NAMIWalk San Francisco Bay Area 2013 - June 1st in Golden Gate Park

SAN FRANCISCO - May 9, 2013 - PRLog -- WHO:          The 9th annual 5K NAMIWalk San Francisco Bay Area in Golden Gate Park directly benefits eight NAMI affiliates in Alameda, Alameda County South, Contra Costa, Marin, San Francisco, San Mateo and Santa Clara counties who work together to create this important annual fundraiser. The National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) is the nation's largest grassroots mental health organization dedicated to improving the lives of individuals and families affected by mental illness. Thousands of volunteers, families, corporate employees, community groups, and people living with mental illness from around the Bay Area will participate and join walkers in over 80 communities across the nation.  The walk raises funds through walk-team and corporate sponsor donations and helps to educate the public to remove the stigma associated with mental illness.  

WHAT:  9th Annual NAMIWalk SF Bay Area - 5K & 2K walk routes.

WHEN:          Saturday, June 1, 2013 - 9:00 AM (On-site Registration & Check-in); 10:30 AM (Opening Ceremony); 11:00 AM (Walk Starts); (Post-Walk - 2 PM: live music, info booths, and food for purchase. Picnic lunches and dogs on leashes are okay.)

WHERE:         Lindley Meadow, Golden Gate Park (next to Speedway Meadow) at 30th Ave and John F Kennedy Drive, San Francisco

COST:          FREE to NAMIWalkers (Thanks to sponsor donations.) Register as an individual, join a team or become a team-captain of your own.)

WHY:    Emergency rooms, homeless shelters and jails increasingly struggle with the increase of people falling through the cracks due to lack of needed mental health services and support.  With a 21.2% percent cut in its mental health budget from FY2009 to FY2012, the State of California ranks among the top ten states in the U.S. to cut support of mental health services. The annual NAMIWalk SF Bay Area raises funds to support FREE mental health programs provided as a service by NAMI affiliates in eight counties: Alameda, Alameda County South, Contra Costa, Marin, San Francisco, San Mateo, Santa Clara and Santa Cruz counties.  Programs include Family to Family, a multi-week support and education course for family members of people with mental illness, In Our Own Voice, an anti-stigma speaker's bureau, Parents and Teachers as Allies, an in-service program helping school professionals better understand the early warning signs of mental illnesses in children, partnerships with multi-cultural agencies reaching out with classes and education materials in Spanish and Chinese. NAMI supports veterans and active duty personnel through its national Veteran's Resource Center and locally with family support groups specifically for family members of service personnel dealing with mental health issues.  NAMI also works with the BART Police Department to help educate officers and provide a better perspective about how to address the mentally ill through BART's Crisis Intervention Training (CIT) program. On a national level, NAMI advocates politically for improved public policies addressing the needs of the mentally ill and their families.

FOR MORE INFORMATION or to PRE-REGISTER, go to www.NAMIWalkSFBayArea.org.