Advocacy
In the early months of my recovery in 1974 I was in need of a job. I interviewed with a young man, Ted Cantone who had recently taken over as director of what we called then a halfway house. The program, formerly known as Unity House, had a very bad reputation and Ted was intent on salvaging and improving the program, renamed Victory House, a name chosen by the then clients. Fortunately for me Ted was willing to take me on even though I was just shy of one year in recovery.
Because of the poor reputation of the house we were not able to get the “good” referrals that went to other more established programs. Essentially, we began by accepting the men that other programs didn’t want. These men were often homeless, and in the later stages of chronic alcoholism and drug addiction. Many were suffering from mental health issues, were veterans, gay, on psychotropic meds or seriously disabled.
As we developed our capacity to care for these men, we also developed a reputation for our ability to work with the most challenging clients. The skills developed as a community organizer and the legacy of my progressive parents and grandparents provided a solid foundation for a lifetime of social justice activism.
These efforts have included:
• Founding and leading a national campaign to improve access to treatment and prevention services for people with physical, sensory, developmental and cognitive disabilities
• Creating educational campaigns to expand understanding of the anti-discrimination protections afforded persons in recovery by disability rights laws including the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990
• Early advocacy for harm reduction strategies and other actions promoting drug policy reforms within the traditional alcohol and drug problems field
• President and CEO of one of the nation’s leading treatment organizations serving the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and questioning communities.
• Serving on the Public Policy Committee of Faces and Voices of Recovery.