Career Connections is a new program that aims to expand employment opportunities for persons with mental illness by creating system change through the promotion of best practices, including models for training and technical assistance for mental health providers, innovative state of the art direct employment services for consumers, and coalition building and collaboration in the community. For more information, please contact Faith McCalla.

Community Education The Mental Health Association of New Jersey (MHANJ) is excited to announce the new design of our community education presentations. We conduct on-site presentations in work places, schools, health fairs, police training centers - covering topics that are critical to New Jersey's current mental health needs. For more information, please contact Debbie Kinney-Chen.

Project Return, our consumer community education program, will now be based in partial care programs around the state. As of this fall, MHANJ will train staff members of partial care programs to run their own Project Return troupes. Prospect House in East Orange will be our first partial care program to host Project Return. For more information, please contact Susan Maginn.

The Consumer Provider Association in New Jersey is a statewide association of consumers of mental health services who are working as providers of mental health services. For more information, please contact Tom Estler.

ICE and Esperanza Self Help Centers Self-help centers are places where mental health consumers can go to feel safe and relaxed. The purpose of a Self-Help Center is to provide an environment of support and empowerment that promotes wellness, which is a state of social, spiritual, mental/emotional and physical health for consumers living in New Jersey. For more information on the ICE self help center, please contact Christine Vint. For Esperanza, contact Richard Dymond.

Intensive Family Support Services (IFSS)
Understanding and coping with mental illness when experienced by a family member or friend is a painful and challenging journey. Information and support are needed, although sometimes difficult to find. The Intensive Family Support Service of the Mental Health Association is designed to assist families. For more information on the Union County program, please contact Joyce Benz at (908) 497-1921, ext. 12 or jbenz@mhanj.org. In Atlantic county, contact Sondra Yanniello.

Community Advocates, formerly the Community Companion Program,  is the direct advocacy arm of the Mental Health Association in New Jersey. Community Advocates is a program that provides individual direct advocacy on behalf of adults with mental illness by providing support, education and linking them to community based mental health and social services. For more information, please contact Ann Portas

Schizophrenics Anonymous (S.A.),  is a self-help support group for persons with schizophrenia or related disorders, organized and managed by persons with the illness. SA's  goal is to help restore dignity and sense of purpose for persons who are working for recovery from schizophrenia or related disorders. MHANJ sponsors three SA groups in Hudson, Ocean, and Atlantic Counties. For more information, please contact Ann Portas.

Parent Education
Whoever said being a parent was easy?  The needs of children today have changed drastically from those of years ago.  But what parent is ever ready to face those challenges?  MHANJ offers three parent education programs that range from the toddler years to the turbulent teenage years. For more information, please contact Donna Efstatos.

Peer Outreach Support Teams (POST)
Trained consumers provide advocacy and peer counseling for residents in supportive community based housing. For more information, please contact Ann Portas.