Programs and results
What we aim to solve
Families supporting a loved one with a mental health condition often find the very systems set up to help are difficult to understand and access. This includes the healthcare, education, and legal systems. The family dynamic is often strained as family members face a variety of emotional challenges and find it difficult to communicate with their loved one. By focusing on education, advocacy, and support, NAMI fills an information gap for families not met by healthcare or social work professionals. NAMI programs help families create an effective support network, maintaining a path toward recovery. These programs are nationally-developed and delivered by trained volunteers who have lived experience.
Our programs
What are the organization's current programs, how do they measure success, and who do the programs serve?
NAMI Education Programs
NAMI GMV offers nationally-developed education programs, many are federal agency approved. The programs offer information on mental health conditions and treatment, and teach coping, self-care and communication skills sets. Participants report worrying less and better prepared to advocate for themselves or their loved ones. Programs teach family members how to support youth, adults and military service members. A program for individuals living with a condition offers help in creating a recovery action plan. Education programs are taught by and open only to those who have a lived experience with mental illness. These are offered at no charge to participants.
NAMI Family to Family is an evidence based program approved by SAMHSA. NAMI Homefront is offered locally in partnership with the Veterans Administration Hospital in Iowa City.
NAMI Family & Friends Seminars
NAMI GMV offers a monthly seminar open to the public. Trained family instructors tell their own stories of supporting a loved one living with a condition. They offer information on mental health conditions, how to access to community supports, and crisis preparation. While the seminars do not replace NAMI education programs, they do provide immediate supports to families in crisis and a 30-day followup. The seminar is offered at no cost to the public.
In Our Own Voice Program
This program is offered as a public education and outreach tool. Individuals living with a mental health condition share their stories, interspersed with video segments, to create a formal program. Individuals share insights into their health history, diagnosis, and what recovery means for them. This is a popular program for faith and civic groups, as well as Crisis Intervention Training for law enforcement officers. The program is offered at no cost to the community.
Support Groups
NAMI offers support groups tailored for adult family members, and for individuals living with a mental health condition. These are presently offered twice monthly.
A special Family Support Group is offered to assist parents and caregivers of youth admitted or seen in the E.R. for suicidal episodes.
NAMI facilitators have lived experience with mental illness, are trained and follow a nationally-developed model. There is no charge to attend and walk-ins are welcome.
NAMIWalks Community Advocacy Event
NAMIWalks is the Quad Cities' largest community mental health advocacy event. Held on the 3rd Saturday of September, the walk has drawn as many as 1,500 walkers and 80+ walk teams from corporate, faith, civic, university, law enforcement and family groups. Its purpose is to demonstrate widespread support individuals living with a mental health condition and their families. Through storytelling and celebration, others are encouraged to seek help and find support. The event seeks to raises more than $120,000 each year through sponsorships and walk team donations.
Where we work
Affiliations & memberships
Affiliation with NAMI national re-confirmed 2016
External reviews

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Videos
Our Sustainable Development Goals
Learn more about Sustainable Development Goals.
Goals & Strategy
Learn about the organization's key goals, strategies, capabilities, and progress.
Charting impact
Four powerful questions that require reflection about what really matters - results.
What is the organization aiming to accomplish?
NAMI continues to build partnerships with education, healthcare and social service providers to better connect its nationally-developed programming into the community's continuum of care for individuals living with a mental health condition and their families. NAMI programs complement the work of these providers and leverage their resources include funding sources. As an example, a partnership with UnityPoint Health - Robert Young Center continues as NAMI Family Support Group facilitators serve parents of at-risk youth experiencing suicidal episodes.
NAMI programming is unique in that it is designed to fill an information gap for families in particular. NAMI serves as a family-friendly hub for information, contacts, and support. NAMI's "secret sauce" is our volunteers. They have lived experience with mental illness and have been trained to deliver information to families experiencing trauma.
Our goal is to create greater community awareness, and to engage more families to effectively advocate for their loved one. We encourage families to seek appropriate supports available in a community setting.
Goal 1: Improve Family Understanding of Mental Illness and Access to Supports
Participant evaluations collect and analyze data. Areas looked at include mental illness understanding, coping ability, anxiety/worry levels, and timeliness of receiving treatments and supports. Measurements include pre and post surveys, teacher ratings, numbers in attendance, and a 30-day follow up.
Goal 2: Community Benefit
Community education and outreach efforts help reduce stigma and create a better understanding and acceptance of those living with mental illness. This support structure speeds recovery and reduces ER visits, hospitalizations and jail time. NAMI will share its performance reports with partnering agencies to help build a better community safety net.
What are the organization's key strategies for making this happen?
Over the course of the Fall of 2018, the NAMI GMV full board identified five areas to develop its strategic goals for 2019 – 2021. These areas are: education, advocacy, support, financial stability/resources and governance.
Strategy #1 addresses the expansion of programming across the 8-county service area:
Strategic Goal 1: Provide individuals living with a mental health condition and their families NAMI evidence-based and other nationally-developed education and support programs designed to improve the quality of their lives. These are provided at no cost to participants.
1. Develop partnerships to increase referrals and sustainable revenue streams for programs.
2. Find additional and more effective methods to market NAMI and its services.
3. Increase the frequency of programs and number of participants
4. Identify, retain and train volunteer teachers and facilitators
5. Increase impact of education programs and support groups.
What are the organization's capabilities for doing this?
While honoring its founding as a grassroots organization, NAMI Greater Mississippi Valley has worked to create a professionally-run organization with transparent systems, repeatable processes, and measurable output. To ensure the organization can serve its communities efficiently and effectively, the affiliate has since 2016 upgraded its office systems, financial reporting system, hired its first Executive Director, Education Coordinator, and Development Director. It has also recruited and trained 30 volunteer instructors and facilitators. In 4Q 2020 - 98% of all board, volunteers and staff successfully completed a 7-hour intercultural training. In 2Q 2021 - 14 key volunteers and staff completed an additional 13 hours of intercultural training.
The Board of Directors completed a three-year strategic plan with goals, measurable outputs, and board member assignments in 1Q 2019. An aggressive recruitment campaign has seated 13 new board members with one additional seat currently being recruited. This will help NAMI back fill skill sets needed for organizational growth.
Board members are specifically assisting with making calls on local employers and community organizations to develop long-term relationships for sustainable funding and referral sources for NAMI programming.
A board Education Committee is working with volunteer healthcare professionals to develop quality improvement initiatives. In addition to following the national organization's instructions for evidence-based reporting, the affiliate is developing best practices for education participant quality measurement, and monitoring of instructor/facilitator continuous measurement, education and improvement.
A board Diversity Committee is launched in 2021 to focus on expanding community education into Black, Latinx, LGBTQIA and Veterans communities.
A board Fundraising Committee works with staff to execute on 2 major event fundraisers annually, provide assistance with program grant funding requests and provide introductions to community members who can assist NAMI in meeting its goal.
What have they accomplished so far and what's next?
Saturating eight counties is an ambitious goal. We are covering 5 counties now with in-person programming. We have retooled our "front door" to cover informational seminars and a family support group virtually. Our goal is to have funding sources directly fund specific education programs. Developing partnerships continues to be our focus.
How we listen
Seeking feedback from people served makes programs more responsive and effective. Here’s how this organization is listening.
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Who are the people you serve with your mission?
Individuals living with a mental health condition and their families.
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How is your organization collecting feedback from the people you serve?
Electronic surveys (by email, tablet, etc.), Paper surveys, Constituent (client or resident, etc.) advisory committees, Volunteer Leadership Meetings,
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How is your organization using feedback from the people you serve?
To identify and remedy poor client service experiences, To identify bright spots and enhance positive service experiences, To make fundamental changes to our programs and/or operations, To inform the development of new programs/projects, To identify where we are less inclusive or equitable across demographic groups, To strengthen relationships with the people we serve, New board working committee dedicated to diversity will define how we deliver community education,
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What significant change resulted from feedback?
Before COVID-19, our country was experiencing a mental health, substance use and suicide crisis. Now, with the global pandemic, economic downturn and growing political discord, people are struggling more than ever. Today, 1 in 3 people in the U.S. have anxiety or depression, with even greater increases for Black and Asian Americans. NAMI is working to find additional platforms to provide information on mental health services and ensure that people have access to support and services. A Family & Friends Seminar serves to open NAMI's virtual "front door." The seminar reaches families in crisis, providing access to supports. A board diversity committee is tasked with defining strategies and activities to increase this community education to Black, Latin and LGBTQ+ communities.
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With whom is the organization sharing feedback?
The people we serve, Our staff, Our board, Our funders, Our community partners, Education program efficacy survey data is shared with the public.,
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How has asking for feedback from the people you serve changed your relationship?
Program participant ratings during COVID have shown a decline in satisfaction. We are retooling virtual program content and training volunteers in virtual presentation as well as intercultural communications. The diversity piece is critical as minority populations are experiencing even greater obstacles to receiving support during COVID, which ultimately impacts lifespan. We are also accelerating changes to our online behaviors and content based on new knowledge about the real questions people are asking about mental illness when in crisis. New technologies make this possible to better understand what people really want to know.
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Which of the following feedback practices does your organization routinely carry out?
We look for patterns in feedback based on demographics (e.g., race, age, gender, etc.), We look for patterns in feedback based on people’s interactions with us (e.g., site, frequency of service, etc.), We act on the feedback we receive,
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What challenges does the organization face when collecting feedback?
It is difficult to get the people we serve to respond to requests for feedback,
Financials
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Operations
The people, governance practices, and partners that make the organization tick.
Connect with nonprofit leaders
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- Analyze a variety of pre-calculated financial metrics
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Connect with nonprofit leaders
SubscribeBuild relationships with key people who manage and lead nonprofit organizations with GuideStar Pro. Try a low commitment monthly plan today.
- Analyze a variety of pre-calculated financial metrics
- Access beautifully interactive analysis and comparison tools
- Compare nonprofit financials to similar organizations
Want to see how you can enhance your nonprofit research and unlock more insights? Learn More about GuideStar Pro.
NAMI Greater Mississippi Valley Inc
Board of directorsas of 02/22/2022
Paul Phares, MS
Dir. Community Support & Care Coordination, Robert Young Center CMHC
Term: 2019 - 2023
Kristina Voyna, PsyD, MBA
Deere & Company
Aaron Van Lauwe, MSHR
Group O
Amy Wilson
Deere & Company
Nikki Hayes, LCPC, LMHC, NCC
UnityPoint Health
William Iavarone, DBA, MS.Ed
Augustana College
Melanie Weires
GrowthPath software
Tawny Eley, JD
Deere & Company
Ross Teemant, MSW
Eagle View Behavioral Health
Peter Bredlau
Trinity Lutheran Church, Moline
Board leadership practices
GuideStar worked with BoardSource, the national leader in nonprofit board leadership and governance, to create this section.
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Board orientation and education
Does the board conduct a formal orientation for new board members and require all board members to sign a written agreement regarding their roles, responsibilities, and expectations? Yes -
CEO oversight
Has the board conducted a formal, written assessment of the chief executive within the past year ? Yes -
Ethics and transparency
Have the board and senior staff reviewed the conflict-of-interest policy and completed and signed disclosure statements in the past year? Yes -
Board composition
Does the board ensure an inclusive board member recruitment process that results in diversity of thought and leadership? Yes -
Board performance
Has the board conducted a formal, written self-assessment of its performance within the past three years? Yes
Organizational demographics
Who works and leads organizations that serve our diverse communities? GuideStar partnered on this section with CHANGE Philanthropy and Equity in the Center.
Leadership
The organization's leader identifies as:
Race & ethnicity
Gender identity
Sexual orientation
Disability
We do not display disability information for organizations with fewer than 15 staff.
Equity strategies
Last updated: 02/15/2021GuideStar partnered with Equity in the Center - an organization that works to shift mindsets, practices, and systems to increase racial equity - to create this section. Learn more
- We review compensation data across the organization (and by staff levels) to identify disparities by race.
- We ask team members to identify racial disparities in their programs and / or portfolios.
- We disaggregate data to adjust programming goals to keep pace with changing needs of the communities we support.
- We employ non-traditional ways of gathering feedback on programs and trainings, which may include interviews, roundtables, and external reviews with/by community stakeholders.
- We seek individuals from various race backgrounds for board and executive director/CEO positions within our organization.
- We have community representation at the board level, either on the board itself or through a community advisory board.
- We help senior leadership understand how to be inclusive leaders with learning approaches that emphasize reflection, iteration, and adaptability.
- We engage everyone, from the board to staff levels of the organization, in race equity work and ensure that individuals understand their roles in creating culture such that one’s race identity has no influence on how they fare within the organization.