Compelling Conversations
Our mission at NAMI Mercer includes normalizing conversations about mental health. We have long understood the power of personal-telling to promote a deeper understanding and effect change. In most presentations, however, a storyteller assumes the active role with an audience passively listening. The speaker-to-audience ratio is generally one-to-many, so even if time is allotted for Q&A, few have the opportunity to interact. In contrast, NAMI Mercer's Compelling Conversations affords an active role to all. Participants engage in open dialogue in a small group (ideally 3-6 individuals) with a person (called a communicator) whose life has been affected by mental illness in some way. The communicator takes only about five minutes to summarize their story. During the next 20 minutes, participants are encouraged to ask the communicator anything that will increase their understanding and build empathy. At the end of the 25-minute session, participants can meet with another communicator who has a different personal story.
What You Will Gain by Attending
Through Compelling Conversations, you have the opportunity to connect with someone who is radically open and willing to share how they have been affected by a mental health condition - their own or that of a loved one. The goal is to increase awareness, deepen understanding, build empathy, and reduce the stigma, stereotypes, and discrimination that so frequently characterize society's response to those with mental illness.
Participants are invited to engage in open dialogue in a small group setting (ideally 3-6 individuals) with a person called a communicator whose life has been impacted by mental illness.
- Compelling Conversations gives people the opportunity to meet and talk with others whom they might not otherwise meet.
- Personal communication in small groups fosters camaraderie and builds community, reducing feelings of isolation.
- Having stigma-free dialogue in a small group encourages stigma-free dialogue in the larger community.
- Open, honest communication inspires hope for the communicator and the group participants
Our Audiences
NAMI Mercer founded Compelling Conversations in 2022. Our audiences have included:
• Participants in mental health treatment programs
• Professional staff at in-patient and out-patient mental health facilities
• Mental wellness self-help groups
• Attendees at social work and psychosocial rehabilitation conferences
• Clergy and religious congregations
• Public employees in social services, housing, law enforcement, child welfare, corrections, and air traffic control positions
• School classes and clubs
• School administrators and educators
• Personnel at private companies.