Granite State Federation of Families for Children's Mental Health

The Granite State Federation of Families for Children’s Mental Health (GSFFCMH), a nonprofit membership-driven organization, is the NH chapter of The National Federation of Families for Children's Mental Health which has chapters in all fifty states, Canada and the territories of Guam and Puerto Rico.

The GSFFCMH believes that families and youth who have experienced the challenges and triumphs of navigating the public and private child serving systems in New Hampshire are uniquely expert in providing perspective on the strengths, weaknesses, and priority direction for those systems. The GSFFCMH is also the host agency for Youth M.O.V.E. NH (Youth Motivating Others through Voices of Experience). 

The Federation’s Mission

  • To provide leadership in the field of children’s mental health and develop the necessary human and financial resources to meet our goals, which are:
  • To address the unique life needs from birth through transition to adulthood of children and youth with emotional, behavioral and/or substance us challenges, and their families by providing family and youth voice and perspective to planning and policy initiatives statewide.
  • To ensure the rights of full citizenship, support, and access to community based services for all children and youth with emotional, behavioral and substance use challenges and their families.
  • To offer information and training and to engage in advocacy regarding research, prevention, early intervention, family support, education, transition services, and other supports needed by our children and their families. This includes providing leadership in the development of NH’s children’s behavioral health workforce.
  • To ensure that family and youth voice and perspective are incorporated at all levels of policy and planning related to children’s behavioral health: individual, regional, and state level. This means families and youth are meaningfully engaged in program and policy level planning, implementation, and evaluation of services and supports and are embraced by their local and state partners as essential partners in system level improvement and transformation efforts.

We believe that every family must have access to individualized services in their home community, and that youth and family culture, goals, and dreams for the future are the paramount pillars upon which any planning process must rest.

Therefore, policies, legislation, funding mechanisms, and service systems must utilize the strengths of families and youth by:

  • Ensuring they are equal partners in the planning, implementation, and evaluation of services
  • Viewing the child as a whole person and the family as a whole unit, and not concentrating only on the disability
  • Empowering families and children to make decisions about their own lives
  • Encouraging innovative services and supports, which increase available options and promote the integration of services.

Contact Information

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Families with questions or referral or support needs, please call 603-785-5257