Miriam Ament, ’89

Founder and President, No Shame on U

No Shame On U is dedicated to breaking the stigma associated with mental health conditions so the people who need the help will seek it, family members and friends will know how to provide proper support, and to save lives. We achieve our mission through our community outreach programs, classes and workshops, our online presence of over 110,000 social media followers, our weekly blog, our podcast, distribution of our fact sheets, crisis information magnets and videos, and educational presentations.

At the beginning of the pandemic, we realized that we would have to be adaptable and flexible in order to provide mental health support. The programming needs became bigger and bigger as we saw the response we were getting. We hoped to reduce COVID’s impact on feelings of isolation, anxiety, and sadness, help people cope with the losses they were experiencing such as family get togethers, simchas that couldn’t be celebrated in large gatherings, school activities, socializing, and offer anchoring programs for these unprecedented times.

We created a broad range of programs for all ages to meet the divergent needs of community members. Together with this, we implemented surveys to assess the types of programs the community wanted. This has been No Shame On U’s busiest eight months -and counting- and we are glad to be able to offer support during these unique and challenging times.