2023 Mad Pride Vermont Program

Saturday, July 15, 2023

1 - 4 PM

March Route

Assemble at Hood Plant Parking Lot on King Street between South Winooski Avenue and Church Street before 1 PM.

March officially begins at Hood Plant Parking Lot at 1 PM. T-shirts, water, and port-o-let/bathrooms available at Hood Plant Parking Lot and Battery Park.

Hood Plant Parking Lot

Battery Park

Zenni

Chris Hansen

Wilda White

About the Keynotes

SERA DAVIDOW is a mother, an advocate, an activist and a filmmaker. She devotes much of her time to the Wildflower Alliance, formerly the Western Massachusetts Recovery Learning Community (www.westernmassrlc.org), which includes Afiya (www.afiyahouse.org), the thirteenth peer respite in the United States. Sera has been a part of Wildflower Alliance since its envisioning process, and has served as Director since it became funded in 2007.

She is also an active part of Hearing Voices USA (www.hearingvoicesusa. org) and Occupy the Judge Rotenberg Center (www.occupyjrc.org), amongst a variety of other projects.

ROBERT WHITAKER is an American journalist and author who has won numerous awards as a journalist covering medicine and science, including the George Polk Award for Medical Writing and a National Association for Science Writers’ Award for best magazine article. In 1998, he co-wrote a series on psychiatric research for the Boston Globe that was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for Public Service. His first book, Mad in America, was named by Discover magazine as one of the best science books of 2002. Anatomy of an Epidemic won the 2010 Investigative Reporters and Editors book award for best investigative journalism. He is the publisher of madinamerica.com.

Sponsors

TRAILBLAZERS

Disability Rights Vermont

Intentional Peer Support

Life Intervention Team

LMW Design

Pathways Vermont

Vermont Peer Workforce Development Initiative

ADVOCATES

Vermont Psychiatric Survivors

Vermont Center for Independent Living

Wilda L. White Consulting

ALLIES

Howard Center

United Way of Northwest Vermont, Mental Health Initiative

Northern Vermont University, NVU Graduate Programs

PARTNERS

Vermont Association for Mental Health & Addiction Recovery (VAMHAR)

SUPPORTERS

Health Care and Rehabilitation Services of Southeastern Vermont

Parker Advisors, LLC

Vermont Workers’ Center

CONTRIBUTORS

The Hood Plant

Monica White

Equal Rights, Protection, and Participation

Vermont Psychiatric Survivors, Inc. is an independent, statewide mutual support and civil rights advocacy organization run by and for psychiatric survivors.

Founded in 1983, we offer mutual support, publish a quarterly newspaper that is distributed throughout Vermont, offer patient representation in Vermont psychiatric hospitals and residential facilities, sponsor peerled support groups, advocate and educate to challenge discrimination, and offer technical assistance to allied organizations.

Scan to read Counterpoint newspaper: www.vermontpsychiatricsurvivors.org

Speaker Bios

RAJNII EDDINS

Originally from Seattle, Washington, Rajnii Eddins is a Spoken Word Poet/Emcee and Teaching Artist. Rajnii has been engaging diverse, community audiences for more than 30 years. He was the youngest member of the Afrikan American Writers Alliance at age 11 and has been actively sharing with youth and community in Vermont since 2010.

FLASHBACK BAND

Flashback is a four-piece band, featuring Matthew Graham on guitar and lead vocals, Ross Vumbaco on drums, Josh LaFave on bass and Michael Santana on Keyboard. They feature many of your favorite covers from the 50’s into the present.

CHRIS HANSEN

Chris Hansen, a New Zealander by birth, is a co-director of Intentional Peer Support, and has been co-teaching and developing Intentional Peer Support in the United States and in other countries with Shery Mead for the past 16 years.

Chris has spent twenty-five years involved in local, regional, national and international peer support and advocacy initiatives, and in mental health sector advocacy, lobbying and politics from a service user perspective. Before her promotion to certified service-user Chris worked as a clinician and manager in a mental health service in New Zealand.

Chris was a member of the New Zealand delegation to the United Nations for

Speaker Bios

the development of the Convention for the Rights of Persons with Disabilities; has served on the board of the World Network of Users and Survivors of Psychiatry and has played a key role in the development of several peer-run crisis alternatives.

HILARY MELTON

Hilary Melton is the founder and current Executive Director of Pathways Vermont which has been providing housing and innovative mental health services in communities across the state of Vermont since 2009. Hilary has worked in shelters, street outreach, and administered supported housing programs in New York City and Vermont.

CALVIN MOEN

Calvin Moen is a psychiatric survivor, advocate and educator on topics including alternatives to policing and incarceration, intersections of queer and Mad struggles, trauma-informed emergency services and harm reduction approach to psychiatric drugs. He is a former coordinator for the Western Mass Recovery Learning Community and a co-founder and organizer of the Brattleboro-based Hive Mutual Support Network. Calvin is a published author and is co-editor of Much Madness: A Survivor’s Guide to Extreme States and Self Advocacy for Young Adults.

ZENNI MUHAMMAD

Zen Q “Zenni” Muhammad (ze/they/he) is a QTPOC peer support advocate whose passion is working on a team developing a youth mental health support program, as an alternative to youth psychiatric hospitalization. Zenni who also identifies as a psychiatric survivor, aims to change the harm caused by our current mental

Speaker Bios

health systems. Although they are new to the peer support world, they have been very integrated in the social Justice world for a long time. Since ze was a youth they have been a community activist and organizer for social justice causes, with a strong focus on LGBTQ+ rights and Racial Justice. Zenni is a creative and a multifaceted artist who uses different visual arts mediums and writing forms to express themselves.

ERICKA REIL

Ericka Reil, Emcee, is a disability rights advocate. She works currently for Washington County Mental Health. Previously, she worked for Another Way Community Center and 17 years for the Vermont Center for Independent Living (VCIL).

WILDA WHITE

Wilda White is a Mad activist and founder of MadFreedom, Inc., an advocacy organization whose mission is to end the discrimination and oppression of people based on their perceived mental state. Wilda lives in Dorset, Vermont with Marley, her black Lab.

K&R KREATIVE SOULS

K&R Kreative Souls, led by the husband and wife duo Kairi Chapman and Rozette Mclean-Chapman, specializes in the traditional visual arts and performing arts, along with crafting. Together, they bring a harmonious blend of creativity, expertise, and a shared vision to their artistic endeavors.

Mad Pride Day Planners & Volunteers

PLANNING COMMITTEE

Ashley Bernstein

Karim Chapman

Chris Hansen

Sarah Launderville

Abby Levinsohn

Hilary Melton

Tara Miller

Zenni Muhammad

Chris Nial

Ericka Reil

Ken Russell

Philippe Sweda

Dan Towle

Wilda White

VOLUNTEERS

Lisa Archibald

Lori Demers

Lucy Gluck

Megan Goodell

Zaile Hamelin

Harly

Ian Hines

Betsy Hoekstra

Abby Levinsohn

Megan Mayo

Leslie Nelson

Jim Ramey

Camille Royce

Aaron Schiff

Kyle Yore

SAVE-THE-DATE!

2024 Vermont Mad Pride is scheduled for Saturday, July 13, 2024.

on trend |

on target |

Partial Client List:

Vermont Psychiatric Survivors

MadFreedom

A Proud Supporter of Windham and Windsor Housing.

Wilda L. White

Windham & Windsor Housing Trust

Housing Trust of Rutland County

For the Community. For Good.

Community Care Network

Rutland County Head Start

Family Mediators

As we’ve grown, The Richards Group has stayed true to our family-owned, independent roots. We’re still your hometown agency, with expanded services and products to support our community’s changing needs. Providing comprehensive coverage for your life, business, and future.

Right to Wellness www.lmwdesign.com

M.S. in Clinical Mental Health Counseling (PCMH)

One-Weekend-a-Month

In Person (Williston, VT) or via Zoom Cohort/Learning Community Model

Specializations in: Integrated Mental Health & Substance Use Counseling for Children, Youth, and Families and Adults

Preparation for Licensure: VT LCMHC, LADC (most content for LADC)

Some Critical Occupations Scholarships for Vermonters in 2023-24

Learn more: Admissions@VermontState.edu

The University of Vermont Health Network is an integrated academic health system that serves more than one million residents across Vermont and Northern New York. We are working to preserve access to care for our families, friends and communities while also innovating to change the way that care is delivered to focus on wellness as much as illness and to control costs.

University of Vermont Medical Center

UVM Health Network – Medical Group

Central Vermont Medical Center

Champlain Valley Physicians Hospital

Elizabethtown Community Hospital

Alice Hyde Medical Center

Porter Medical Center

Home Health & Hospice

www.uvmhealth.org

Dedication

The Mad Pride Planning Committee dedicates this year’s Mad Pride Day to Matti Salminen, who organized the first Mad Pride Day march and celebration held in Vermont in 2016. During the pandemic, Matti moved to Pawcatuck, Rhode Island to be closer to family. We are nevertheless in his debt.

MATTI SALMINEN In His Own Words

(Published online at https://igotbetter.org)

In my life I have been knocked down many times. I have been homeless, incarcerated and diagnosed with a serious mental illness. I have been pushed to the very edge of what I can take. I have even attempted suicide and thought at times I could do no better than rot in jail the rest of my life.

My journey to recovery has been a long and windy one and is far from over. My life will not suddenly become easy, but I wouldn’t want it to. That is a part of life: that you understand it is challenging. You choose to prevail over great obstacles.

Struggles are a sign that the winds of change are blowing. Pain is impermanent, it passes. As we experience pain and as we struggle we grow. We learn from these experiences. It takes time, but the lessons we learn and struggles we move on from eventually become sufficient to move on to greener pastures. It is my personal belief that we don’t move on to these greener pastures until we believe we can.

I believe that when we take steps to go down the rocky road of trial and tribulations we do so out of a lack of self-esteem. I never believed I could achieve the things I knew in my heart I wanted. I thought that I had what it took to do great things but didn’t believe it was my place in the world to make it happen. I thought I was a nobody. Thinking negatively causes you to act negatively. A lack of self-esteem causes you to live with a disregard for your future. Many people “self-destruct” because they don’t believe in themselves.

It is in this way, however, that a person graduates from the school of hard knocks. Graduation from the school of hard knocks means you now know you can move on to greener pastures. It is to say that in the process of having been knocked down so many times that you gained confidence from it. You now feel that from your struggles you are able to rise even higher.

In Memoriam

Vermont Mad Pride Day Planning Committee wishes to acknowledge those in our community we’ve lost in the last year.

CELIA BROWN August 11, 1963 – December 11, 2022

Celia Brown was a long-time leader in the consumer/survivor/ex-patient movement. Celia served as President of the Board of MindFreedom International, served as their main representative to the United Nations and collaborated with other disability organizations on the Convention on the Rights of People with Disabilities. For many years, Celia served as the Regional Advocacy Specialist at the NYC Field Office, New York State Office of Mental Health, providing technical assistance and support to psychiatric survivors and their families and facilitating trainings on peer support, wellness, and recovery approaches in community mental health agencies.

LOIS CURTIS July 14, 1967 — November 3, 2022

Lois Curtis was the plaintiff in the landmark Olmstead decision, a U.S. Supreme Court case that affirmed the 1990 Americans with Disabilities Act, and provided the legal framework to end the use of institutionalization to discriminate.

SHERRY JENKINS-TUCKER

March 25, 1956 — July 11, 2022

Sherry Jenkins-Tucker built the Georgia Mental Health Consumer Network (GMHCN) into one of the nation’s premier peer-organized, advocacy recovery centers.

JORDAN

NEELY

December 18, 1992 — May 1, 2023

Jordan Neely, a Michael Jackson impersonator and psychiatric survivor, was killed by a 24-year old ex-marine, who placed Jordan in a chokehold while they were riding the New York City subway, allegedly because Jordan was disturbing and threatening passengers.

IRVO OTIENO December 17, 1994 — March 6, 2023

Irvo Otieno, a Richmond, Virginia resident and hip-hop artist who recorded under the name “Young Vo,” while working toward starting his own record label, died in police custody after he was held down by seven, sheriff’s deputies and three hospital employees for about 12 minutes at a Virginia psychiatric hospital.

RENE ROSE August 8, 1946 — December 12, 2022

Rene Rose spent three decades working at St. Johnsbury’s community mental health center (Northeast Kingdom Human Services), in the Community Rehabilitation Treatment (CRT) program. She was also a WRAP facilitator and helped found the Peer Cadre program in the Northeast Kingdom.

AMY WALES August 17, 1954 — July 8, 2022

Amy Wales worked for Vermont Psychiatric Survivors as a peer support provider at Second Spring, an intensive recovery residence, for 10 years before her death. Marty Roberts, who considered Amy one of the best friends she ever had, said Amy was “a tireless advocate for people at Second Spring.”

THOMAS

CHRISTOPHRE “TOPHRE” WOODS

February 3, 1972 — February 11, 2023

Thomas “Tophre” Woods is a former executive director of Vermont Psychiatric Survivors. Before his tenure at VPS, he served as Executive Director of Owensboro Aids Task Force, now Matthew 25, in Owensboro, Kentucky, his hometown.

SALLY ZINMAN January 9, 1937 — August 25, 2022

Sally Zinman was one of the founders of the consumer/survivor movement, helped lead the transformation of mental health care system in the U.S. to focus on choice, self-determination, inclusion, recovery, and peer support. A recipient of many awards, including the SAMHSA lifetime achievement Voice Award and the MHA Clifford Beers award, Sally established one of the first ever peer run service programs, fought for state and National patients’ rights policy and legislation, led the creation of the first statewide peer organization.

WILDA L. WHITE CONSULTING helping purpose-driven individuals and organizations realize their social justice aspirations