On July 19, 2016 the organization formally known as Mental Health America: Charlottesville-Albemarle officially became Partner for Mental Health!
After a two-year period of time as we worked to re-envision our role in the community, this spring the Board and newly hired Executive Director crafted a new strategic plan to define our priorities and goals for the next two years. Part of the planning process included taking a critical look at our brand and name recognition. Listening to community partners and stakeholders confirmed what we had suspected: the name “Mental Health America: Charlottesville-Albemarle”, was viewed by many as unwieldy and did not communicate our mission and values. Therefore, after considerable deliberation, we decided to change our name.
Once it was clear we needed to change our name, we settled on “Partner for Mental Health” fairly quickly. Our programming is in many ways diverse, but it is all connected by the common theme of building partnerships.
We are excited that this new name honors and respects our history as an organization while launching a new phase of our work. We believe that “Partner for Mental Health” is evocative of our core belief, that partnerships among diverse stakeholders are necessary for our community’s mental health.
While we are changing our name, we remain an affiliate of Mental Health America and our mission remains unchanged: “educating, connecting, and advocating to promote mental health for everyone.”
We officially launched our new name and brand to the public at an Open House at our office on 911 E. Jefferson St., Charlottesville, VA 22092 on Tuesday, July 19. In addition to celebrating our new name, at the Open House we recognized Elizabeth Breeden’s 20 years of dedicated service to our organization and formally introduced Anna Mendez, our new Executive Director, to the community.
