Nami St Croix Inc

Mission and History

NAMI (National Alliance on Mental Illness) is a non-profit, grass roots, self help effort organized at national, state, and local levels. NAMI St. Croix Valley, Inc. is the local affiliate of NAMI-WI, serving Pierce and St. Croix Counties. Our mission is to improve the quality of life for people whose lives are affected by mental illness and to support research in order to eliminate these illnesses. Our purpose is to provide support, to educate, and empower individuals and families, to promote public understanding of mental illness in order to combat stigma, and to advocate at all levels of government.

Our local chapter is especially active in hosting support groups for individuals living with a mental illness and also for family, friends and loved ones who too seek support. We also offer a number of educational talks through a program called "In Our Own Voice." Such talks are frequently heard at schools, community centers, churches, the local jail, or any community setting seeking to learn more about what it means to live in recovery. Beyond this we fight stigma in our local community, provide outreach and education, resources, and offer various tools for those new to learning about living with a mental illness.

We hope to raise funds for two needs:  

1) to host our second annual St. Croix Valley wide picnic where the community is welcome to learn about NAMI, become connected, learn, and speak to others about mental illness and recovery and be included in the NAMI community.

2) funds so we may continue to offer scholarships to train interested persons to be certified in teaching, training, and facilitating support groups, lead classes and give community talks under the ordinances of NAMI Wisconsin who oversees such branded evidence based programming.