Dover Mental Health Alliance

Let’s help Dover Fire as they rally with individuals, businesses, and organizations to make it an joyous Holiday for the kids in our community 🧸

Dover Fire's Toy Bank lost all toys in water leak: Car dealers, community rally to help Two local auto groups joined forces to replace the Dover Fire Department's Toys for Tots program toys lost to water damage. More help is needed.

Join us for this year's... 3rd Annual event!
Click this link to register today!
https://supporting.afsp.org/event/10511

A great event and fun evening at National Night Out in Dover last night. The Dover NH Police, Dover Youth to Youth and other partners did a great job! The turnout was great, it was very comfortable and no rain! They had a scavenger hunt for kids.. to incentivize the kids and families to walk around to all the tables and vendors. On the scavenger hunt kids had to find the Dover Mental Health Alliance table and give us an answer to this question: "If you needed help, who could you turn to?" Answers we heard were- mom and dad, auntie, my teacher, my doctor, police officers, my (twin) brother, my nanna, my Big Sister. We were thoroughly impressed. Some of the kids who visited our table were very young- and they had great answers!

It's official! Our DMHA 2024-2025 Season is kicking off on Wednesday, September 11 from 8:30-10am at the Dover Police Station.
Our meetings are open to the community - we welcome all to attend.
Our meetings will now be the 2nd Wednesday of each month from September to June 2025.
Please join us!
More details to come about our first meeting, our new meeting format and upcoming Community Agency "Spotlights" and mental health educational series.

And a few more pics over the years!
-Hope Garden at DHS, bloomin tulips
-DMHA Community meeting
-Zoom call with DMHA Steering Committee

Some more pictures through the years of the DMHA!
Bangor Savings Bank employees planting Yellow Tulips at DHS. Yellow signifies hope and they bloomed during Mental Health Awareness Month
-Out of the Darkness Walk
-The Doorway Recovery Friendly Workplace and DMHA Mental Health Friendly Workplace Designation
-Community Church of Newmarket Designation as a DMHA Mental Health Friendly House of Worship workplace
-Cora Long presenting on SUD and the holidays
-DMHA Mini Golf tournament - 2022

On June 28, 2019 (FIVE YEARS AGO TODAY!), Dr. Harbron, Superintendent of Dover Schools, and I (in my role with Community Partners) hosted the Mental Illness, Su***de Prevention and Our Community Summit which brought dozens of community stakeholders from throughout the region to Wentworth-Douglass for our first “community” discussion and workshop. I think many of us are still shocked about how much we’ve been able to accomplish.
Random pics:
-Celebrating 5 years at our June DMHA meeting
-Steve Pappajohn and Suz Weete (sorry about the projector lighting on our face!)
-GYMCA YMHFA training with DMHA Steering Committee Member Katie Soule
-Steering committee members, Cora Long, Melissa Lesniak, Steve Pappajohn, Suz Weete

Our DMHA Fundraiser, scheduled for this Saturday, June 22, has been postponed.

We want to thank our sponsors and registered golfers for signing up so quickly!

June 22 has proven to be a very busy day with some amazing events scheduled in our region. Relay for Life and Pride events are both occurring this Saturday. Many of our partners and supporters are participating in these regional events

We have come to the decision to postpone our DMHA Mini Golf Fundraiser to a later date this summer/fall. This was not an easy decision, but it makes the most sense.

We respect the time of our partners, volunteers and supporters and want them to be able to partake in the causes that are as important to them as the DMHA.

Stay tuned for a new date!

Thank you Jackie Harris, Producer at NHPR, for this great story, highlighting some really brave youth at Spaulding High School who want to be part of the solution of normalizing the conversation about mental health.
Teen Mental Health First Aid will debut at Spaulding this fall, thanks to a SAMHSA grant that Community Partners NH received 2 years ago. Spaulding will be the third high school in Strafford County to fully implement Teen Mental Health First Aid.

Rochester high schoolers form a club to help their peers amid mental health struggles A new CDC survey of New Hampshire high schoolers finds that while the number of teens struggling with their mental health is slightly decreasing, it’s still higher than pre-pandemic levels, especially among girls.

My name is Suzanne Weete and I am the parent of 3 boys. Five years ago Dr. Harbron, Superintendent of Dover Schools, and I started the Dover Mental Health Alliance (DMHA) because I knew nothing about mental health challenges or su***de prevention and I was scared. I wanted to learn more about how to recognize when someone was in emotional distress.. and then know what to do about it!

Since then, community leaders throughout the region have jumped on board to help develop the DMHA with the mission to build a resilient community that is educated, responsive and conscious of the impact of mental illness.

No one is immune to mental health challenges. We all experience ups and downs.

The DMHA believes we can change our culture by normalizing the conversation about mental health challenges and work together to prevent su***de. And we believe we all have a part to play.

The DMHA is a community-driven grassroots organization which runs on volunteers and passion! We are now asking our community to help us continue the work of bringing mental health challenges out of the darkness and into the light.

Please join us for our 2024 DMHA Mini Golf Fundraiser. We are looking for business sponsors and golfers to play in our family friendly event, on June 22, 9am-12pm at Hilltop Fun Center!

To register, use the QR code in the flyer or click here: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/par-tee-for-mental-health-tickets-905517456087?aff=oddtdtcreator

Join our Partner OCD NH for their annual walk!

Sunday, June 23rd at White Park in Concord, NH. 2:00PM. Walk is free to attend, you get a T-shirt when you make a $25 donation.

Registration page: https://support.iocdf.org/event/concord-nh-ocd-walk/e571517

A nice note from Mental Health America for our part in Mental Health Awareness Month in May!

From the bottom of our hearts, thank you for your overwhelming enthusiasm, commitment, and support for this year’s Mental Health Month!
Whether you participated in the “Be Seen in Green” challenge, bought items from our store, lit your building green, downloaded or used our toolkit, or wore our green bracelets, you made a difference!
Here are just a few of the incredible things you helped achieve:
• You collectively raised over $10,000 through our “Be Seen in Green” challenge to fund Mental Health America’s vital programs.
• 260+ buildings and landmarks were lit green, including Niagara Falls!
• Our green shirts sold out four times! 100% of the proceeds supported MHA’s mission.
• Our Mental Health Month toolkit, “Where to Start,” was downloaded over 46,000 times, extending our public education reach far and wide.
This month has been truly inspiring, as we watched so many communities educate, fundraise, and spread awareness. There is truly power in numbers, and by speaking up, you showed everyone that "Mental Health Matters!"
Thank you again for participating. We could not realize our mission of elevating mental health as an essential part of overall wellness without you.
Gratefully,
Mental Health America

Look for the good. This worksheet can help you try.

It’s been 2 years since we last Par-TEE’D! Bring your families, co-workers, and friends- and let’s Par-TEE for Mental Health! Saturday, June 22 from 9am-12pm at Hilltop Fun Center. What is a Par-TEE? It’s a mini-golf fundraiser for the Dover Mental Health Alliance!

We do this work because we are passionate about bringing mental health out of the shadows and into the light. We believe that the more we talk about mental health, the easier it will be for people to ask for help. We believe that this work also empowers people to offer help to someone else. We believe this is a community challenge to solve- and each one of us can be part of the solution.

Your support for the DMHA will help us continue this important work.

So today, we are looking for mini-golf teams and sponsors to partake in our Par-TEE for Mental Health ~ 2024. All the details are below (and attached) with a QR code to register, or go to: https://tinyurl.com/4h6awsx2

Sometimes a good ole' fashion worksheet may help you get through a tough time. Learning how to cope in situations isn't always easy or natural for some. Maybe these worksheets will help.

Join us for our May DMHA Community meeting, tomorrow from 8:30-10am at the Dover Police Station. Our meetings are an opportunity to be welcomed in a trauma informed environment, to meet new people and to learn about resources, events and programming in our communities in support of mental health and substance use disorder. Tomorrow's guest speaker, Sheila Hatch, will be speaking about "values". Here is a snapshot: When we live and play out of alignment with our values it can cause us to feel stress as well as a wide array of uncomfortable emotions. Awareness of our core values simplifies decisions and restores peace and energy.
For more information about Sheila, go to: https://www.sheilahatchbowenworkandcoaching.com/

Thank you to the Seacoast Chamber Alliance for hosting the 3rd Annual Mental Health, Wellness and Recovery Summit at the Cochecho Country Club this week. Another great event in May for Mental Health Awareness Month. Thank you to our co-presenter, Ellie Mason with the Recovery Friendly Workplace in moderating this event with us! We heard from Mickey Wiles, CEO of Working Fields for your inspiring key note about giving folks who live with mental health challenges or who are in recovery from substance use disorder a chance to work, make a living and thrive. Thank you also to Jen Ufkin from Cornerstone VNA, Kellie Mueller from Wentworth Douglass Hospital, Josh Dame from LDI Solutions and Lisa Keslar from Keslar Insurance for being our panelists and sharing your work in support of the mental health of your staff and clients. After the summit, Ashley Wright from Strafford County Public Health Network and Pete Fifield from Wentworth Douglass Hospital for an informative presentation on how and when to use Naloxone.

We just love these pictures from The Yellow Tulip Hope Garden at Dover High School.

Bangor Savings Bank - Thank you again for this initiative, and it was brilliant to do tulips. Plant in the fall, and bloom in the spring!

"Hope is being able to see that there is light despite all of the darkness."
- Desmond Tutu

"We must accept finite disappointment, but never lose infinite hope."
- Martin Luther King, Jr.

"Let your hopes, not your hurts, shape your future."
- Robert H. Schuller

Everyone goes through rough periods, so it’s important to take care of yourself and have healthy coping
tools on standby to use when times get tough. This , start building your coping toolbox
🛠 using MHA’s resources.
Mental Health America

Mental Health Month Mental Health America observes May as Mental Health Month and provides our toolkit to educate and inform about mental health.

Sometimes we just need to know "what to say".

We had the opportunity today to represent Community Partners, the Dover Mental Health Alliance and the Rochester Mental Health Alliance at the Spaulding High School Mental Health and Wellness Fair, hosted by the Mental Health Awareness Club- or “MHAC”. These kids are DEDICATED to spreading awareness about mental health education and su***de prevention. They also were PROS with the organization of the fair. We had front row parking to unload our goods, helped us bring our supplies in AND had freeze pops!

Last Fall, Bangor Savings Bank approached us interested in planting yellow tulip bulbs that would bloom during Mental Health Awareness month. This is an activity connected to the Yellow Tulip Project, in support of youth mental health. Through the DMHA's connection with Bangor Savings and Dover High School, hundreds of bulbs were planted in the courtyard of Dover High School. Students, teachers and staff from Bangor Savings all pitched in.
Today, DHS students and staff participated in the first ever "Hope" ceremony. The Hope ceremony allowed each of us to express what we are hopeful for. And it was really special! Thank you Bangor Savings Bank for this great idea of a Hope Garden. Thank you DHS for allowing this to take place. Here are some fall and spring pictures.



Mental Health America
Bangor Savings Bank

@mentalhealthamy

Mental Health America

Join us for the 3rd Annual Mental Health, Wellness and Recovery in the Workplace Summit! This is a great conference for anyone, and in particular owners of businesses, HR staff, managers. We hope to see you there.

Mental Health America