NAMI DeKalb

Description

NAMI, which stands for National Alliance on Mental Illness, is a grassroots organization. Our circle logo contains blades that represent grass. There were hundreds of local groups of people, banding together out of urgent need, which existed in the 1970s. Atlanta Friends of the Mentally Ill was one of those groups.

In 1979 a few leaders decided to unify these groups into a national organization, governing through state affiliates. The Georgia Alliance for the Mentally Ill, formed in the mid 80s, was further unified nationally by using the acronym NAMI before the local area name.

NAMI National advocates on our behalf to promote favorable legislation before Congress. It provides training of state leaders who, in turn, train local teachers for the Family to Family courses, Visions for Tomorrow classes for parents of mentally ill children, and new consumer led programs. Many free educational booklets are available at nami.org.