The Children’s Mental Health Awareness Week May 3-9, 2020, in Maryland. Our Champions came together to support families and students across the state as they dealt with school closures, COVID-19 fears, isolation, job loss and the unknown. As School and Community Champions continued to partner with us, Campaign coordinators and our partners quickly made plans to offer and support virtual awareness-raising opportunities. While dissemination of printed materials was not possible, the Campaign social media following, online event attendance, and publication downloads all increased.
With children and families experiencing an increase of stress and facing a massive change in routine, the Campaign released “Mental Health Mondays” posts leading up to Awareness Week. Each week the Campaign curated resources covering topics including COVID-19, working and learning from home, stress, resiliency, and more. The Campaign partnered with over 800 School and Community Champions, virtually participated in many events, and shared resources and materials reaching 60,000+ across our social media platforms, through our website and publication downloads, and Campaign hosted webinars.
Our annual Celebrating Through Art: The First Lady’s Mental Health Youth Art Display was hosted virtually through our website and Facebook. Artwork came from 247 students (depicting what made them feel happy, healthy and/or hopeful), 35 unique school/programs, and 16 different counties in Maryland.
2020 Awareness Week highlighted empowered, inspired, and passionate School, Community and Student Champions across the state.
2020 School Champions were awarded to Furley Elementary School, Somerset Intermediate School, and Lansdowne High School.
2020 Community Champions were awarded to Baltimore County Public School, Propel Productions Inc., and Wicomico County Public Schools.
2020 Student Champion of the Year was awarded to Diana Flores of Carroll County.
These Champions wrote letters to each student in their schools, encouraged classmates, danced to boost their mental health, shared creative ways to take care of mental health in their schools and communities, hosted virtual events and much more. Join us in celebrating their hard work, dedication and passion for raising awareness of the importance of children’s mental health!