About Impact Young Adults

Impact Young Adults’ vision is to help realize the tremendous potential for all young adults with mental illness.

We believe that young adults with mental illness have the capacity to embrace opportunities and make meaningful choices for the future. They deserve access to an environment of acceptance and to experience hope and inspiration. This is the foundation, which enables them to take healthy risks to expand the rest of their lives.

We believe that by empowering young adults with mental illness, we can change the cultural perspective to one which sees them as vibrant, capable, and valuable members of society.

•    Friendship
•    Acceptance
•    Empowerment
•    Safety
•    Integrity
•    Teamwork

Impact Young Adults was formed in 2004 by a few young adults that had been diagnosed with mental illness. They knew they needed more in their lives than trips to the therapist or psychiatrist. After a round of brainstorming they realized that what they were missing most was a feeling of belonging that one gets from a peer group. More importantly, they were missing out on the chance to have fun! Since then they have been making friendship and fun a reality for themselves.

1Social Events: Group members gather every weekend to build relationships and enjoy activities. Events are divided up into the following 2 categories.

• Community Events - Community is important to us! That is why we invite people from our community to come out and have fun with us. Community members are defined as members friends, members family, and potential IYA members (those interested in becoming a member). We also have larger community events several times a year where we invite general members of our larger community.
• Members Only Events - These events are limited to members of the organization because they either for logistical reasons (generally because they require a certain amount of planning) or are at a members home.

2Leadership Development: Within the safe environment of our community, we offer opportunities to learn leadership skills, helping members to regain their personal power. Leadership opportunities range from short commitment tasks like helping plan an event to larger roles such as joining the Board of Directors and holding an official leadership position. Every member is invited to participate in our leadership program, the degree to which they do depends on their interest and comfort level.

In our day-to-day lives of managing our illness we rely on doctors and therapists to be well, but with Impact Young Adults we generate a new feeling of relying on ourselves and each other. We get to see that we are more than our illness. We are friends, we are leaders, and most importantly we belong because of who we are as people.

In addition to feeling that we belong, we also believe that there are many different expressions of leadership. That is why we offer a variety of ways for our members to get involved. These are:

• Vote! Impact Young Adults holds elections twice a year. These elections help us decide who the next leadership team will be and what where we address any changes that we want to make in how we run things.
• Join a committee! Impact Young Adults has a number of committees that help us get things done. When members join a committee they get to have a say in how and what these committees do. For example, there is an Event Planning Committee which meets twice a month to plan the calendar of events. If a member joins this committee, they get to help decide what fun things we will do each weekend!
• Run for Office! If members are interested in taking a bigger role in the leadership of Impact Young Adults, this is a great way to do it! The leadership team makes up our Board of Directors, which govern our 501(c)3 nonprofit organization. These leaders are voted in at our elections which are held twice a year and their term lasts for one year. The Board meets monthly to discuss the needs of our members, make important decisions about our organization, and most importantly: how best to achieve our mission while having fun!