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Morgan Foundation Donation to Help Raise Mental Health Awareness on Local Campuses

Return to Issue of May 4, 2009 

Photo by Bob Christy

May is Mental Health Month, and Kent State is participating in a mental health promotion program designed to address the needs of college students.

May is Mental Health Awareness Month. Nationally, Mental Health America will be promoting the Live Your Life Well Campaign as 2009's mental health initiative. Locally, mental health associations are making huge strides in the college environment this May thanks to a generous donation from the Margaret Clark Morgan Foundation.

The Margaret Clark Morgan Foundation of Hudson donated $96,000 to enable Coleman Professional Services of Kent to create a regional mental health awareness campaign to educate college students on behavioral health and mental illness.

Coleman Professional Services of Kent worked with The University of Akron's Institute for Health and Social Policy to coordinate a series of focus groups that gathered information from college students on their awareness levels and attitudes about mental health issues. The result will be an educational CD and workbooks to help school officials understand potential mental health issues on college campuses. A Web site will soon be launched to support the educational materials. The effort is titled "State of U," and includes five colleges and universities: Kent State University, Mount Union College, Hiram College, The University of Akron and Youngstown State University.

Four mental health and recovery boards are involved in the initiative: Portage, Summit, Stark and Trumbull counties are working with representatives from the National Alliance on Mental Illness, the Margaret Clark Morgan Foundation and Coleman Professional Services.

The Margaret Clark Morgan Foundation is a private grant-making foundation with a primary focus on mental health and a secondary focus on education and the arts.

The Coleman Professional Services of Kent is a nationally recognized nonprofit provider of behavioral health and rehabilitation programs that improve the lives of individuals, families and businesses in Northeast Ohio.

The National Alliance on Mental Illness is the nation's largest grassroots organization and offers support to people with mental illness and their families. The alliance was founded in 1979 and has affiliates in every state.

For more information on Mental Health Awareness Month, visit the Mental Health America Web site. To learn more about "State of U," contact Kathy Myers at Coleman Professional Services at kathy.myers@coleman-professional.com.

By Amanda Egut