Network for Good Contributor | NH Charitable Foundation

Arts improving mental health for NH youth

Mental health challenges are affecting many young people. The Magnify Voices Expressive Art Contest gives youth the opportunity to use visual arts, writing and video to address those challenges through artistic expression.

From chaos to thriving

CASA volunteers bring stability and consistency to children who need it most. Judges refer a child to CASA when the state opens a child protection case. A volunteer CASA advocate is a child’s representative through court proceedings, developing a trusting relationship and offering extensive information to help judges decide what is best for the child.

Shaina Gates of Kittery, ME, winner of the 2023 Piscataqua Region Artist Advancement Grant. (Photo by Tammy Byron.)

Shaina Gates awarded 2023 Artist Advancement Grant

Kittery artist/experimental photographer wins grant that helps cultivate the Piscataqua Region’s arts community, boost artists’ careers and helps keep them living and working in the area.

Mindy Cambiar, executive director of Hundred Nights. (Photo by Cheryl Senter.)

Leading with respect, dignity and compassion for people experiencing homelessness

Our greatest challenge continues to be reducing the stigma about people experiencing homelessness. People become homeless for many reasons such as a lack of affordable housing, mental illness, substance abuse disorders, catastrophic illness, natural disasters, unemployment, or working low-wage jobs. They are individuals of all ages, colors, and abilities. They are all human beings, worthy of respect, dignity, and compassion.

Phil Wyzik, CEO of Mondanock Family Services. (Photo by Cheryl Senter.)

Advancing mental health care to strengthen community

A community mental health center is a private not-for-profit with a public mission. We provide a core array of services to the general public — like emergency crisis services — and the treatments and programs that kids or adults need should they have a disabling mental health condition. We do things that no other healthcare provider can do.

Collaboration at the heart of mission

Vital Communities’ mission is to engage people, organizations, and communities to create equitable solutions to our region’s challenges. We are not just an organization, we are a movement with collaboration at the heart of our work. We believe in the strength of our communities and the catalytic effect that occurs when diverse minds unite for a shared purpose.

Aaron Almanza attends a Pride event in Claremont. (Photo by Cheryl Senter.)

Pride builds community, belonging

When LGBTQ people can feel safe, they can become part of the larger community, which is better for everyone. When we feel we belong, and know this can be home, that we want to stay here, or to move here, we will fight for that sense of place, and we fight for each other. And because of that, we all thrive together.

Airole Warden, of the Coös Coalition for Young Children and Families and the Coös County Directors’ Network. (Photo by Cheryl Senter.)

Speaking up for North Country children and families

"A New Hampshire for All" means that we need all voices from all corners to truly move forward.

Gene Martin, executive director at the New Hampshire Fiscal Policy Institute. (Photo by Cheryl Senter.)

Data and research to inform, make a difference

As the executive director of the New Hampshire Fiscal Policy Institute — a nonpartisan, independent policy research nonprofit organization — and a father to two young children, I spend a considerable amount of my professional and personal life thinking about how decisions made in Concord affect lives in communities across this state.

Yasamin Safarzadeh of Kimball Jenkins. (Photo by Cheryl Senter.)

Thriving through mentorship and the arts

Kimball Jenkins is a community arts center which utilizes the tools of the creative economy to foster healing and growth for New Hampshire in order to secure a more inclusive and fulfilling future for our peoples. We are redefining what the arts can truly do for our neighborhoods.

Tanisha Johnson of Community Action Partnership of Strafford County (right) with Sandeep Bikram Shah, senior program officer (left). (Photo by Cheryl Senter.)

Address individual needs – and build systemic equity

When I was asked to come and chat about what it looks like for New Hampshire to be a New Hampshire for all, where everyone belongs, I was excited because if you know me, you will know I have a lot to say on that topic — because we are not there just yet.

John Burns of SOS Recovery Community Organization. (Photo by Cheryl Senter.)

Helping people in recovery thrive

It’s not enough to simply serve those in recovery, we need to also identify the people who use drugs in our community and listen to their trauma, meet them where they dream and do so with compassion, radical acceptance and dignity.

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