THIS WEDNESDAY, our Alliance for Rights and Recovery (formerly NYAPRS) invites you to a very informative and empowering Southern Tier Regional Forum from 11:00am-2:00pm at the BROOME COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY’S DECKER ROOM (185 Court Street, Binghamton, NY 13901).
The forum will especially focus on 3 items of huge importance to our members, colleagues and allies across the state:
- Alliance CEO Harvey Rosenthal and Vice President for Public Policy Luke Sikinyi will be discussing Governor Hochul’s recently released state budget’s expansion of involuntary inpatient and outpatient commitment programs and her proposals to invest $16.5 million in voluntary service alternatives to disconnected individuals, invest in a number of Peer Bridger, INSET and upstate Clubhouse programs and increase rates for community mental health agencies and housing programs. They will also explain why the Alliance is backing the use of Incident Review Panels to investigate episodes of violence and to provide corrective remedies going forward.
- Also, New York’s new 1115 New York Health Equity Reform (NYHER) Medicaid Waiver program was launched several weeks ago. The Waiver authorizes and funds nine regional Social Care Networks (SCNs) to coordinate the efforts of area providers to address the core housing support, nutrition programs, transportation needs of eligible New Yorkers. For more information about the Waiver, go to the Alliance’s website. We’re very pleased to feature representatives from the Southern Tier’s SCN, Care Compass.
- Finally, we’re thrilled that Kimberly Saunders, Broome County Social Services and Community Mental Health Commissioner will be joining us to discuss the impact of these initiatives in the region and other local priorities.
We’ll be serving a light lunch at 2:00 pm.
This forum will help shape our collective advocacy efforts leading up to our March 4th Annual Legislative Day in Albany during which we’ll hear presentations from OMH Commissioner Ann Sullivan and key legislative leaders and honor the work of former OMH Budget director Emil Slane, former Assistant Secretary for Human Services and Mental Hygiene Patrick Wildes, longtime mental health advocate Fred Levine and Caroline Lewis, reporter for the Gothamist and WNYC.
During that day, we will also hold a large Capital rally calling for significant investments in community-based mental health agencies and their workforce as well as a very timely press conference to voice opposition to the expansion of involuntary treatment.
As an added bonus, all attendees will be entered into a raffle for a full scholarship to The Alliance’s annual conference!
For more information, contact:
Brandan Campbell (brandanmcampbell@gmail.com) and Luke Sikinyi (LukeS@rightsandrecovery.org).
Let’s rally for rights, recovery, and investment in our future. See below for more information.
