Goldie Hawn and Youth from Across the Country to Join SAMHSA in a Celebration of Children’s Mental Health

Disney’s Cheetah Girls’ Sabrina Bryan and Twilight’s Solomon Trimble to co-host free National Children’s Mental Health Awareness Day talent showcase at the Harman Center in D.C.

WASHINGTON, April 28 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ — The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) announced today that Goldie Hawn, Academy Award-winning actress and founder of the Hawn Foundation, will receive the SAMHSA Special Recognition Award at its fourth annual National Children’s Mental Health Awareness Day event in Washington, D.C. on May 7, 2009. This year’s national Awareness Day event, hosted by SAMHSA at the Harman Center for the Arts, will feature youth performers from SAMHSA-funded system of care communities nationwide in a demonstration of the powerful role performing arts play in helping children and youth with mental health needs thrive at home, at school, and in their communities.

WHAT: HEAR ME NOW: A Celebration of Resiliency through the Performing Arts

WHEN: Thursday, May 7, 2009

6 p.m., Theatre doors open

7-8:30 p.m., HEAR ME NOW event

WHERE: Sidney Harman Hall, Harman Center for the Arts – Washington DC Shakespeare Theatre

610 F Street NW

Metro: Gallery Place/Chinatown (Red/Yellow/Green Lines)

At the event, Goldie Hawn will be honored for her work to increase public understanding of mental health issues through her non-profit organization, The Hawn Foundation. Sabrina Bryan, singer from Disney’s The Cheetah Girls and recent contestant on the third season of ABC’s Dancing with the Stars, and Solomon Trimble, actor from the hit film Twilight will co-host the event. Youth performers will stage poetry readings, dance performances, and musical compositions to share their personal stories about overcoming mental health challenges.

Tickets to the HEAR ME NOW event are free and will be available to the public beginning April 6 by contacting the Shakespeare Theatre box office at (202) 547-1122.

HEAR ME NOW is one of numerous Awareness Day activities taking place in communities across the country to show people that mental health challenges are real and can be treated. Events and activities will focus attention on the need to provide comprehensive, community-based mental health supports and services in high schools.

SAMHSA is a public health agency within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The agency is responsible for improving the accountability, capacity, and effectiveness of the nation’s substance abuse prevention, addictions treatment and mental health service delivery systems.

Executive Planning Group

Mental Health America

National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI)

National Federation of Families for Children’s Mental Health

Co-Sponsors

American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry

American Academy of Pediatrics

The Annie E. Casey Foundation

Center for Health Care Strategies, Inc.

National Association of State Directors of Special Education, Inc.

National Council for Community Behavioral Healthcare

Pearson

Residential Care Consortium

SOURCE Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration