Voices of Transformation - National Empowerment Center

Voices of Transformation: Developing Recovery-Oriented Statewide Consumer Organizations
Many of us have found that social action is an integral part of our recovery. Finding
a group of like-minded people, finding a purpose/meaning/mission, finding that we
really CAN do it, that we are needed and wanted, and that we do have something to
offer and contribute, provide the very foundation of recovery. It changes our selfperception
from one of a person with an incurable “disorder” who is incapable of a
meaningful social contribution to one who can participate in purposeful
involvement and find a place of belonging.
The cyclic and intertwined nature of empowerment, action, and peer support
integral to consumer-run endeavors, illustrates some important components of
recovery. Most consumer-run statewide organizations have found that creating a
balance between engaging in social action and developing peer support is
challenging, but crucial. Both are essential ingredients to building an effective
statewide presence and to the recovery process.
The members of the Recovery Consortium know that people recover in their own
ways and in their own time. Being involved in a statewide consumer network
provides many individuals with opportunities for finding meaning and purpose,
developing new skills, sharing with others in peer support and influencing change
through social action.
FINDING AND USING OUR VOICE
In addition to recovery another core tenet of the consumer/survivor movement is the
theme: “Nothing about us without us”. We need to be at every table, not just in
treatment team meetings or social activity planning, but also as laws are made,
when policy is discussed and decided, while funding is allocated, and where
education is delivered.
The consumer movement could be viewed as an ongoing process of finding and
using our individual and collective voice. It is a three-part process:
• Finding our individual voice.
• Knowing how to use our voice.
• Amplifying our voice by joining and
using the power of the collective voice
of many.
Finding Our
Voice
Amp lifyi ng
Our Voices
Finding and using our voice does not
always come naturally or easily. Many of
us have learned that our voice doesn’t
Using Ou r
matter or we believe that we have little to
Voices
offer, especially in “important” things
such as mental health policy and
legislation, funding services or programs, educating mental health workers and
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