Register now for Family Empowerment Month!
The month of advocacy begins Monday, February 27th with the Addiction & Recovery Townhall, then again on Tuesday, February 28th with the Mental Health Townhall, and continues throughout the month of March. More information below.
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February 2023
'The Voice' is Families Together in New York State's monthly newsletter with information that is important to families, and youth across the State of New York.
For further information visit our website:
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Shinnecock Advocates for Justice and Equity (SAJE)
Restorative Justice is more than a new buzzword.
Restorative Justice is the foundation of the SAJE Committee. The SAJE Committee is a group of Shinnecock women who came together to offer support and assistance to the Nation’s incarcerated tribal citizens and the families who care for them.
SAMHSA Opioid Response awarded a grant to the Shinnecock Nation and Blossom Sustainable Development. SAJE was formed out of the grant. The mission of SAJE is to provide support to indigenous families impacted by the prison pipeline and to eliminate recidivism in the Shinnecock community. They believe that connection to family, community support, and cultural values are the path to transformative reform for their loved ones entangled in today's failing prison system. Their group meets to develop the SAJE Restorative Reentry Program, a culture-based reentry program based on what they value as indigenous people.
Over the past year, SAJE has met with several community leaders throughout Long Island and New York State creating a network of access points to social resources and legal alternatives. Understanding that to be successful SAJE has to be open to holistic interventions that include all members of the family. To ensure those members with children and youth with complex behavioral health needs have the needed support and resources the SAJE Committee connected with FTNYS and the statewide agencies devoted to supporting parents, families and their youth. Cheryl Williams, FTNYS Parent Advisor from Long Island has joined the committee to support the inclusion of family peer advocates as important components of the SAJE project.
In addition to these milestones, SAJE’s reach has already expanded by collaborating other tribal Nations in New York State to form an intertribal task force.
At the core of the SAJE Restorative Reentry Program is family and community support, SAJE will continue their work until the manifestation of positive change.
for more information about the SAJE movement.
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Family Empowerment Month Townhalls!
Addiction and Recovery 2/27 @ 1pm
Mental Health 2/28 @ 3pm
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FANS Technical Assistance Office Hours
Multiple Dates
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FANS Basic Training
March 13, 14, 15 & 16, 2023
10:00AM-12:30PM
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2023 Annual Conference
April 30 & May 1, 2023
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Families Together is Hiring! |
Families Together in New York State (FTNYS), in partnership with the New York State Office of Children and Family Services (OCFS), is seeking to employ Family Policy Advisors at the state and regional levels to assist OCFS in developing policies and procedures that promote the voice of parents throughout the child welfare system.
Family Policy Advisors are parents with personal experience in navigating the child welfare system.
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TOWN HALLS START NEXT WEEK! |
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Sign up today for our legislative day of action on March 21st, 2023. We will be meeting with lawmakers, making speeches on the steps of the legislative well, and marching to make sure youth and family voices are heard! |
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NYS Budget Update! FTNYS Testimony and Overview |
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After years of neglect, Families Together in New York State recognizes and appreciates the considerable attention paid to the needs of children and families by Governor Hochul’s Executive Budget proposal. We are energized to see a Governor who seems so intent to champion a new and just direction for the state.
Access to child care, housing and education are critical social determinants of health and long-overdue for investment and systemic change. And she is right: New York desperately needs to fix the mental health continuum. Children's behavioral health needs are soaring in our homes, schools and communities while decades of disinvestment has demoralized the workforce and dwindled its capacity to meet those needs. New Yorkers desperately need a workforce, not months-long waitlists for services.
Please take a moment to review this year's Mental Health Budget Testimony where we draw comparisons of our 2023 policy priorities to what's been proposed by Governor Hochul!
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Behavioral Health Advocates Rally in Albany for 8.5% COLA and $500M to address inadequate rates.
On Wednesday, February 15th, behavioral health held a press conference in Albany calling for an 8.5% Cost-of-Living Adjustment (COLA) and a $500 million rate increase for unrestricted flexible funding for licensed and/or contracted services for the adult and children’s behavioral health workforce, services. See the press release below!
TAKE ACTION:
Please take a moment out of your busy schedules to send a letter to your legislators, per the link below. Feel free to pass this link on to your staff, colleagues, families and other interested stakeholders.
Thank you in advance for your support of the mental health and substance use disorder sector! Your voice will make a difference!
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Child Welfare Advocates Rally in Albany for Child and Family Reinvestment
On Tuesday, February 7th, FTNYS joined lawmakers, families, and advocates for children and families gathered on the steps of the New York State Capitol to call for the passage of the Child and Families Reinvestments Act.
The act is a package of funding proposals that aims to:
1) Create a Child and Family Well-Being Fund to direct investments in communities with high rates of child welfare involvement that bypass child protective services.
2) Reinstate open-ended reimbursement for prevention services at the original rate of 75/25
3) Infuse funds into chronically underfunded child welfare programs
4) Lift incomes by expanding and strengthening New York’s Empire State Child Credit, EITC, and UBI Pilots
5) Take next steps toward stabilizing and transforming the child care system
Our DEI Director Kim Kaiser spoke at the event and reminded lawmakers that "the system can’t raise our children."
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Great start for the Solutions Not Suspensions Act!
The Solutions Not Suspensions Act doesn’t include any budget asks, but you could be forgiven for thinking it does given how much attention the bill has gotten during the first two months of budget season.
In early January, NYSED released a report that sounds the alarm on the outsized harm caused by suspensions in schools—particularly to students and families from marginalized communities—and suggests reform on the use of suspensions. Many of the task force's recommendations mirror provisions in the Solutions Not Suspensions Act and adds credibility to our case against overreliance on suspensions in schools.
Finally, on January 30th, over a hundred students, parents and advocates from across the state rallied alongside legislative champions in the capital calling for the swift passage of the Solutions not Suspensions Act. Read the Press advisory.
Jan 30th Press hits:
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Our partners at Children’s Rights and Community Impact Advisors conducted a participatory research project alongside many young people placed in institutions through foster care. Families Together and our Youth Power program are proud to have helped recruit young people to share their personal experiences to both inform and analyze the findings of the report. We also want to acknowledge one of the co-chairs of our Foster Youth Action Committee Jonathan DeJesus who served on the report’s Advisory Committee.
Here’s what Jonathon had to say about the report:
“Being part of this advisory committee was very important to me because being placed in congregate care led me down a path of constant survival. I was pushed to mature faster and it took away my childhood. Congregate care creates a situation where youth constantly live in survival mode, even after they leave care. It distances them more from their families and communities. It takes away their ability to have healthy relationships and creates a cycle of violence and isolation. Youth need to feel supported with meaningful connections, not feel like they’re living in jail, in order to grow into their adulthood and have a successful future after care.”– Jonathan DeJesus, Advisory Committee Member
Read the full report and reach out to bhansen@ftnys.org to speak out about the harms of institutional foster care.
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Youth Justice Rally in Westchester
Thursday, Feb 23, 2023 3:00-5:00PM
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We Need Your Input! Join OMH for Community Engagement Feedback Sessions.
Governor Hochul’s 2023 State of the State plan and Fiscal Year 2024 Executive Budget include historic proposals and resources that will allow the Office of Mental Health (OMH) to expand, strengthen, and revitalize the State’s mental healthcare system. Your input will be integral in OMH’s planning process for this expansion.
In the months ahead, OMH will be developing new programs and policies that will greatly expand access to housing, outpatient, school-based clinics, and hospital services, and increase insurance coverage for mental health services.
OMH will be hosting a series of virtual and in-person community engagement feedback sessions to gain insight from your experiences and knowledge.
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Black History Month and Beyond
Breaking the stigma of mental health and disability.
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Mental health and disability stigma exist in many communities. The causes include culture, fear, and media. For the Black community in America, the stigma that exists towards mental health and disability comes from culture and is an evidence-based byproduct of lived inter-generational experience from 1619 to the present. The following are just a few examples from the past 400 years.
In the 1600s, Black people were medically defined as having "primitive psychological organization and uniquely fit for bondage". Benjamin Rush, the father of American psychiatry, signer of the Declaration of Independence, and future abolitionist proclaimed in 1762 that Black people had a disease called Negritude: A form of leprosy that could only be cured by "turning white".
In the 1800s, Dr. Samuel Cartwright, and others in the medical profession created diagnoses that were designed to protect the institution of slavery such as Drapetomania: A mental illness that caused slaves to flee captivity. Dysaestheisa Aethiopica: A diagnosis that caused laziness amongst slaves resulting from being treated as equal to whites.
The "treatments" for these fabricated disorders included amputation, beatings, and death. In addition, Slaves who were disabled or deemed mentally unfit for work were also sold as subjects for scientific experimentation. Our history is filled with horrific examples of the Black community being used to advance medicine in areas of mental health, gynecology, viruses, cancer, and other ailments.
In the late 19th century, Black people were deemed psychologically and cognitively unfit for freedom helping to set the stage for a new form of institutional racism, prisons, forced labor, Jim Crow Laws, and government sanctioned, segregation and violence. Throughout the mid to late 20th century, these systemic issues persisted and the impact of centuries of trauma, racism, and systemic marginalization remains evident across our country. Although there has been progress over the centuries, the work must continue.
Today, we are experiencing a mental health crisis and must empower hope by reducing stigma. This can happen once we root out the culture and systemic issues that are foundational to our history of racism towards the Black community. We must face it and fight for a better future.
"Not everything that is faced can be changed, but nothing can be changed until it is faced." - James Baldwin
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Black History Month Mental Health Trailblazers
Click images to enlarge.
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Artivism
4 artists who use their talent to fight stigma!
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Tsoku Maela' Rediscover, not recreate' Tsoku is a South African photographer who captures his journey with mental illness. His message to others is to "face oneself" which will result in "going places you hate and finding beauty."
Source: Mashable - "Creativity challenging silence and stigma", Oct 10, 2016
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Kirsty Latoya (KirzArt) - 'Drowning in emotion' Kirsty, a London based artist, and advocate expresses the "complexities of mental health" and empowerment over stigma in Black communities.
Source: Mashable - "Creativity challenging silence and stigma", Oct 10, 2016
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Heather Agyepong - Untitled from "too many Blackamoors series". The London based artist and advocate uses her art to document her life as a Black Woman reflecting on mental health and well being.
Source: Mashable - "Creativity challenging silence and stigma", Oct 10, 2016
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Carolyn Ann Watts - 'Untitled, Undated & Unsigned" Carolyn was an artist who was diagnosed with mental illness. Her sister, Cheryl Maxwell saw how Carolyn's work could open up a dialogue that addresses stigma and raises awareness in the Black community.
Source: Baltimore Sun, March 6, 2015
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BEAM is a national training, movement building, grant making institution dedicated to healing, wellness & liberation of Black and marginalized communities. |
Therapy for Black Girls addresses stigma and provides therapeutic support for black women and girls. |
The National Black Disability Coalition (NBDC) supports Black/AA Communities promoting unity, equity, and opportunity as well as training & advocacy. |
The Color of Autism Foundation (COA) serves Black and marginalized communities. This organization provides trainings, webinars, advocacy, and support groups. COA combats stigma fights for equity and advocates within legislative and disability systems. |
BipocPeek provides training, and peer support to Black Indigenous Parents/Caretakers of color and educates providers in racial equity and cultural humility. |
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Reach out to the
DEI Department
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Kim D. Kaiser
Simcha Weinstien
Justice Walcott
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Youth Power Monthly Spotlight |
"I chose to break cycles. And I’m still breaking them. You can too!!!"
Angela Colon-Rentas (YPA, YPAC member, and JYPA Trainer) wrote an article that was published on Mad in America. The title of the article is, Breaking the Cycle: How I Overcame Intergenerational Trauma and Became a Peer Advocate. The article is very powerful and quite inspiring!
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Youth Power of FTNYS is hiring for two positions;
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Youth Program Support Specialist,
Full time, Grant Funded
- NYC Regional Youth Partner
Full time, Salary, Grant Funded
View the full job descriptions below
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VOYA (Voices of Youth Advisors) is the youth advisory council of Rensselaer County. As a part of VOYA, you become a part of the Youth Power network, the New York State network of young people who have been labeled and who are seeking change.
Who can join?
- Any young person that wants a chance to make a difference
- Young people between the ages of 14 and 28 who live in Rensselaer County
- Have experience(d) in foster care or have received mental health, juvenile justice, substance abuse, and disability and/or special education services or identifies with an at-risk community in Rensselaer County
- Any young person who wants to get $25 for attending county committee meetings
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Youth Peer Meetings Are Here for You |
Join Our Peer Supervisors Meetings |
VoicesUnited4Change is Looking for Board Members! |
VoicesUnited4Change is a grassroots organization made up of parents and young adults who are passionate about children's mental health and have lived experience dealing with mental health challenges and overcoming them.
Board members are required to attend a monthly board meeting where we gather either virtually or in person. Board members are also expected to volunteer for our annual Children's Mental Health Awareness Walk in May. Members are also required to volunteer for at least two other events/activities.
Examples of these are community outreaches, fundraisers, and support groups. We hope to have board members with a wide variety of skills and expertise. Such as creativity, writing, speaking, etc.
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FPA Level 2, 4-Day Virtual Training:
April 20-21 & 24-25, 2023
9:30 AM to 2:00 PM each day
YPA Level 2, 4-Day Virtual Training:
May 18-19 & 22-23, 2023
12:00 PM to 4:00 PM each day
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An Introduction to Moral Injury: Healing Children, Youth, Families and Ourselves: Part One
Friday, March 3, 2023
2:00 PM to 3:30 PM
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Participants will receive an introduction to the concept of Moral Injury and its impact on youth, children, families, and service providers. Participants will learn about current research in the area of Moral Injury and its implications for practice. They will also have the chance to hear stories from the field relating to Moral Injury, and be able to discuss the lessons they can learn and use to help their own clients, and themselves |
What are Peer Support Services Across the Lifespan? |
Thursday, February 23
12:00 PM to 1:15 PM
Presented by
Families Together in NYS, Inc.
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What are Peer Support Services and what makes them effective? Join us to learn more about the mutual support, experiential knowledge, the values of youth, adult and family peer support, and the types of Peer Support Services that can be offered to people of all ages through the Mental Health Outpatient Treatment and Rehabilitative Services Program (MHOTRS) programs. While qualifications and credentials required for providing youth, family, and adult peer support will be covered briefly, the primary focus of this webinar is to provide an overview of the important role Family Peer Advocates, Youth Peer Advocates and Adult Peer Specialists can have on your teams.
Target Audience: MHOTRS program leadership, directors, supervisors, peer support provider agency leadership.
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The New York State Office of Mental Health is excited to share the newest educational resource about 988 in New York. The Just the Facts infographic includes several key facts about 988, such as details on who answers 988 calls and how 988 differs from 911.
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Seeking Research Study Volunteers |
Perspectives of Culturally and Ethnically Diverse Parents of Children with Disabilities Across the Life Span (23X003)
Are you a parent of a child or young adult with a disability with culturally and ethnically diverse identities (e.g., race, ethnicity, ability, gender, socioeconomic status, sexual orientation, citizenship)? Researchers in the Department of Educational and Counseling Psychology at UAlbany are conducting a study about parent perspectives and experiences supporting a child with a disability and are looking for your participation!
The study consists of a 15-minute survey and optional 30-minute interview via Zoom or by phone.
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EMPOWERING FAMILIES. COORDINATING SYSTEMS.
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