i MOAR Receives Recognition Award from Department of Public Health

i MOAR attends Join Together Conference: "Demand Treatment"

i MOAR /MAADAC/Lowell House Recovery Series ~ November 21^st

i NEAAR Public Policy Conference: January 20^th ~ Please Come

i Recovery Month 2001 "We Recover Together: Family, Friends, Community"

i Springfield ~ Thursday,November 30,5:30 PM,Phoenix Academy,5 Madison Ave i Lowell ~ Friday, December 1, 10:30 AM, Mercier Center, Merrimack St

i Boston ~ Wednesday, December 6, 3:30 PM, Doherty Room, Faulkner Hospital

Besides hearing Senator Ted Kennedy’s keynote, MOAR was very pleased to receive one of the Recognition Awards from The Department of Public Health, Gardner Auditorium, The State House, October 30^th. The Recognition Award was granted for "outstanding leadership and dedication to improving the health and well-being of people challenged by addiction and recovery." MOAR President Leroy Kelly and Project Coordinator Maryanne Frangules received the award for the MOAR membership. Commissioner Howard Koh and Associate Commissioner of Programs & Prevention Deborah Klein Walker presented the Certificate of Recognition with many kind words. The Inhalant Substance Abuse Task Force and MA Housing and Shelter Alliance received awards!

The Demand Treatment Conference, Hunt Valley, Maryland, was an introduction to the possibilities of being part of Join Together’s city partnership grantee initiative to mobilize communities to drive up the demand for addiction treatment. "When demand goes up, increased supply follows" is Join Together’s promotional philosophy.

NEAAR affiliates from New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Connecticut attended, too. City of Boston’s Kattie Portis and Edward Bernstein, BU Professor of Public Health and Emergency Medicine, will consider a Boston application. MOAR to follow!

"Alcohol and Other Drug Addiction Recovery and Disabilities". If we are to live up to our MOAR and NEAAR mission to welcome anyone concerned about reducing the stigma of the addiction recovery process, which includes persons in addiction recovery, coping with disabilities, psychiatric illness, HIV, mental retardation ~name it-, we need to better understand what is it is like to have a dual relationship. Thus, Moe Armstrong (Vinfen), Ralph Edwards ( The Department of Mental Retardation), Tricia Camire ( MA Prevention) Martha Schmidt (McLean Hospital) will be our educators!

We thank Pierre Descoteaux for arranging this series.

This conference is an opportunity for policymakers, government agencies, providers, and the recovery community to engage in panel discussion and dialogue about the "problems" of homelessness, child abuse and neglect, domestic violence and addiction. "The Solution" involves the recovery process, and that involves the recovery community.

On Inauguration Day 2001- exercise your citizen rights- and participate – listen, respond, strategize- whatever works for you! So- this January 20^th, a Saturday, Merrimack College, North Andover, 9 to 4 PM, suggested fourteen dollar contribution with limited scholarship funds for travel and hotel stay- is an offer not to be refused.

MOAR attended the SAMHSA- Substance Abuse Mental Health Services Administration- CSAT –Center for Substance Abuse Treatment – National Alcohol and Drug Addiction Recovery Month Planning Meeting- October 28^th in Washington DC.

Participants were represented across the spectrum of interested communities, agencies, and associations. After much dialogue, the group came to the consensus driven theme.

The next meeting will focus on community forum and promotional development.

The October 30^th Springfield MOAR meeting attendees – Diane Kurtz, Karen Sullivan, Bob Pisani, Diane Teta, Cindy O’Malley, and Bill Sciturro changed the meeting night to the last Thursday of the month to accommodate "MOAR" members. Newcomer Cindy

O’Malley helped the group rethink to redesign the membership application brochure, mission, vision—all need to be simplified to be MOAR welcoming. November 1^st Boston attendees- Greg Arsenault, Amos Marshall, Joe Kelleher, Tom Delaney, Ray Hoitt,

Tracey Williams, Sue DeColaines, and Rob Stewart focused on developing a recovery educational strategy with agencies, who in effect, effect the lives of persons in the recovery process. Thus, we have invited Arthur Friedman to help us turn our strategic plan into an action plan. November 17^th Lowell attendees, Pierre Descoteaux, Lona

Demers, Ivelisse Alvarado, Victoria Buckley, Janice Archer centered on welcoming recovering persons with disabilities and of minority communities- and working through treatment service barriers. You are invited to be part of the action.

MOAR Sincerely, Maryanne Frangules, MOAR Project Coordinator, 617-423-6627