eNewsletter - February 28, 2007

Sign up for our next Webinar!
“Restoring Rights to People with Drug Convictions” is the topic of our second online, hour-long recovery advocacy training with “how-to” information on campaigns in Rhode Island and KY to restore voting rights to people with drug convictions. Listen and learn Saturday, March 24th. Our first webinar on Editorial Boards is now available more…

Addiction and Recovery: Communities Take Action! update
Organize and host a house party on St. Patrick’s Day, March 17^th in your community and bring the power of recovery to HBO’s Addiction! Thanks to recovery advocates in San Diego, CA (A New PATH), Boston, MA (Massachusetts Organization for Addiction Recovery) and Birmingham, AL (Alabama Voices for Recovery) for their terrific premiere events as part of the release of HBO’s Addiction! More…

President Bush proposes cuts in key federal programs
President Bush’s FY 2008 budget proposal, released in early February, calls for significant cuts in key federal alcohol and drug prevention, treatment and recovery programs. The President’s budget serves as a blueprint for the Congress, which will begin putting its plans together for the fiscal year 2008, which begins on October 1, 2007. Among the programs that the President’s budget proposes cutting are the Recovery Community Services program and Recovery Month. More…

Addiction Recovery Insurance Equity Campaign
The fight for addiction recovery insurance equity continues to heat up in Congress. Congressional Quarterly Researcher recently interviewed Faces & Voices board members on this and other issues. With your help, we can enact the strongest possible insurance reforms that will help restore fairness for people seeking help and long-term recovery from their addiction. More…

U.S. Federal Criminal Record Expungement
Representative Charles Rangel (D-NY) has introduced H.R. 623, the Second Chance for Ex-Offenders Act of 2007, a bill that would permit the expungement of criminal records for certain individuals convicted of federal nonviolent offenses. The bill would amend the federal criminal code to allow individuals to file petitions for expungement of nonviolent federal criminal records. More…

ANNOUNCEMENT
Faces & Voices of Recovery Board of Directors Call for Nominations: Faces & Voices board’s nominating committee is calling for nominations for seven board openings: four regional representatives and three At-large members. All nominations are due by close of business on March 31. The board will elect new members at its May 10, 2007 meeting. More…

RESOURCES
Strategies for Nonprofit Engagement in Legislative Advocacy: The Center for Lobbying in the Public Interest (CLPI) has released a free online resource guide for nonprofits. It describes the steps and resources needed for a nonprofit organization to use legislative advocacy to advance their mission, like building organizational capacity and developing strategy. It details legal issues, outlining the lobbying activities nonprofits can and cannot do.
New Research: Encouraging Posttreatment Self-Help Group Involvement to Reduce Demand for Continuing Care Services: Two-Year Clinical and Utilization Outcomes by Stanford University Researchers Keith Humphreys and Rudolf Moos found that promoting self-help group involvement appears to improve post-treatment outcomes. Among the findings are that the emphasis that SAMHSA is placing on “recovery support services,’’ including self-help groups, is probably a cost-effective investment. Certain tasks supportive of recovery, such as providing encouragement, social activities, friendship, monitoring, and spiritual support, can probably be accomplished by peer-based services as well as they can by health care professionals, and at greatly reduced costs. This has a 2-fold benefit: greate r likelihood of long-term recovery for the addicted individual and greater targeting of scarce professional resources to those patients who require such assistance.
The Road to Recovery 2007 “Join the Voices of Recovery: Saving Dollars, Saving Lives” is a monthly series of Webcasts on topics ranging from Helping Families Find Recovery (May 2007) to Treatment and Recovery: Reducing the Burden on the Justice System and Society (July 2007) from National Alcohol and Drug Addiction Recovery Month.

Faces & Voices of Recovery launches our membership campaign! Join now!