In this 60 to 90 minute presentation, two trained speakers share compelling personal stories about living with mental illness and achieving recovery. In Our Own Voice offers an opportunity for those who have struggled with mental illness to gain confidence and to share their individual experiences of recovery and transformation.
The goals of IOOV are to meet the need for consumer- run initiatives, to set a standard for quality education about mental illness from those who have been there, to offer genuine work opportunities, to encourage self-confidence and self-esteem in presenters, and to focus on recovery and the message of hope. After the presentation, audience members are encouraged to offer feedback and ask questions.
Anyone familiar with mental illness knows that recovery is not a singular event, but a multi-dimensional, multi-linear journey characterized more by the mindset of the one taking it than by his or her condition at any given moment along the way. Understanding recovery as having several dimensions makes its uneven course easier to accept. Recovery is the point in someone’s illness in which the illness is no longer the first and foremost part of his or her life, no longer the essence of all his or her existence.
The In Our Own Voice presentation is offered free of charge to consumer groups, students, law enforcement officials, educators, providers, faith community members, politicians, professionals, inmates, and interested civic groups.