Mission: Our mission is to provide support, advocacy and education in order to improve the lives of individuals with mental illness and their families.

Results: NAMI DuPage programs help families living with mental illness gain access to support, educational resources and community resources to help them in their paths to recovery. It is the only organization of its kind in DuPage County to provide educational and support services for individuals with mental illness and their families. Our most notable accomplishment in the past year has been to continue to develop meaningful partnerships with schools, hospitals and police departments in order to initiate effective programs to reach and support a broad base of individuals and families struggling with mental illness. We were awarded the 2007 Outstanding Local Affiliate Award by NAMI National for our exemplary efforts in program development, educational outreach and consumer inclusion. In 2008, we were awarded the Most Innovative Services Award from NAMI of Illinois for the development of our hospital project NAMI Recovery Connections. The number of people reached by our Education Program has increased from approximately 200 in 2003 to over 6000 individuals served in 2007.We have expanded our development department and were able to move to a new, larger location that meets the growing needs of our organization. The new office has enabled staff and volunteers to coordinate programs more effectively. Lastly, we entered into our second year of a large grant from Community Memorial Foundation which has allowed for continued implementation of NAMI Recovery Connections.

Target demographics: Individuals and families affected by mental illness in DuPage County, Illinois and surrounding areas.

Direct beneficiaries per year: 6000

Geographic areas served: DuPage County, Illinois

Programs: Consumer supportive services: nami of updage offers individual, family and parent support groups at various locations throughout dupage county, as well as a resource hot line. As an extension of its supportive group services, nami dupage conducts a peer program to train individuals and families, who live with mental illness and have found recovery, to work as peer specialists to help other families and individuals develop a knowledge base and coping strategies for daily living. In fy 2015, nami dupage held approximately 320 support group meetings for over 4,200 participants and graduated 12 family and individual peer specialists from a one year training program.

school education: porgrams include, "ending the silence" and "ets 101" that were created by nami dupage and adopted by nami national for use by all nami nationwide affiliates. These programs are interactive classroom presentations which educate high school freshman and middle school students on the early warning signs and symptoms of mental illness, how to get help and reduce the stigma. In fy 2015, nami dupage conducted 506 presentations to over 21,000 students in 22 high schools and 30 middle schools in dupage county. In addition, nami dupage offers "parents and teachers as allies", a program that helps elementary, middle and high school teachers and staff identify early-onset mental illness in children and adolescents.

general education: nami dupage offers several signature multi-week educational programs for individuals and families, including but not limited to, wrap, which offers a personal recovery plan; family to family, which equips family members with strategies for handling crises and relapse (198 participants over 331 hours in fy 15 and basics, which educates parents of children under 18 on managing the diagnosis process to navigating school or mental health systems. Community education classes that range for a half to full day training on the basics of mental illness to diverse organizations including law enforcement, libraries, churches, colleges, and local businesses and corporations (76 trainings for nearly 1,800 people, fy 15).