews in their own communities, growing the number and diversity of stories for the Mothers on the Frontline podcast and archive.
Together, we can make a difference!
Our stories have the power to:
heal
help others know they are not alone
beat stigma
inform policy
inspire action
