Email | Print

It has been an interesting few months since our summer issue. Thank you for responding to some of the articles you read there. When we hear from you by fax, phone or email, we feel good.

In the months to come, New York City Voices will incorporate to become a mental health consumer-run non-profit corporation in the city of New York. We may be the first to do this and believe that other pioneers will follow. As a non-profit, we the Editorial Board will advance to become a Board of Directors. We will assume roles such as chairperson, secretary, treasurer, etc. and we will have an executive director and associate directors for current and new programs to benefit the mental health community. We plan to maintain the newspaper and continue to improve and expand upon it. We will continue having conferences on the arts, fundraisers, educational and social events. Still, we will have the option of doing more.

As a tax-exempt non-profit that can stand on its own, we may be able to boost our budget significantly through start-up grants from organizations that support new ideas. This new money may be used to pay full- or part-time staff and to fund our programs. This is an exciting time for us and we look to you for new program ideas that may benefit you as a consumer, a family member, friend, advocate or professional.

We believe that we should broaden our reach in New York City to reach as many people in the mental health community here as possible. Our mission is to help mental health consumers feel like they belong to the world, to encourage all of us to participate in society in ways big or small, to change public perception of people who have mental illness starting with ourselves, to be a forum for information and differing opinions on mental health issues, and to promote recovery by encouraging independence and choice among life’s many options. If you have ideas for all of us, please share them.