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Sunday 09/06/2009 0:22:39am
Name: Joe Genera
E-Mail: musclecargarage@comcast.net
Homepage Title:
Homepage URL:
Referred By: Friend
Location: Connecticut
Comments: Hi Folks - Joe G here, missing you and life as it was in New York. It's good to see the site, and to read the various websites about the center, both in Orange and Sullivan counties.

It's hard to beleive that it has been over 10 years since I was with you, and there is so much I miss and so much I'd want to say to you all, especially the people who know me. ATI is such a great place and does so many things for so many people. That is only possible because of the people who have made ATI a part of their lives, as I did too.

Please know that I consider my years at ATI the best years of my life. I look back on what we were able to accomplish as a team with awe, and the knowledge that we made a difference, and kicked ass when we needed to. I only regret that my personal life got in the way, and in the end left me with impossible choices to make.

I wish you well, and knoow that ATI will always be the 'voice' for and of people with disabilities - both locally and well beyond New York. I have even run into 2 people from my home town that benefited from ATI services 6-8 years ago - and still talk glowingly about those that helped them.

Mary, Jo, Marianne, Sharon - My thoughts and much more, and best wishes to you in your lives.

May the ADA be with you! Keep up the excellent work.




Wednesday 05/18/2005 1:26:24pm
Name: Elizabeth Geyer Gottlieb
E-Mail: lizgo00@frontiernet.net
Homepage Title:
Homepage URL:
Referred By: Search Engine
Location: Slate Hill
Comments: Hi, I have a Pilates studio in the same building your organization used to occupy, at 2927 route 6 in Slate Hill. We would like to be on your mailing list. Thank you!
Liz at
Full Circle Pilates, Inc
Full Circle Studio




Tuesday 11/26/2002 7:15:11pm
Name: Frederick T. Spahr, CCC-SLP
E-Mail: FSpahr@asha.org
Homepage Title: American Speech-Language-Hearing Assoc
Homepage URL: http://www.asha.org
Referred By: Search Engine
Location: Rockville, MD
Comments: REPEAL THE ADA! It only helps persons who aren't really disabled!




Sunday 10/27/2002 9:26:31am
Name: A Peer
E-Mail: apeer4all@excite.com
Homepage Title:
Homepage URL:
Referred By: Friend
Location: new york
Comments: The Consumer Movement started off as a grass roots effort and we are hoping that a similar effort will start in Orange County NY.On or about November 15, 2002 an office providing advocacy to people with co-occurring psychiatric and addictive disorders in the greater community of Newburgh, NY will close its doors to that community. The office is located in what is now known as the Hotel Newburgh and will become the Cornerstone Residence. The Cornerstone Residence will be a supportive permanent housing residence assigning Case Management services to ALL those living there whether the residents want case management or not. The Cornerstone Residence is part of Safe Harbors of the Hudson who is partnering with Independent Living, Inc. who (ILC) will be providing said Case Management services to people living in the Cornerstone Residence. This even includes people without any disability.The office at this residence is funded through a grant from the Office of Mental Health under reinvestment. Under the guidelines of the original grant, the office was supposed to provide wrap-around services to homeless people with co-occurring psychiatric and addictive disorders in the greater Newburgh area. When the building becomes the Cornerstone Residence the office will close its doors to the community and only provide services to those living at the residence, which is permanent housing. NO Homeless people will be served; OMH money will be used to provide CASE MANAGEMENT services to ALL residents there including those without ANY disabilities. Safe Harbors of the Hudson is asking for (and probably will receive) additional OMH beds within the residence (approximately 40 beds) to the tune of $8,000 each (over $300,000 each year). These Case Management services will be provided to people with or without any disability utilizing OMH funding.The philosophy of Independent Living Centers and of the self-determination movement cries out that as peers, WE ARE NOT CASES AND DO NOT NEED TO BE MANAGED!A grant written to fund a program providing services to the greater community will shut its doors to that community soon. OMH funding designated to provide services to peers with psychiatric disorders would be utilized to provide services not only to our peers, but also to people with no history of being consumers of mental health services or having any disability at all. An Independent Living Center whose mission is the removal of barriers will become a willing partner and participant in the erection of barriers to the greater Newburgh community by not allowing funded services to be provided to that community.How will Independent Living, Inc. justify submitting statistics to OMH for services provided to peers when over half of the residents of the Cornerstone Residence will be people who are NOT peers? How will Independent Living, Inc. honor its mission statement by putting up barriers to services to those within the community who are our peers and do not live in the Cornerstone Residence? How will Independent Living justify CASE MANAGEMENT services whether people want them or not being forced to accept being assigned a case manager who is on the staff of Independent Living, Inc.? How will Independent Living justify offering peer advocacy and peer counseling when half of their staff at that office currently are not peers and with additional case managers being hired through OMH funding will also not be a peer?The greater Newburgh community needs your help. People with disabilities being denied services through an OMH funded program offering services to people without disabilities need your help. On or about November 15th, the doors to what is currently known as the Community Partnership will close to the public and will only be providing services to those living at the Cornerstone Residence. A grass roots effort is needed; your help is needed. Please pass this message to everyone you know within the consumer movement, within the Orange County Mental Health system, within the Office of Mental Health and within the court of public opinion (news organizations, etc.). This injustice MUST be stopped! Our peers are once again being denied services. Our peers are once again being discriminated against and barriers are being erected. This discrimination, these barriers and these denial of services are being done not by outside influences but by an agency that calls itself an Independent Living Center whose mission statement calls for the removal of barriers. How many people will have to be placed by force into hospitals because they cannot access services? How many people will remain homeless because they cannot access services? How many people will have to die not only an emotional death, but a physical one as well because a Center for Independent Living is more interested in enlarging its operations and getting more money than it is in following its mission statement? An agency under the guise of calling itself a consumer directed and run agency is directly responsible for erecting barriers to recovery! PLEASE FORWARD THIS MESSAGE TO EVERYONE WHO YOU KNOW WHO HAS A COMMITTMENT TO CONSUMERS AND TO THE MOVEMENT. PLEASE FORWARD THIS MESSAGE TO EVERYONE YOU KNOW WITHIN THE MENTAL HEALTH SYSTEM INCLUDING THOSE RESPONSIBLE FOR FUNDING THIS PROGRAM. PLEASE PASS THIS MESSAGE ALONG TO ALL NEWS ORGANIZATIONS WHO CAN HELP STOP THIS INJUSTICE!Our peers in Newburgh need your help!Thank you A Peer




Thursday 05/09/2002 11:44:57am
Name: Mark Hobratschk
E-Mail: InsureCI@aol.com
Homepage Title:
Homepage URL:
Referred By: Search Engine
Location: Arlington, VA
Comments: Excellent resources and ADA material. We all need to make sure the civil rights of disabled persons are protected after September 11th!

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