Voices of Transformation - National Empowerment Center

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Voices of Transformation: Developing Recovery-Oriented Statewide Consumer Organizations community, and ensuring that citizens with disabilities are registered to vote and have an opportunity to do so. DPC and OOTF have organized several state conferences for people with disabilities focusing on employment, voting rights, Medicaid buy-in, legislative advocacy, and other broad issues. For two consecutive biennial budget periods, these coalitions organized more than 200 people with disabilities to attend budget briefings, and provided information, fact sheets, and mentors to assist people in visiting their state representative and state senator to advocate on budget and policy issues of concern. ON OUR OWN OF MARYLAND, INC. The Anti-Stigma Project This project was formed in 1993 in collaboration with the Maryland Mental Hygiene Administration, because On Our Own of Maryland recognized that consumer/survivors had a unique role to play in combating stigma. Unlike other mental health groups, consumers themselves experience stigma; it is not just an abstract concept. In addition, On Our Own of Maryland recognized that much of the stigma was coming from within the mental health system itself—something that is usually not acknowledged by other mental health organizations. The mission of The Anti- Stigma Project is to fight stigma by raising consciousness, facilitating ongoing dialogues, searching for creative solutions, and educating all participants within or connected to the mental health community. A workgroup of about thirty people was established, which included not only On Our Own of Maryland members, but also family members, representatives of state government, and others. This group has continued in existence and has produced a training video, “Stigma…In Our Work…In Our Lives”, funded by a grant from the Center for Mental Health Services. In March of 2001, in partnership with the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, Center for Mental Health Services, the Anti-Stigma Project hosted the first National Mental Health Symposium on Discrimination and Stigma in Baltimore, Maryland. The United States Surgeon General was one of the keynote speakers. The Anti-Stigma Project has developed a number of workshops, which have been presented to consumers, providers, and administrators across the country as well as overseas. Approximately 50 workshops are presented annually. National Empowerment Center 43
Voices of Transformation: Developing Recovery-Oriented Statewide Consumer Organizations Main Street Housing The lack of integrated housing options for people in the mental health system is one of the largest obstacles to recovery. It is hard for someone in the process of recovery to feel like a “regular person” when he or she is living in a group home, halfway house, supervised apartment, or any kind of housing that is run by the mental health system. Rules are set by others, and freedom of choice is frequently limited, whether it is in the selection of roommates or the duration of one’s stay. Other people do not have to live this way, and the goal of the Main Street Housing program is to make sure that mental health consumers have an opportunity to live in the same kinds of housing that people without psychiatric disabilities do. In 2000, On Our Own established Main Street Housing as a subsidiary housing development corporation, with its own Board of Directors, consisting of up to fifteen people, the majority of them consumers. The goal is to buy houses and lease them to people with psychiatric disabilities to serve as long-term housing. Unlike many housing programs, there are no requirements that people be in treatment, only that they fulfill the normal expectations of tenancy. Main Street Housing is just what it says it is: an organization The lack of integrated housing options for people in the mental health system is one of the largest obstacles to recovery. It is hard for someone in the process of recovery to feel like a “regular person” when he or she is living in a group home. committed to the idea that persons with psychiatric disabilities do not have to be hidden away on the back streets, that they have the ability and right to live on "Main Street”. Main Street Housing now owns six houses, two in Hagerstown, two in Columbia, and two new properties in Harford County. In Hagerstown, the houses are duplexes (two units each); two of these units are rented to women with children, which is significant because most housing programs for people with psychiatric disabilities are for single adults only. A married couple occupies another unit, both with mental health histories. In Columbia, the buildings are three-bedroom townhouses, each of which currently houses three people (each with his or her own bedroom). The Harford County units are in the process of being rehabbed. Main Street Housing currently has plans to expand into several more counties; the goal is to double the size over the next two years. Funding comes from a bond program run by the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, which makes funds available to groups serving people with a variety of disabilities. The Maryland Department of Housing and Community Development, a mainstream housing agency not specifically designed for people with disabilities, have provided other funding for these projects. At present Main Street Housing is staffed by an Executive Director and a Housing Development Coordinator. National Empowerment Center 44
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