WBFO Launches Mental Health Initiative with Lee Foundation Support

With funding from the Patrick P. Lee Foundation, WBFO-FM has introduced the Mental Health Initiative, a multi-faceted, two-year media project to share critical information about mental illness. The keys to this effort are identifying approaches to reach different audiences, creating a sustaining effort over time, and building on existing information, expertise and materials.

“The focus of this project is to normalize the conversation about mental illness by bringing this issue from the shadows into everyday light,” said John Grant, senior program officer at WNED | WBFO.  “To accomplish this, we will focus on educating the general public about mental illness to overcome the lack of understanding that stigmatizes those with the disease and highlighting stories of people who are successfully dealing with mental health issues.”

“The Lee Foundation is proud to support WBFO’s Mental Health Initiative. This two-year project will provide in-depth coverage of mental health issues and help to build the mental health literacy of our community,” said Jane Mogavero, executive director, Patrick P. Lee Foundation. “News media is a critical source of information for the public and WBFO’s commitment to quality, thorough reporting makes them an ideal partner for this important work.”

The project will include a variety of media approaches focused on these key areas:

•           Reporting about mental health issues on WBFO;

•           Producing digital video segments for use online at WNED | WBFO-affiliated and partner websites and social media sites;

•           Producing Facebook Live community discussion events on specific mental health issues;

About WNED | WBFO

The WNED | WBFO family of stations broadcasts PBS, NPR and Classical music programming throughout the Western New York and Southern Ontario regions. These high-quality programs and community outreach services inform, enlighten, entertain and educate our local and regional communities. Our member-supported stations include WNED-TV (PBS), WBFO-FM 88.7 (NPR), Classical 94.5 WNED, WNED Thinkbright @ Create® and WNED PBS Kids 24/7.   WNED-TV is also a national producer of award-winning documentaries. Additional information about WNED ? WBFO can be found at wned.org.