Faces & Voices of Recovery wrote
on May 30, 2008 at 9:03 AM
Recovery Voices Count is a national project working to build the recovery community (people in recovery from addiction to alcohol and other drugs, families,friends and allies)into a strong unified constituency with one voice for the 2008 Elections and beyond. Growing numbers of recovery community organizations and recovery advocates across the country are getting involved in nonpartisan voting activities so that their voices can be heard in the local, state and national arenas. They are conducting voter registration and Get-Out-the-Vote activities, sponsoring candidate forums and getting candidates for political office on record about critical policies that will make recovery a reality for even more Americans. Recovery Voices Count is one part of Faces and Voices of Recovery's (www.facesandvoicesofrecovery.org) national movement to make it possible for even more of our friends, neighbors and family members to experience long-term recovery from addiction by building recognition of the recovery community as a constituency of consequence. As recovery community organizations and recovery advocates register voters, educate candidates for public office about key issues and turn out voters in growing numbers, we will have an even greater impact on the lives of people who still need help with their addiction, people in long-term recovery, their family members and communities. With less than half of eligible Americans voting, Recovery Voices Count is a great way to help people take the first step in civic participation and build your recovery community organization. Every individual eligible to vote needs to be encouraged to register to vote and, if already registered, encouraged to vote. One policy issue that is very important to the recovery community is restoring the right of people with criminal convictions to vote. More than five million Americans are barred from the polls because of these restrictions. Many of these disenfranchised people have experience with addiction and face lifetime bans on participating in our civic life as voters. Recovery community organizations around the country are working in coalition with allied organizations to right this wrong. Many people in recovery have also experienced insurance descrimination from insurance companies. We need to work towards equality as someone's treatment should be covered as equally as if someone was dealing with a physical illness. Join us in reaching out and organizing the recovery community to participate in our electoral process. Join us in making Recovery Voices Count!
There are many things you can do to take action!
A Recovery Voices Count guide and many other tools can be found at
http://facesandvoicesofrecovery.org/about/campaigns/recovery_voices_count_tools.php
You can use the guide to do many things to help the project.
There are three important parts to the project that anyone can get involved in
1. Voter Registration
2. Voter and Candidate Education
3. Voter Participation by having your voice heard by voting on behalf of the recovery community!
Voter Registration
The guide can get you started in organizing a Voter Registration drive. Here you can learn who is eligible to vote, how to recruit volunteers for your project, and research voter registration deadlines. If you have not registered to vote yourself please register at http://facesandvoicesofrecovery.org/about/campaigns/recovery_voices_count.phprvc
Click on the banner that says register to vote!
Voter and Candidate Participation
Their are many ways you can educate candidates running for public office on the local, state, and national levels.
Learn and practice 5 questions to ask candidates, and work to get a candidate to sign this pledge here...
http://facesandvoicesofrecovery.org/pdf/Call_to_Action.pdf
It is important that we hold candidates for office accountable and get them on the record before they are elected. This makes our job as advocates easier when we are working to get legislation passed or working against a bill that does not help the recovery community.
Voter Participation
It is important to call our friends family and allies in recovery and make sure they are turning out to vote in numbers! We can organize Get Out the Vote drives to the recovery community.
A sample script can be found here...you can use this to organize your own drive!
http://facesandvoicesofrecovery.org/about/campaigns/recovery_voices_count_tools.php
If you have any questions regarding this campaign or need some guidance for the project please contact the lead Recovery Voices Count Field Organizer Aaron Kucharski at
aaronkucharski@yahoo.com
Thursday, June 26, 2008
Tuesday, February 5, 2008
CSAT RCSP Cuts
Colleagues,
As you all know, the RCSP program is in grave danger.
Thanks to everyone who has been educating the public and policymakers about how important the program is and what a difference it has made in the lives of so many of our friends and neighbors. We have our work cut out for us over the next few months, but we have an incredible story to tell and a national network of people who know how critical the RCSP program is to developing strong communities of recovery.
I wanted to spend a few minutes bringing everyone up to date on where we are:
Meeting with Dr. Clark on February 1st
Thanks so much to Bev Haberle (PRO-ACT); Kim Turner-Haugabook (CCAR); Bill Layfield (Alabama Voices for Recovery) and Tom Coderre (Faces & Voices and Rhode Island resident) for taking time from their busy schedules to attend a meeting with CSAT Director Westley Clark last Friday. At the meeting, they laid out what the RCSP program has meant to people in CT and PA and the need and desire for future grantmaking to duplicate and build on those successes in AL, RI and across the country.
At the meeting, we reiterated the need for a new round of grantmaking in 2008 and an expanded RCSP program in 2009.
There are two critical funding issues for the RCSP program: 2008 and 2009 funding. The third issue is providing technical assistance to support the growing national network of recovery community organizations.
2008 funding
At the meeting with Dr. Clark, we talked about the last time that there was a threat to the RCSP program – in 2006 when we learned that there wasn’t going to be a new round of funding. At that time, advocates came together and called on SAMHSA Administrator Charles Curie to restore the cut and the agency went ahead and did it.
This time, it’s a different story.
When advocates and our allies on Capitol Hill called on SAMHSA to restore the cuts, the agency responded with a new strategy and a different message. Instead of restoring the cut to new funding, the agency has been saying that they are continuing to fund the program – at $5.2 million in 2008. Those are the funds that support current grantees in 2008 (RCSP grants are for four years, so organizations that received funding in prior years will continue to be funded this year; there won’t be any new grant awards however.)
So, we need to make sure that we and our allies understand that the agency has cut all new funding (about $2.5 million a year) as well as funding for technical support for grantees.
We are developing additional advocacy strategies to continue to pressure the agency to find the $2.5 million to fund a new round of grantees, working with our allies on Capitol Hill.
2009 Funding
Today, President Bush released his budget for 2009. In it, he called for the complete elimination of the RCSP program.
The budget document that accompanies the budget includes a note that this recommendation is being made “…because services provided, such as manicures and other non-traditional therapies, are not based on evidence-based practices for recovery and grantees have not consistently met all performance measures.”
This means that there would be no continuation of existing grants.
The President’s budget proposed funding for the Access to Recovery/Voucher Initiative Program at $99.7 million, representing approximately level funding compared to FY 2008. Many of the services that are provided under ATR are similar to those provided by RCSP grantees.
The President’s budget proposal is just that – a proposal. Before Congress enacts a budget, there will be Congressional hearings and other deliberations where we will have an opportunity to weigh in in support of an expanded RCSP program.
What you can do today
One thing that we’ve learned over the past few weeks is that we all have a very important job ahead of us. We need to educate the public and policymakers about the work that recovery community organizations are doing in their communities to support individuals seeking or newly in recovery and to document the tremendous contributions that individuals are making as volunteers to those efforts. Here are some suggested immediate actions that you can take:
If you are now or were an RCSP grantee:
1). Invite your US Senators and Representative and their staff to your program and educate them about the work that you are doing in your community.
2). Count up the number of volunteer hours that are being given by people in your community to your program and send that information to me immediately. We will be putting together a national snap-shot of the RCSP program and believe that if we can tally all of the volunteer hours that are being created because of the program, that will be helpful in building our case.
3). Send any press clippings or articles that your project has generated in the local media to me so that we can put a national face on the successful RCSP story.
We are also collecting information on organizations that have been thinking about applying for RCSP grants or have applied and have not been awarded grants to build the case that there is great demand for an expansion of that program. We will be gathering that information in an organized fashion over the next few weeks.
Future strategy
We still need to find out more information before we can finalize a strategy for reversing this decision. That strategy will include Action Alerts; targeted call-ins; incorporating the RCSP program into Faces & Voices’ Recovery Voices Count campaign; providing testimony and getting questions asked at Congressional hearings; and generating media coverage of RCSP grantees’ successes.
We will be keeping in touch, but wanted you to learn about all of these developments. Please alert others in your network to steps that you will be taking and the information in the email, but don’t forward this email. The people on this email include Faces & Voices board of directors; RCSP grantees and other friends of the RCSP program.
With our combined efforts, we have a chance to come out of this fight with an even stronger RCSP program, but it’s going to take all of our work to make that happen.
As you all know, the RCSP program is in grave danger.
Thanks to everyone who has been educating the public and policymakers about how important the program is and what a difference it has made in the lives of so many of our friends and neighbors. We have our work cut out for us over the next few months, but we have an incredible story to tell and a national network of people who know how critical the RCSP program is to developing strong communities of recovery.
I wanted to spend a few minutes bringing everyone up to date on where we are:
Meeting with Dr. Clark on February 1st
Thanks so much to Bev Haberle (PRO-ACT); Kim Turner-Haugabook (CCAR); Bill Layfield (Alabama Voices for Recovery) and Tom Coderre (Faces & Voices and Rhode Island resident) for taking time from their busy schedules to attend a meeting with CSAT Director Westley Clark last Friday. At the meeting, they laid out what the RCSP program has meant to people in CT and PA and the need and desire for future grantmaking to duplicate and build on those successes in AL, RI and across the country.
At the meeting, we reiterated the need for a new round of grantmaking in 2008 and an expanded RCSP program in 2009.
There are two critical funding issues for the RCSP program: 2008 and 2009 funding. The third issue is providing technical assistance to support the growing national network of recovery community organizations.
2008 funding
At the meeting with Dr. Clark, we talked about the last time that there was a threat to the RCSP program – in 2006 when we learned that there wasn’t going to be a new round of funding. At that time, advocates came together and called on SAMHSA Administrator Charles Curie to restore the cut and the agency went ahead and did it.
This time, it’s a different story.
When advocates and our allies on Capitol Hill called on SAMHSA to restore the cuts, the agency responded with a new strategy and a different message. Instead of restoring the cut to new funding, the agency has been saying that they are continuing to fund the program – at $5.2 million in 2008. Those are the funds that support current grantees in 2008 (RCSP grants are for four years, so organizations that received funding in prior years will continue to be funded this year; there won’t be any new grant awards however.)
So, we need to make sure that we and our allies understand that the agency has cut all new funding (about $2.5 million a year) as well as funding for technical support for grantees.
We are developing additional advocacy strategies to continue to pressure the agency to find the $2.5 million to fund a new round of grantees, working with our allies on Capitol Hill.
2009 Funding
Today, President Bush released his budget for 2009. In it, he called for the complete elimination of the RCSP program.
The budget document that accompanies the budget includes a note that this recommendation is being made “…because services provided, such as manicures and other non-traditional therapies, are not based on evidence-based practices for recovery and grantees have not consistently met all performance measures.”
This means that there would be no continuation of existing grants.
The President’s budget proposed funding for the Access to Recovery/Voucher Initiative Program at $99.7 million, representing approximately level funding compared to FY 2008. Many of the services that are provided under ATR are similar to those provided by RCSP grantees.
The President’s budget proposal is just that – a proposal. Before Congress enacts a budget, there will be Congressional hearings and other deliberations where we will have an opportunity to weigh in in support of an expanded RCSP program.
What you can do today
One thing that we’ve learned over the past few weeks is that we all have a very important job ahead of us. We need to educate the public and policymakers about the work that recovery community organizations are doing in their communities to support individuals seeking or newly in recovery and to document the tremendous contributions that individuals are making as volunteers to those efforts. Here are some suggested immediate actions that you can take:
If you are now or were an RCSP grantee:
1). Invite your US Senators and Representative and their staff to your program and educate them about the work that you are doing in your community.
2). Count up the number of volunteer hours that are being given by people in your community to your program and send that information to me immediately. We will be putting together a national snap-shot of the RCSP program and believe that if we can tally all of the volunteer hours that are being created because of the program, that will be helpful in building our case.
3). Send any press clippings or articles that your project has generated in the local media to me so that we can put a national face on the successful RCSP story.
We are also collecting information on organizations that have been thinking about applying for RCSP grants or have applied and have not been awarded grants to build the case that there is great demand for an expansion of that program. We will be gathering that information in an organized fashion over the next few weeks.
Future strategy
We still need to find out more information before we can finalize a strategy for reversing this decision. That strategy will include Action Alerts; targeted call-ins; incorporating the RCSP program into Faces & Voices’ Recovery Voices Count campaign; providing testimony and getting questions asked at Congressional hearings; and generating media coverage of RCSP grantees’ successes.
We will be keeping in touch, but wanted you to learn about all of these developments. Please alert others in your network to steps that you will be taking and the information in the email, but don’t forward this email. The people on this email include Faces & Voices board of directors; RCSP grantees and other friends of the RCSP program.
With our combined efforts, we have a chance to come out of this fight with an even stronger RCSP program, but it’s going to take all of our work to make that happen.
Friday, January 4, 2008
National Teleconference
Register today for Faces & Voices of Recovery's January 30 teleconference
"Recovery Voices Count"
Join us on Wednesday, January 30 at 3:00 pm Eastern for the first in our four-part 2008 Recovery Advocacy teleconferences. These one-hour interactive teleconferences will give you expert information and a chance to ask questions of our experts.
Growing numbers of recovery community organizations and recovery advocates across the country are getting involved in nonpartisan civic engagement activities so that their voices can be heard in the local, state and national arenas. They are conducting voter registration and Get-Out-the-Vote activities, sponsoring candidate forums and getting candidates for political office on record about critical policies that will make recovery a reality for even more Americans. During this teleconference, you will learn from experts in the field about how to get involved in this exciting campaign.
Faces & Voices of Recovery's National Field Director Tom Coderre will give an overview of Recovery Voices Count and we will hear from recovery advocates and allies about how to:
Register voters at your events
Educate voters and candidates about public policies that support recovery
Get-out-the-vote
Registration: To register, click here today. Please note, registration for this teleconference will close at 5:00 p.m. EST on January 28, 2007.
When you register, you will receive the telephone number for the teleconference. We will email you a link to download the PowerPoint presentation closer to January 30th. You will also be able to download the PowerPoint presentation and other background materials from our website.
Mark your calendars for the next topics in our series:
February 27, 2008 at 3:00 pm Eastern: "Recovery Community Centers Part 1"
March 26, 2008 at 3:00 pm Eastern: "Recovery Community Centers Part 2"
April 23, 2008 at 3:00 pm Eastern: Topic to be announced
Please email us for further information. We look forward to your joining us on the 30th at 3:00 pm Eastern. Register today!
……………………………………………………………………………………………
Got this as a forward? Sign up to receive our future eNewsletters.
"Recovery Voices Count"
Join us on Wednesday, January 30 at 3:00 pm Eastern for the first in our four-part 2008 Recovery Advocacy teleconferences. These one-hour interactive teleconferences will give you expert information and a chance to ask questions of our experts.
Growing numbers of recovery community organizations and recovery advocates across the country are getting involved in nonpartisan civic engagement activities so that their voices can be heard in the local, state and national arenas. They are conducting voter registration and Get-Out-the-Vote activities, sponsoring candidate forums and getting candidates for political office on record about critical policies that will make recovery a reality for even more Americans. During this teleconference, you will learn from experts in the field about how to get involved in this exciting campaign.
Faces & Voices of Recovery's National Field Director Tom Coderre will give an overview of Recovery Voices Count and we will hear from recovery advocates and allies about how to:
Register voters at your events
Educate voters and candidates about public policies that support recovery
Get-out-the-vote
Registration: To register, click here today. Please note, registration for this teleconference will close at 5:00 p.m. EST on January 28, 2007.
When you register, you will receive the telephone number for the teleconference. We will email you a link to download the PowerPoint presentation closer to January 30th. You will also be able to download the PowerPoint presentation and other background materials from our website.
Mark your calendars for the next topics in our series:
February 27, 2008 at 3:00 pm Eastern: "Recovery Community Centers Part 1"
March 26, 2008 at 3:00 pm Eastern: "Recovery Community Centers Part 2"
April 23, 2008 at 3:00 pm Eastern: Topic to be announced
Please email us for further information. We look forward to your joining us on the 30th at 3:00 pm Eastern. Register today!
……………………………………………………………………………………………
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