We would like to thank you for all for your support over the past year. It has been a truly monumental one. We were successful in increasing the public's awareness of people’s experience in the mental health system by holding our first annual bed-push. We pushed a hospital bed from Cooley Dickinsonto downtown Northampton where we held a speak-out. As a result, we got our picture in the front page of the Hampshire Daily Gazette, coverage from Channel 22 News, and a radio piece done by WMAC, a local NPR affiliate.

In addition to this event, we held an educational event at Hampshire College with Attorney Jim Gottstein. Attorney Jim Gottstein has worked against forced psychiatric drugging for years and broke a story to the NY Times about the suppressed evidence around the dangers of Zyprexa.

Another major breakthrough has happened this year: The Freedom Center, in coalition with the Icarus Project published a Coming off Of Psychiatric Drugs Guide, These guides can be downloaded for free at www.freedom-center.org and hundreds have already been distributed.

These monumental events have happened in addition to our weekly programs. Every week the Freedom Center provides five free drop-in services for people looking to relax, deal with disturbing symptoms, explore their emotions, and/or connect to community. Every week the Freedom Center has TWO free yoga classes and a free writing group. We also host one of the only free drop-in acupuncture clinics in the country. The Freedom Center is still maintaining the free support group that has been active since the founding of the organization 6 years ago. Our weekly radio show, “Madness Radio” also covers important local and international mental health-related issues.

While all these programs are free to the public, none of them are free to the Freedom Center. There are many expenses involved in the work we do and we do not accept money from pharmaceutical companies. We know you must get lots of requests to fund all kinds of good causes, and if you, like many of us, are dealing with economic hardship, then we do not want you to feel obliged to make a donation. However if you can afford to, or know anyone who can, we simply want people to know about this amazing work and have the opportunity to strengthen its effectiveness. If it speaks to you, I want to invite you to consider giving a holiday donation to the Freedom Center.

You can give this donation simply by: Sending a check to Freedom Center Box 623 Northampton, MA 01062. *If you would like the check to be tax-deductible please make it out to Choices Inc. with Freedom Center as subject line.