A blog article by former Boston Globe health journalist and _Side Effects_ author Alison Bass profiles the Freedom Center & Caty Simon. Fairly accurate, and yay coverage, and yay Alison Bass.
http://alison-bass.blogspot.com/2009/06/freedom-center-alternative-to.html

Newsweek magazine just did a big story on Mad Pride and The Icarus Project, profiling Freedom Center co-founder Will Hall.

Check it out on the Newsweek site here; view a .pdf of the magazine here; and you can also take a look at the art gallery they put together here. And feel free to leave comments and join the discussion on the Newsweek site.

Here is some recent coverage of the latest PINAC (*Poverty Is Not A Crime) campaign against the anti-panhandling ordinance put forth by the "Downtown Northampton Business Improvement District". Freedom Center's Caty Simon is referenced in each article. It seems that we actually made a difference on this one!

Check out the Poverty Is Not A Crime campaign page here

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.

The widely read Yoga Journal magazine, available across the US, recently had an article about Freedom Center's weekly yoga class, quoting teacher Chaya Grossberg and FC co-founder Oryx Cohen. Download and read the article here.

The Hampshire Daily Gazette just did a 10-17-08 story on the proposed panhandling law in Northampton that Freedom Center opposes, and quotes Caty Simon from Freedom Center speaking at a recent protest and City Council meeting:

"It's clear that this legislation does, de facto, criminalize panhandling, if not in the letter of the law, then in the spirit," said Catherine Simon, reading from a prepared statement at a recent council meeting....

Simon, meanwhile, said the homeless and the poor are already the victims of economic violence.

"These homeless people are surviving the best they know how," she said. "Meanwhile, those who wish to stop panhandling do not have altruistic goals in mind - the businesses of Main Street and the politicians that support them would simply like to clear the streets for the tourist trade."

http://www.gazettenet.com/2008/10/17/panhandling-law-looms-northampton-questions-arise

Read more about the campaign here.

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