Helen De Wolf shows off art work produced at SIDE, a local peer support center, a first year beneficiary
Bike for the Brain is an annual bicycle ride, run and walk that we typically run on Labor Day. This is a charity event to raise funds to promote recovery and social inclusion for people with emotional difficulties. We then give grants to agencies and projects in the Kansas City area that are working to improve situations for people with mental health diagnoses.
While many people think that these problems can be disabling for a lifetime, recovery can often be found by recreating a self-identity and building solid relationships. Current advocacy approaches by people who have themselves recovered from these diagnoses are working towards a wellness solution for emotional difficulties. This means finding and building healthy support, stress management, housing, family life, employment, and recreation outlets in a person’s life that can make a huge difference in both emotional and physical health.
Another essential element of understanding emotional difficulties is seeing the role of trauma in people’s lives. This can be any experience that overwhelms a person’s ability to fight or flight, and causes powerlessness. Many studies have shown that 60- 90% of people involved with the mental health system have experienced trauma, and by some definitions, the mental health diagnosis itself is a trauma experience. Addressing people’s trauma experiences by allowing emotions to be truly felt and teaching self-soothing strategies can be extremely helpful.
We invite grant proposals from organizations that work from a recovery perspective using trauma-informed care. We also seek organizations that involve recovery advocates in the planning and delivery of services. Our funding priorities include but are not limited to:
Miss Betty Bables from SIDE shows off her second place medal from the Car-Free Challenge. In addition to SIDE's artroom, the agency promotes wellness with many different groups and activities
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Education, awareness, and outreach for people not receiving adequate mental health services
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Integration of physical wellness and mental wellness
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Increasing participation of people with mental illness in community events that encourage recovery
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Peer support, role modeling, and other consumer-provided services
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Encouraging creative expression as a part of recovery
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Advocacy for permanent supportive housing and other community-based living
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Non-medication strategies for self-support
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Education about effective use of evidence-based medicine in recovery
I was on Bike for the Brain’s board of directors for three years and now am the social media and marketingt coordinator. I help Tony Tibbets at Zero Design to update the website, Facebook, and Twitter accounts. I also help represent a formerly diagnosed person’s view and connect the organization with progressive agendas and current research in the mental health civil rights movement. I help design the event evaluation each year and provide strategic planning for event design.
Here is a video of Susan Crain Lewis, the CEO of Mental Health America of the Heartland, winning our tricycle challenge in our second year.
