Raise Your Voice Clubs

NAMI Wisconsin Raise Your Voice (RYV) clubs are extracurricular high school and middle school clubs dedicated to increasing mental illness awareness, inspiring advocacy and promoting acceptance. This program empowers teens to create a new conversation about mental health through education, leadership development and civic advocacy.

Over the past six years, Central Wisconsin has experienced significant growth in the number of RYV Clubs. Thanks to investment from Aspirus Health, which currently covers start-up costs for newly forming local clubs and stipends for RYV staff advisors, the presence of RYV Clubs in the region has expanded substantially.

Raise Your Voice Clubs in our area:

Marathon County:

- Athens High School
- Edgar High School
- D.C. Everest Middle School, D.C. Everest Junior High School, D.C. Everest Senior High School, D.C. Everest IDEA School
- Marathon High School
- Newman Catholic Middle & High School
- John Muir Middle School, Horace Mann Middle School, Wausau East High School, Wausau West High School

Lincoln County:

- Prairie River Middle School
- Merrill High School
- Tomahawk Middle/High School

Langlade County:

- Antigo High School
- White Lake Middle & High School

The 2025–2026 year‑end survey shows that Raise Your Voice clubs are making a strong, positive difference in students’ lives and school environments. Students widely reported using what they learned throughout the year to support peers, improve their own mental health, and engage in meaningful conversations about well‑being. Most respondents agreed that RYV is positively shifting school culture, is led by supportive and effective student leaders, and offers a welcoming space for all students.

Raise Your Voice Connection Coordinators

Through funding from Aspirus Health, the Mental Health Collaborative supports two Raise Your Voice Connection Coordinators positions, one within the D.C. Everest School District, and one within the Wausau School District.

Raise Your Voice Connection Coordinators play a key role in strengthening both new and established RYV clubs across the NAMI Northwoods region in Wisconsin. They share successful practices developed by seasoned clubs, offer consultation to help new clubs form in additional school districts, and provide guidance to advisors and school administrators to ensure each club is set up for success through monthly check-ins with local clubs.

Raise Your Voice Summit

Raise Your Voice Club student officers and staff advisors from throughout the region come together in October for the annual RYV Summit to kick-off the year.

On Wednesday, October 8, 2025, a local Raise Your Voice Summit brought together all RYV Advisors (school staff) and Officers (students) from the NAMI NW region at Dale’s Weston Lanes. The summit provided an opportunity for RYV clubs to connect, work together in a shared learning environment, and plan their activities for the 2025–2026 school year. Kayley McColley, a Wausau West grad and current Social Worker on the Adult Crisis Stabilization Unit at North Central Care was the leadership speaker at the Summit.

NAMI Youth Advocacy Day

NAMI Wisconsin’s Youth Advocacy Day is an annual event that brings hundreds of middle and high school students to the State Capitol in Madison to advocate for mental health resources. The most recent event took place on March 5, 2026, with youth advocating to lawmakers to fund the 988 crisis hotline and school-based mental health services.

Learn more about the 2026 NAMI WI Youth Advocacy Day.

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