Voices of Transformation - National Empowerment Center

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Voices of Transformation: Developing Recovery-Oriented Statewide Consumer Organizations OAMH provides peer support for people in leadership roles, who often are not getting what they need as they support others. Although the CMHS grant ended in 2003, OAMH is continuing to do the networking that they consider so valuable. OAMH spends considerable energy supporting local groups who are in constant danger of losing their funding. The organization is run by an 18-member Board that is geographically representative of the state. Ohio has both a number of major metropolitan areas as well as rural areas. OAMH is committed to making sure that all parts of the state are represented, as well as working to achieve ethnic representation. Fifteen Board seats are for consumer/survivors; the other three are “professional support seats”. Professional seats may be filled by providers who also identify as consumers. In fact two of the seats are currently held by consumer/providers. All officers must be consumers/survivors. Three of the consumer/survivor seats are appointed by the general membership; the remaining consumer/survivor seats, as well as all of the professional seats, are recruited and appointed directly by the Board. Board members are limited to two three-year terms. OAMH has six full-time and four part-time employees. Ohio Advocates for Mental Health has a total budget of approximately $756,000, of which about $592,000 is state funding; $79,000 is federal funding (CMHS); and the balance from membership dues and assorted other income. OAMH’s budget illustrates how an organization was able to make the transition from one that received the bulk of its funds from federal sources, to other sources when its federal funding was greatly reduced. OAMH employs: • Chief Executive Officer • Director • Associate Director • Director of Education and Training (part time position) • Technical Assistance Coordinator • Advocacy Coordinator • Administrative Assistant Funding Source Mix Ohio Advocates for Mental Health Membership dues and other income 24% Federal Funds: SAMHSA 10% State Funds 66% National Empowerment Center 25
Voices of Transformation: Developing Recovery-Oriented Statewide Consumer Organizations ON OUR OWN OF MARYLAND, INC. The consumer movement in Maryland began in 1981 with the founding of On Our Own, Inc. as a mutual support group for people who had been in psychiatric hospitals. The group began meeting in a church basement in the Baltimore suburbs and then moved several times before settling into the main public library downtown. The group incorporated the following year and one of their first activities was to coordinate a statewide conference for mental health consumers. They chose the name “On Our Own” from the book written by Judi Chamberlin in the late 1970s. On Our Own, with the support of a sympathetic administrator in the Maryland Mental Hygiene Administration, used funding from the Community Support Program (CSP) 13 to organize this meeting for Maryland consumers. One result of the conference was the development of a policy paper calling for changes in mental health service delivery in Maryland, including a recommendation for a consumer-run drop-in center. In 1983, once again using CSP funds, On Our Own, Inc. opened the drop-in center in downtown Baltimore, the first in the country to operate with federal funding. Planning for an additional drop-in center began that same year by a group of consumers in Montgomery County, a Maryland suburban county just outside Washington, D.C. The second center opened in 1985 as On Our Own of Montgomery County, Inc. in downtown Rockville, Maryland. They were assisted by the Montgomery County government, which leased a building to them for $1 a year. With the rapid growth of new consumer support and advocacy groups around the state, a statewide organization, On Our Own of Maryland was formed in 1985, and was incorporated as a not-for-profit organization in 1992. Today, On Our Own of Maryland, Inc., through its local affiliate consumer groups, has a presence in every county in the state. On Our Own of Maryland has held a statewide conference every year since 1993. The yearly conference attracts three to four hundred people from all over the state. On Our Own has always been very proud of not allowing state funding to interfere with being a forceful advocate for the rights of patients in Maryland institutions. In 1982, in partnership with the University of Maryland School of Law, On Our Own 13 The CSP was then part of the National Institute for Mental Health (NIMH) and is now within the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) National Empowerment Center 26
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Voices of Transformation - National Empowerment Center

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