From the President

Pushing the Envelope!

2007 was a year of challenges and a year of progress both in our arts initiatives and in our development of a charter school that will provide an arts-focused, college-preparatory education to a population composed primarily of students living with emotional disorders.  The John W. Lavelle Preparatory Charter School will be located on Staten Island, will serve students in grades 6 through 12, and will eventually serve 450 students a year. Without the option which Lavelle Prep will provide, many of these students will be forced into hostile educational environments where they face intolerance from peers and discouragement from faculty. Not surprisingly, these young people often fail to realize their potential, leave school without graduating, and are unable to find appropriate employment. By providing a secure and supportive environment in which to learn and by equipping students with the tools they need to self-manage the potentially disabling challenges they face, Lavelle Prep will enable students to succeed in high school,  college, and beyond.  

To make Lavelle Prep a reality is a daunting task. While the idea of recovery, -- that people living with mental illnesses can learn to self-manage their disabilities and become constructive members of society, -- gains wider acceptance annually in mental health programs for adults, the idea of recovery remains virtually unknown among providers of children’s mental health services and unheard of in education. As we brought this idea forward, designing a school around it, we faced resistance from educational bureaucrats anxious to minimize the failures of Special Education programs for young people living with emotional disorders. We also found some wonderful support. Staten Island’s elected officials, both Democrats and Republicans, have rallied around our concept, supported our initiative, and helped to open doors. Although initially skeptical of our vision, the New York City Center for Charter School Excellence is now an important source of support and has given us a $50,000 planning grant. And we are winning over the New York City Department of Education which has reviewed our program concept and invited us to submit a charter application.  In addition, the Sara Chait Memorial Foundation has given us a $5000 planning grant so that we can train qualified persons living with mental illness for employment as education assistants both at Lavellle Prep and elsewhere.

And we have identified an exciting, potential home for the school, an abandoned children’s tuberculosis sanatorium, which is part of the Seaview Hospital Historic District. There is poetry in this possibility, evoking parallels in the history of treatment for physical and mental illnesses. This development project is in itself a major undertaking and will allow us to contribute to an important community revitalization initiative.

This year was also an important year for the Arts of Recovery. On Staten Island, the Arts of Recovery 2007 featured collaborations between artists living with mental illness and international artists Tattfoo Tan and Avani Patel. In Colorado, Nancy Harris organized the Arts of Recovery Colorado, the first statewide initiative to grow directly from our work on Staten Island. This year the Arts of Recovery 2008 will feature workshops led by artists Nancy Manter and Ann Marie McDonnell. If we are successful in our fund-raising effort, work from these workshops will be included with those from workshops at four other museums around the state for the first Arts of Recovery New York State exhibition. This year, we will also introduce another initiative. Co-sponsored by South Beach Psychiatric Center and the Staten Island Mental Health Council, Artists in Recovery 2008 will provide an opportunity for individual artists living with mental illness to present their work for sale to the public.  

In the artistic arena as well, we confront the discrimination which challenges so many in recovery. In 2007, we applied for a grant from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs. Our proposal was rejected because, they said, work produced by artists in recovery is “art therapy,” “not art”. We did not give up.  We appealed this decision. And we won our appeal. Although the grant was modest, an important door has been opened for artists living with mental illness. 

Today, as The Verrazano Foundation celebrates its sixth New Year, we renew our commitment to a world free of discrimination, a world in which all people with mental illness live rich, rewarding and contributive lives. Persons in recovery from severe and persistent mental illness remain among the most disadvantaged of Americans. They suffer not only from a variety of devastating symptoms but perhaps most critically from the belief that recovery from mental illness is impossible. Despite a growing movement of mental health consumers, the belief that recovery is impossible is not only widespread among the general public but remains pervasive among both providers and consumers of mental health services. Discrimination against persons living with mental illness, even more than the persisting symptoms, deprives persons in recovery of many opportunities. This critical problem is largely invisible in American society and is seldom placed on the political agenda. The Verrazano Foundation exists to change this, to insure that persons living with mental illness are welcomed at the societal table and valued for the contributions which they can make.

Welcome to The Verrazano Foundation website.

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, like the struggle for gay rights which simultaneously liberates gays and straights, 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!

Perhaps, you have a story of life with mental illness which you would be willing to share. An important ingredient of each section of the website, the Arts of Recovery, the Spirit of Recovery, the Tools of Recovery, the Business of Recovery, and the Recovery Movements will be first person accounts. By bearing witness to the dilemmas of living with mental illness and to the possibilities of recovery, you can help bring recovery to light.

Or perhaps you can help us identify someone else who has a story to tell.

Or perhaps you can make a financial contribution to help support this work.

Recovery is possible! Together we can push back the Shadow of Mental Illness!