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From the Tools of Recovery
Overcoming Barriers & Fulfilling the College Promise
Lavelle Prep to Hold Lottery
Eligibility & Deadlines
- Applications must be received by April 1st to be included in the lottery.
- All children residing in New York State are eligible to attend Lavelle Prep.
- Preferences will be given for students residing in CSD 31 (Staten Island).
- Preferences will be given to siblings of current Lavelle Prep students.
- A separate application must be completed for each child, including siblings.
- Applicants not immediately selected will be added to a waiting list.
- Lavelle Prep does not discriminate on the basis of race, gender, disability, age, religion, sexual orientation, or national or ethnic origin
- The lottery will be held on April 21 at 7:30pm.
To apply online, go to:
http://www.lavelleprep.org/lp/apply/
The John W. Lavelle Preparatory Charter School provides a rigorous college preparatory education that equips and empowers students to go to college and succeed in life. Lavelle Prep welcomes all students, including those living with emotional challenges. Full integration in all classes and activities enables each student to develop the academic skills, emotional fluency and confidence required to be successful students today and thoughtful, open-minded leaders tomorrow.
Lavelle Prep has high expectations and unique benefits for all of its students. This includes an outstanding college prep program, small class sizes, superior educational technology and instruction, a visual and performing arts curriculum, a Wellness curriculum that addresses students’ emotional and social needs, and an environment that breaks down barriers and promotes understanding, acceptance and growth.
Lavelle Prep is located in the Elizabeth Connelly School, 280 Regis Drive, Staten Island.
From the Arts of Recovery
Coming to South Beach June 13:
The Arts of Recovery Retrospective
From Women by Beatrice Exelberth
Presented by The Verrazano Foundation in collaboration with Snug Harbor Cultural Center, South Beach Psychiatric Center, and the Art Lab, the Arts of Recovery 2007 is made possible in part by an Encore Grant from the Council on the Arts & Humanities for Staten Island, with public funding from the New York State Council on the Arts. Additional support is provided by The Staten Island Foundation, Independence Community Foundation, Richmond County Savings Foundation, Verizon Foundation, and Councilman Michael E. McMahon.
From the Tools of Recovery
The Verrazano Foundation Spearheads Charter School Planning
VF President Ken Byalin with Hughes
Hubbard attornies. Photo courtesy of
New York Lawyers for the Public Interest.
From the Business of Recovery
Verrazano Careers Offers Mentoring Workshop:
Verrazano Careers, sponsored by The Verrazano Foundation in collaboration with the New York City Mayor's Office for People with Disabilities (MOPD), presents seminars for people living with mental illnesses interested in exploring career options. Previous workshops have focused on careers in mental health and human services and in visual arts. Planning is now underway for a workshop for people interested in business careers.
From Bearing Witness
Deborah Max's I'm not angry, but sometimes I forget that
Most days I don’t feel like a mental patient. In itself that might not seem like an odd statement, but when you examine my history or simply the fact that it’s my predisposition to insanity that pays my bills, you might expect that I’d wear crazy year round.
From the Spirit of Recovery
"By practicing awareness, by being aware of feelings without reacting, just being aware of fear or anger or the tendency to energetic action, I found over a long period of time, that I could ride the wave of fear without reacting and without re-focusing."
Welcome to the Verrazano Foundation !
Although few realize it, we believe we are in the early stage of a great social movement, the movement for equal rights and full inclusion in American society of people living with mental illness. We believe that this movement will profoundly transform society as we know it, shaking cultural foundations which stretch backwards to the Middle Ages.
The battles that will bring these folks to the societal table will transform every one of us. Like the struggles for civil rights which liberates not only people of color but white people as well from the oppression of racism, like the struggle for women's liberation which simultaneously frees both men and women from repressive and restrictive stereotypes, the struggle for recovery rights will benefit us all, not just those of us who have already been diagnosed. We will be transformed gladly or we will be transformed kicking and screaming.
The Shadow of Mental Illness Haunts Us All!
Those we refer to as "people living with mental illness," those once called "mad," for whom our language has so many derisive terms, are an aspect of ourselves and society which most of us have not wanted to look at and have not wanted to see.
We are living in the Shadow ourselves or we have parents, siblings, or friends living in that Shadow. We recognize the possibility of mental illness in ourselves. Or we deny it.
This is clear: Persons living with mental illness suffer not only from painful and debilitating symptoms but from stigma and discrimination which keep them from making the positive contributions to the community of which they are capable.
This too is clear: Psychiatric treatment alone will not make the difference in people's lives which providers and consumers of mental health services hope for. These lives will change little unless opportunities to assume productive roles in the community are available.
You Can Help Bring Recovery to Light!
The Verrazano Foundation, a New York State not-for-profit corporation, is committed to combating stigma and discrimination against persons living with mental illness by providing opportunities for people in recovery, individually and collectively, to make positive, visible contributions to the community.
We hope that this website can be a rallying point for this struggle. You can help by sharing your reactions to what appears on this site. Your feedback is crucial in helping us shape the future.
Perhaps you can help us identify talented individuals who would be interested in participating as writers or editors. Perhaps this is something you can do yourself!