This free HRC webcast, which aired on July 23, 2009, highlighted principles of recovery and benefits and common barriers to participation as they relate to consumer integration. The presenters discussed potential roles for people formerly or currently experiencing homelessness.
Click here to listen to a podcast of this webcast.
Click here to view the transcript of this webcast.
Click here to view the PowerPoint presentation of this webcast.
note: by opting to download the above files, you will be redirected to a third party site for the download.
The second half of this two-part webcast series on consumer integration featured Laura Prescott, Founder and President, Sister Witness International Inc.; Leah Harris, Author and National Consultant; and Steven Samra, Veterans Services Coordinator, Operation Standdown. Part one of the webcast highlighted principles of recovery, benefits and common barriers to participation, and potential roles for people who have experienced homelessness. Part two picked up where we left off, focusing on next steps to creating recovery-oriented environments that support integration. Participants in part two discussed how to set the stage for integration, create an agency plan and take concrete steps toward implementation.
About the Presenters
Laura Prescott, Founder and President, Sister Witness International, consults and lectures nationally and internationally, addressing gender-specific policies and practices in mental health, substance abuse and criminal justice settings. She has written a number of publications covering such topics as: approaches to integrating people who have used services (consumer/survivors) into program design, service delivery and research/evaluation; understanding and addressing the impact of violence and retrauma in the lives of women and girls through policy and practice; creating cultural changes in closed behavioral systems with the goal of eliminating coercive practices and creating healing environments. Laura is a formerly homeless woman who is a survivor of childhood trauma, an ex patient of the psychiatric system and in recovery from substance use.
Leah Harris is a psychiatric survivor, and has spoken and written widely to promote human rights, dignity, healing, and self-determination for people with lived experiences of psychiatric distress and homelessness. She has presented at conferences including NARPA, Alternatives, and the National Conference on Organized Resistance (NCOR), and has been a guest on Madness Radio. Her writing has appeared in publications including Off Our Backs: A Women’s Newsjournal, Adbusters.org, CounterPunch, and Street Spirit. With Laura Prescott, she co-authored Moving Forward, Together: Integrating Consumers as Colleagues in Homeless Service Design, Delivery and Evaluation.
Steven Samra, Veterans Services Coordinator, Operation Standdown, spent 30+ years in and out of homelessness while battling addictions. He "got it together" in 2000, and received his BA and MPA at Cal State University Chico. Since then, he has dedicated his life to serving those who are still on the street. For the past three years, Steve has worked as a street outreach worker and you can currently find him assisting homeless veterans in and around Nashville, Tennessee. Steve co-founded and writes for The Contributor, a street newspaper produced and sold by the homeless, trains outreach workers for the National Health Care for the Homeless Council, and blogs at Stone Soup Station.
Click here to view the Recovery Self-Assessment discussed during the webcast.
Click here to view the Recovery Oriented Systems Indicator Measure (ROSI) discussed during the webcast.
note: by opting to download the above files, you will be redirected to a third party site for the download.