C
S p r i n g 2 019
The magazine of Community Access
BEING ME
By Chamique Holdsclaw
T
he road that led me to mental health advocacy started on the outdoor basketball courts of Astoria, Queens, and brought me to places I never thought I’d be. Today, when I get to help others, I can see that it’s all been worthwhile.
Inside this issue…
WNBA Star Chamique Holdsclaw on Finding Her Calling
My childhood dream came true on April 6, 1999, when I was selected as the number-one pick in the WNBA draft. Excitement surging through my body, I walked up onstage and shook hands with the league’s president. I could feel the weight of everyone’s expectations resting on my shoulders. Some expected me to be the savior of women’s basketball: the female Michael Jordan, some said. But for the moment, those expectations didn’t matter. My lifelong effort to be the best basketball player in the world had paid off. As I exited the stage, I saw my smiling grandmother, tears streaming down her face. It was one of the proudest moments of my life.
A Howie the Harp Graduate Making a Difference
Growing up, basketball was a refuge for me. My early years were marked by the instability of life at home, caused by my parents’ struggles with addiction and other mental health concerns. When I was 11, the state determined that my brother and I would be better off living in Astoria with my grandmother – and off we went. Grandma June helped me feel safe in the world. She taught me discipline, and showed me unconditional love.
Progress in Housing
Still, taunts from neighborhood kids constantly reminded me of my troubled upbringing. They’d tell me that they’d seen my mother passed out drunk on park benches, or that my dad was crazy. But on the basketball court, the taunting stopped; that’s where I could be in control. Basketball gave structure to my life, allowing my mind to focus on a single cherished task. It was a perfect mask for me – but, like any mask, it could only obscure reality for so long.
When my grandma died unexpectedly in her sleep in May 2002, my life unraveled. When I buried her, I buried my emotions along with her. Three days later, I was back on the court, trying to numb myself with the only drug that had ever worked for me. A deep depression set in, and worsened over time. I didn’t tell anyone how I was feeling. In 2006, I found myself on suicide watch at Centinela Hospital in California. And in November 2012, I emerged from a mental blackout, sitting in my car, with a 9mm gun sitting in my passenger seat. I was shaken to my core. How had this happened? What if I’d hurt somebody, or myself? This proved to be my breaking point. For me to live, something had to change. I had to tell the truth about how I felt inside. Soon thereafter, I was diagnosed with bipolar II disorder. I was angry, but relieved – identifying a problem meant that a solution was within reach. I was prescribed a medication to manage my symptoms, and I started to learn about what it really meant to care for myself: physical exercise, eating well, building community, tending to my relationships, being honest. And perhaps most importantly: letting other people in, and learning that I was worthy of love exactly as I am. This realization transformed my life.
“For me to live, something had to change. I had to tell the truth about how I felt inside.” For so long I had thought I had to be the best to be accepted. I always wanted to be first, first, first. I had no idea that I simply had to be me.
That’s why I feel such a strong connection to the work of Community Access. In the hours I’ve spent meeting Community Access tenants and participants, I’ve seen people who were free to shape their own journeys, free to tell their own stories. The support Community Access offers – that unconditional love – transforms people’s lives every day. Community Access meets people where they are, exactly as they are, and it makes a huge difference.
The #1 pick in the 1999 WNBA draft, Chamique Holdsclaw was one of the best basketball players in the world. She became Rookie of the Year, a six-time All Star, and an Olympic gold medalist for Team USA. Today she is a renowned, inspiring mental health advocate, traveling around the world to talk to young people, families, and community members about the importance of speaking honestly about mental health.
That’s what I try to do when I travel around the country: meet people where they are. I try to embody the spirit of service Grandma June taught me. When I get to meet young people on college campuses across the country, I tell them that they are worthy of love and respect, and that there is nothing shameful about seeking help. I especially love meeting young athletes, because it gives me a chance to teach them what it took me a long time to figure out: It’s okay to strive to be the best player you can be, but it’s more important to be the healthiest, happiest person you can be.
We were thrilled when Chamique connected with Community Access a few years ago. She shared a week with us touring our buildings, learning about our programs, and spending much quality time with our tenants and participants. She also attended our NYC Mental Health Film Festival, where we shared her riveting life story in the documentary Mind/Game. She remains a devoted advocate for the mission and values of Community Access.
Cal Hedigan has been selected by our Board of Directors to succeed Steve Coe as the agency’s next Chief Executive Officer, effective July 1st. Cal has served as Deputy CEO since 2011 and has been an executive with the organization since 1999. In every role at CA, Cal has placed the people we serve, our staff, our mission, and our values at the forefront.
BEING ME
BUILDING A MORE JUST NEW YORK Community Access was founded in 1974 to provide homes for people coming out of shelters and psychiatric institutions, and has grown to become one of the largest nonprofit developers and providers of supportive of affordable housing in NYC. We believe that having a home is essential to helping people reach life goals and lead lives of their own choosing. Today, Community Access provides homes to more than 1,500 New Yorkers! Our housing model blends together people living with mental health concerns, individuals, and working families, and has proven to be a strong foundation for building community.
In recent years, we set the goal of developing 1,000 new units of affordable, supportive housing – and we got right to work, guided by the principles that have allowed us to thrive for so long. This spring, tenants will be moving into our brand new 126-unit building on East 172nd Street. Next year, we will open a 210-unit building on Bruckner Blvd., and soon thereafter, our biggest building yet, a 245-unit development on River Avenue. Less measurable, yet no less vital, is the way each of these new apartments offers that most priceless thing: a fresh start. Through the growth of our agency, the whole of New York City is made more decent, more just, and more humane.
A STRONG FOUNDATION When Sean Brennan walked through the doors of our Howie the Harp Peer Advocacy Center (HTH), he had a great idea – an idea that would help New Yorkers lead healthier, happier lives. He knew that with a little support, and an education from HTH, he could turn his idea into a reality. That’s exactly what he did. He launched his own nonprofit: the Brain Food Garden Project, which aims to expand urban farming in New York City and to promote the therapeutic effects
of gardening and healthy eating. As a proud HTH graduate, Sean makes sure that the Brain Food Garden Project is peer-informed, peer-led, and peer-managed. “Howie gave me the strong foundation I needed to find my own answers, and to create my own path forward,” he says. By forging his own path, Sean is building healthy, vibrant communities among our NYC neighbors, and transforming his own experience in the mental health system into a force for good. We are proud to know him!
Says Cal: “I am enormously grateful to have found a professional home. At the outset, I was drawn to Community Access’ rights-based approach to mental health work. The agency’s commitment to self-determination, harm reduction, and social justice has sustained me over the years, and I’m excited to move into this new leadership role. Our values will continue to shine through in everything we do.” Our Art Collective is a community of artists and creative individuals who share the experience of living with a mental health condition. Whether trained or self-taught, our members are soulfully committed to their practice. The Collective recently completed an exciting three-month exhibition at Seward Park Library, featuring original works by 30 of its members. The Collective will be mounting a similar exhibit at Queens Central Library in Jamaica in April and at a library in Brooklyn in the near future.
Enduring
Values
Since our founding, Community Access has been rooted in a set of values: human rights, self-determination, peer expertise, harm reduction, and healing and recovery. These values have guided us for decades, and they guide us still. They formed the foundation of our intrepid CEO Steve Coe’s vision, and they are shared by his soon-to-be successor, Cal Hedigan. Whether through the work of our dedicated service coordinators, the life-affirming artistry of our Art Collective, the life-saving work of our Advocacy Department, or the new and innovative programs we continue to launch, our goal remains the same: to make these values real for all of our fellow New Yorkers. We’ve come a long way since our founding. In many ways, the world is a very different place. But we take heart in knowing that the values that will bring us to a brighter tomorrow remain unchanged – and that Community Access will continue to be a force for good in this city we love.
Community Access, Inc. | 17 Battery Place, Suite 1326 | New York, NY 10004 | Phone: 212-780-1400
www.communityaccess.org
Service Coordinators are an essential part of the work that we do. They offer support to participants in navigating systems and life challenges, and work with them in reaching their dreams. Greg Joseph worked in corporate America for ten years before discovering his true calling as a Service Coordinator for Community Access. “This job is second to none,” he says. “I find more fulfillment in one week in this job than I found in years at other jobs.” Like all of our Service Coordinators, Greg employs a person-centered approach to his work, helping participants make informed decisions about what they would like to do in pursuit of their goals. “In this job, you’re really rewarded by the happiness of the people around you, and by being part of people’s lives,” Greg says. “I learn so much from our tenants and participants every day.”
Community Access’ frontline advocacy played a pivotal role in motivating the mayor to reestablish the NYC Crisis Prevention and Response Task Force to improve emergency supports for people experiencing emotional crises. To help inform the task force’s strategic thinking, we held a Crisis Services Forum, which brought together 75 people with lived experiences of using emergency and 911 services to brainstorm ideas about how to reform crisis responses and how to develop community-based networks that matter. AM New York ran a feature about our mental health community visioning effort, and New York Nonprofit Media published our position paper with key findings and recommendations for New York City: communityaccess.org/ crisisservicesforum. We are saddened to report that our friend and former colleague Danny Hosch has passed away. A member of our community for more than three decades, Danny was one of the original tenants at our Treatment Apartment Program, and in 1986 became a full-time staff member. He retired 30 years later. Danny was a familiar face to tenants, participants and staff all over town, and was often assigned the task of tour guide, driving visitors and new board members from site to site while describing the mission, values, and work of the agency in very personal terms. He was a remarkable storyteller with a near photographic memory of people, places, and events. He loved Community Access and – as our unofficial historian – often shared many fascinating stories about our work over the years. Danny played an essential part in building the Community Access we know today, and we will miss him.