Clermont FAST TRAC celebrated the sixth year of its National Children’s Mental Health Awareness Day initiative, My Feelings Are a Work of Art, during May, which is also Mental Health Month. The initiative raises awareness of children’s mental health needs, demonstrates how children’s mental health initiatives promote positive youth development, recovery and resilience and shows how children with mental health needs thrive in the community.
Clermont FAST TRAC provided art supplies and support to raise awareness about the importance of mental health and to nurture the social and emotional well being of children during special days of “art action” called “My Feelings are a Work of Art.” More than 700 children, youth and adults involved with various agencies and schools across Clermont County participated in the effort to use art to express feelings. Partner sites included: Clermont County Juvenile Court, Clermont County Board of Developmental Disabilities, Clermont Recovery Center, Boys and Girls Club in New Richmond, Amelia and Goshen, Child Focus Head Start Preschool and various school partners and special education classes including Genesis School, CEC-South, Batavia Elementary, Williamsburg and Amelia Middle School.
“National Children’s Mental Health Awareness Day and Mental Health Month is really all about raising awareness that positive mental health is essential to a child’s healthy development from birth,” said Gretchen Behimer, Clermont FAST TRAC Project Director. FAST TRAC is a System of Care initiative of the Clermont County Mental Health & Recovery Board, with the mission to provide a collaborative, sustainable mental health system of care that is family-driven and youth-guided, providing community-based and individualized supports and services that are responsive to the cultural characteristics of Clermont County’s multi-need children, youth and their families, strengthening them with hope and supporting them to lead successful lives.
