Freedom Center is going strong!

After more than 9 years of fast-paced activism focus, Freedom Center is going strong -- and evolving. We're concentrating on our community support and wellness programs these days: support groups, yoga, writing, and acupuncture. We're also continuing to co-sponsor Madness Radio and we collaborate with the Recovery Learning Community and the Statewide Harm Reduction Coalition.

Thank you Judi Chamberlin for all your inspiration, your years of friendship and support for Freedom Center, and the inspiration you have given the survivor movement.

Judi passed away. She recently wrote:

I don't believe in an afterlife; I think when I die it will just be a return to the same nothingness as before my birth. I believe that the only 'afterlife' is the way one lives on in people's memories, and it has been so gratifying to me to hear from so many people who appreciate the work I've done and the positive effect I've had on their lives. So I feel confident that I will live on in the memories of many, many people, and that thought gives me great comfort.

http://www.freedom-center.org/we-love-you-judi-chamberlin

http://knowledgeisnecessity.blogspot.com/2010/01/judi-chamerlin-requiem-for-hero.html

I'm Leah Harris, co-coordinator of the U.S. Network of Users and Survivors of Psychiatry (USNUSP), a newly-formed network seeking to use the language, framework, and principles of international human rights to end violations against users and survivors of psychiatry and to promote voluntary and compassionate alternatives to the traditional mental health system.

Yet again, the city of northampton has recognized the valuable services that Freedom Center has provided and has given the Freedom Center additional funding to keep our programs going. The city of Northampton awarded the Freedom Center $2,500 towards helping to maintain our weekly writing group, acupuncture clinic, yoga classes, and support group. All of these programs take place in Northampton and are free and open to the public and therefore provide lots of benefit to northampton residents.

Longtime organizer Lee Hurter wrote her Hampshire College thesis on Freedom Center, including interviews with several Freedom Center organizers. Download and read the thesis at the link below.

The prestigious federal National Council on Disability report Inclusive Livable Communities for People with Psychiatric Disabilities March 17, 2008 included a section on Freedom Center that interviews Oryx!

The report says The Freedom Center in Northampton, Massachusetts, is an example of a grassroots, independent program run by psychiatric survivors that receives only minimal funding, yet has developed a number of alternative programs to assist people to achieve their self-determined goals. The Freedom Center offers innovative approaches such as yoga classes and acupuncture, provides peer-run programs, helps people to find housing, and advocates for a noncoercive mental health system in which people are free to make their own choices about the kinds of treatment they want.

Read the entire report here.

In celebration of Freedom Center's seventh anniversary Oryx and Kristen had a baby girl! Katiya Elizabeth Cohen... Congratulatons to the happy couple and the adorable new Freedom Center member.

Forbes, a leading international business magazine, has chosen the Northampton, MA based Freedom Center, an alternative mental health organization run by and for people diagnosed with psychiatric disorders, to be featured as their charity of the month in September.

Check it out on their website:

www.forbes.com/2008/08/28/mentalhealth-schizophrenia-pf-philo-in_rm_0829philanthropy_inl.html

snipurl/forbesfreedomcenter

read the Gazette article about Forbes and our party

Read our open discussion list (FC-Discuss) here for all kinds of forwarded emails, news items, announcements, and discussions:

http://lists.riseup.net/www/arc/fc-discuss

Read our Announcement list (FC-Announce) archive:

https://lists.riseup.net/www/arc/fc-announce

You can also subscribe to the great links in the "Madness News Network" feed in a weekly digest form. Just click this link and enter your email address. http://feedburner.google.com/fb/a/mailverify?uri=MadnessNewsNetwork&loc=en_US

Read more about subcribing to our email lists.

Freedom Center relies on the donations and volunteer energy of many people near and far to keep our innovative wellness and advocacy programs going. We have been supported by individual donors, small grants, and limited support from the City of Northampton Community Development Block Grant and Resist, Inc., but we receive no money from pharmaceutical companies.

We need your help to continue our important work!

You can make a tax-deductible donation by clicking the Donate Online button above. It will take you to a secure credit card donation page on Pay Pal for making your donation.  You can also make checks payable to Freedom Center/CHOICES and mail to Freedom Center, P.O. Box 623, Northampton, MA 01061. or go to our Cause on Facebook to make a tax-deductible donation: http://apps.facebook.com/causes/288347

All donations are tax-deductible. Our tax information is Freedom Center/CHOICES Inc., EIN= 75-3149780.

Thanks for helping make Freedom Center grow and flourish!