The Self-Help Center of Family Service presented seven Mowrer awards for outstanding contributions in the area of self-help at the October 4th Self-Help conference held at The Forum at Carle in Urbana. The theme of the conference was Mental Health Recovery: Creating Caring Communities. Over 100 professionals and lay persons were in attendance. Awards were presented to one outstanding new group established in the past year – Parents of Adults with Disabilities. The established group award for groups that have been in existence for over 3 years was presented to two groups - Champaign County Operation Snowball (CCOS) and VIPIO – Visually Impaired Persons Inspiring Others. Two awards in the category of outstanding lay group facilitators were presented to Janet Martin- Caring Hearts and National Alliance of the Mentally Ill –NAMI Vermilion County Chapter and Sten Johansen-Depression and Bipolar Support Alliance Urbana-Champaign (DBSA UC). Zelig Bartell was recognized for his accomplishments as both a lay group facilitator/professional support person with the Depression and Bipolar Support Alliance Urbana-Champaign (DBSA UC), The Mental Health Center Champaign County Crisis Line and the Pavilion and Liz Acevedo-Alstrum, Children’s Home and Aid Society of Illinois, was recognized for her professional support of Latino families in McLean county.

The awards commemorate a deceased couple, Hobart and Molly Mowrer, who were University of Illinois professors credited for their pioneering work in the development of self-help and mutual assistance locally through the establishment of Integrity Groups in the 1950’s. Their work has been carried on by the rapid growth of self-help groups both nationally and internationally. Today about 25 million Americans or 1 in 5 adults turn to self-help/support groups to help them cope with life’s most difficult problems which range from addictions to bereavement, mental health, parenting, health, abuse and more. Research has found that self-help groups are an effective source of help that complements traditional professional services.

Parents of Adults with Disabilities was formed in November 2007 for the purpose of being a forum and network for parents to share ideas, concerns and resources as well as be an advocacy group to promote change in the system that serves their adult children. The group has sponsored two low-cost workshops on employment for people with significant disabilities and spawned the group "Speak Out" for adults with disabilities.

Champaign County Operation Snowball (CCOS) was established in Champaign County in 1980. The group provides an ongoing support system for youth 14-18 years old and is a community-based prevention and health promotion group where teens help teens. CCOS excels in teaching young people how to identify emotional pain and anger and instead of "acting out" to learn how to make good choices. CCOS also offers a safe place to learn life skills in order for teens to learn how to transition into an adult world with confidence.

CCOS has had many excellent leaders and facilitators to make this group a success. Teddy Dawson and two University of Illinois graduate social work students, Steve Higgins and Patty Pearson, helped to organize the local group. Teddy Dawson and Nan Kraatz were the administrative coordinators until 2003. Robert Silverman served as the Executive Director from 2003 until 2008. The current Executive Director is Amber Floyd.

VIPIO – Visually Impaired Persons Inspiring Others formed in 1991 to provide education and encouragement to people of all ages who have visual impairment of any type as well as to family members and caregivers of the visually impaired. Over the past 15 years the group has grown from about 7 members to about 30 regular members and around 120 on the roster. The group meets monthly at the Danville Public Library to share coping skills, resources and fellowship. Beverly Hill is credited for starting the group and reaching out to others. The group also sponsors a yearly vision fair and has been successful in their effort to include awareness of visually impaired pedestrians in the driver’s manual and in the written portion of the driver’s test in the State of Illinois.

Janet Martin founded the Caring Hearts support group in 2003 with a Crosspoint Human Services therapist, Randi Jones, as the co-facilitator. Janet recognized the need for a family/friends support group through her personal experience of having two loved ones with a mental illness diagnosis and is able to listen with compassion within the group setting. Janet is a tireless advocate for better services at Crosspoint and in the community. She also had helped to reduce stigma attached to persons with a mental illness diagnosis through her personal research and affiliation with the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill.

Sten Johansen has served as the DBSA UC facilitator for ten years. His many years of suffering from depression have given him unique insight into ways of controlling the illness. Sten stays up-to-date on other programs and information helpful to group members and has a comforting presence at meetings. Sten is the former President and current board member of DBSA UC. He recently suffered from head and neck cancer and helped to form a new group at Carle Foundation Hospital for this type of cancer.

Zelig Bartell was diagnosed with Bipolar Disorder 22 years ago. Since then, he has been active with mood disorder self-help groups in both Los Angeles and Champaign Urbana and is responsible for starting up and facilitating groups for consumers and friends and family members. Zelig moved to Champaign Urbana 4 years ago and has been employed as a psych tech at the Pavilion Psychiatric Hospital in Champaign working with child, adolescent and adult acute inpatients. He is currently President, facilitator and contact person for the Depression and Bipolar Support Alliance Urbana Champaign (DBSA UC). He is a member of the Family Service Self-Help Center advisory committee, the CU Mental Health Public Education committee and for the past 2 years has been a volunteer with the local Mental Health Center crisis line. He has done volunteer patient advocacy work and has assisted many consumers to interact with their mental health professionals, legal counsel and has facilitated in emergency interventions.

Liz Acevedo-Alstrum is a licensed clinical professional counselor and IL Certified Domestic Violence professional. She attended the Universidad de los Andes and the National University of Colombia in Bogota. She has been active in the field of mental health for over two decades and has provided bilingual counseling services for Latino families since 1998. She has extensive work in child welfare including family reunification and foster care. Liz helped to form the Latina Women’s group in McLean County in 1993. She is a strong advocate of empowerment for Latina women and has encouraged women to take leadership and advocacy roles in the group and in the community. She has been an invited guest speaker at many state and local conferences for her unique perspective on working with immigrant Latino families.