Remarks by
A. Kathryn Power, M.Ed.
Director

Center for Mental Health Services
Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services

The 2006 Maryland MHA’s Annual Conference
"Transforming Mental Health Care Together"

May 9, 2006
Washington, D.C.

PowerPoint version

Slide 1 - Cover

Good morning. Thank you, Brian (Hepburn) for the introduction. It’s good to see all of you here in Baltimore. I am particularly energized by this year’s conference theme: “Transforming Mental Health Care Together.”

You know, Henry Ford—one of America’s greatest change makers—once said: “Coming together is a beginning; keeping together is progress; working together is success.”

This morning, I’d like to explore Henry Ford’s formula for change. I ask you to examine with me…“What is the vision that brings us together?”…“What progress toward realizing that vision has been made here in Maryland and at the Federal level?”…“How can we work together to achieve a successful transformation of the mental health care system in Maryland and across the United States?”

“Success” is one thing that brings us together today. I want to congratulate you on the award of your State Incentive Grant for Mental Health Transformation, or Transformation SIG. As you may know, there was strenuous competition for these awards, and an extremely high response nationwide. That Maryland was one of the seven winning applicants reflects, in part, the commitment of the strong leadership team you have in place.

In fact, the level of performance we seek through the Transformation SIGS requires strong leadership…and much more. It demands hard work—work that requires the very best from each of us. It requires strong and steady leadership. It requires innovation and the courage to move beyond the status quo, prescribed limits, and traditional thinking. It requires a kind of heroism...a measure of fortitude and an intrepid spirit. It requires the adoption of a new way of thinking. It requires boldness and perseverance. Perhaps we should rename the SIGS the Star Trek Transformation SIGS...because we are expecting you to boldly go forth and transform where no mental health professional has gone before.

Maryland and each of the other successful SIG States have demonstrated precisely the kind of boldness and daring that will be required to realize our shared goal.

Slide 2-Successful SIGs/1

You’ve shown that you have the support of a very active and invested Governor, like Robert Ehrlich, who is to be commended for his outstanding support of mental health issues…before he was elected and since he took office. Governor Ehrlich’s dedication to the goals and objectives of the President’s initiative, through the implementation and support of New Freedom Maryland, creates a close consonance between the Federal and State efforts.

Slide 3 –Successful SIGs/2

You’ve demonstrated a commitment to build on existing strengths and to leverage other grant monies to enhance SIG funds. Again, Maryland sets the standard. I salute Secretary Anthony McCann in the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene (DHMH) for his work to improve integration among administrations in his department and for reaching out to other departments to ensure that they are part of the overall public health response. He brings a wealth of experience to his role leading this transformation effort in Maryland.

Slide 4 –Successful SIGs/3

Maryland has proven that it has a sound strategy for sustainability and the expansion of services. As Executive Director of MHA, Brian Hepburn, has been instrumental in leading Maryland’s transformation...doing what it takes and more—from balancing the budget, and improving clinical care, to examining alternative financing strategies to achieve increased quality and consumer direction.

Slide 5 –Successful SIGs/4

Maryland has demonstrated a deep and true commitment to keeping consumers and families at the center of the process. A number of consumer-focused groups have been on board from the beginning, including—On Our Own Maryland, the National Alliance on Mental Illness - Maryland, the Maryland Coalition of Families for Children’s Mental Health. The Mental Health Association of Maryland has been active since 1915 with its network of local affiliates. The association has brought together consumers, family members, professionals, advocates and concerned citizens for unified action.

Slide 6 –Successful SIGs/5

Finally, Maryland has demonstrated a clear understanding of the critical role of collaboration across agencies, with the private sector, and within communities. Kristen Cox, Secretary of the Department of Disabilities and Arlene Lee, the Executive Director of the Governor’s Office for Children are two stellar examples of leaders who have created an environment ripe for collaboration across offices and departments. These two groups have been working together since the beginning, and are considered the metaphorical “lynchpins” of the Maryland Transformation efforts.

Likewise, I would like to congratulate you on your commitment to developing an entirely new Maryland Department of Disability. This move demonstrates a keen understanding of the need for new partnerships…and a new way of thinking and acting…to move transformation forward here in Maryland.

Maryland has demonstrated that it has the vision, energy, and the commitment to bold action to transform the system of care in this State. The ability to collaborate is essential to all three.

One of my colleagues likes to say, “Collaboration is a contact sport.” Those of you who are already working as catalysts in cross-system collaborations understand the truth of this statement all too well. The process of linking governments, disciplines, and entire systems to achieve a “common” goal is fraught with budget constraints, political barriers, and obstacles that can seem insurmountable.

Collaboration brings a high degree of complexity—it’s true. But in these tough fiscal times...in these times when the human costs of untreated mental illnesses and substance use disorders are growing exponentially...cross-system collaboration is an absolute imperative.

Success demands collaboration across agencies, across and between all levels of government, between the public and private sectors, and between providers and consumers and their families. Collaboration is the life force of the transformation process.

Why? The reasons are both simple and profound. People with mental disorders have a vital role to play in our families, our neighborhoods, our communities, and our country. But these individuals have complex and multiple needs...needs that no one agency, no one organization, no one system can meet on its own. Look at our prisons, our homeless shelters, and our child welfare system. Look at our returning war veterans. The burden of mental illnesses…and the responsibility for protecting mental health and promoting recovery…crosses all organizational boundaries.

As a result, the speed and extent of transformation...our ability to truly succeed...hinges on how well we all work together for change. The more we can collaborate with each other...the more people we can help. That’s the bottom line and the highest aspiration.

The amazing synergy that comes from people collaborating is gaining great momentum...especially in Washington. We have moved beyond the “tipping point”—which author Malcolm Gladwell calls that “magic moment” when minds and hearts are changed, when “radical change is more than a possibility, it is a certainty.” Transformation is happening in Washington and across America.

I would like to spend a few minutes, sharing with you some of the exciting developments that are taking place among the Federal partners as we advance the transformation agenda at the national level. I’ll briefly describe how we started and what brings us to this place.

Slide 7 – Achieving the Promise

The vision of a transformed behavioral health care system began several years ago, with the work of President Bush’s New Freedom Commission on Mental Health. In its final report to the President, Achieving the Promise: Transforming Mental Healthcare in America, the Commission reached this conclusion: our mental health system is not geared to the single most important goal of the people it serves—the goal of recovery! Achieving the Promise called for nothing short of a fundamental transformation of the mental health care delivery system in the United States.

Achieving the Promise envisioned a transformed system... a mental health system that is driven by individual and family needs...a mental health system that focuses on building resilience and is centered on recovery. It is a vision that moves the role of consumers and their families far beyond simply participating in the system...they become the reason for the system. It is a bold and powerful idea that requires a dramatic change from the status quo. It requires each of us to change the way we think about the delivery of mental health services.

In a transformed system, Americans will understand that mental health is essential to overall health, mental health care will be consumer and family driven, and disparities in mental health care will be eliminated. In a transformed system, early mental health screenings, assessments, and referrals will occur. Research will be accelerated and excellent care will be delivered. Technology will be used to access mental health care and information.

I would like to take a few minutes to look at what we mean by “transformation.” As we move forward, together, it is imperative that we understand the meaning of our shared goal.

Transformation calls for a different set of values...an entirely new way of thinking...and a better way of providing services to consumers and families. Transformation calls for fundamental change at the very core of the system…not on the margins. It leads to new behaviors and new ways of doing things. It changes how we do business. In transformation we are able to do things we were unable to do before.

SAMHSA’s agenda for mental health system transformation focuses on creating an entirely new reality in mental health care…in the way services are perceived, accessed, delivered, and financed in this country. Our approach is based, in part, on the lessons learned by our defense department. This department has successfully transformed itself into a 21 st century fighting force, just as we have to transform those who are engaged in combating mental illnesses. Vice Admiral Cebrowski, who headed up the Pentagon’ s Office of Force Transformation until cancer led him to retire called on those involved in transformation to “be bold.” He said, “Pick up the things that look really hard. Other people will have done everything else.” “Be fast,” he added. “No transformational leader ever looks back and regrets moving too fast.”

SAMHSA’s agenda for mental health transformation is bold. At the Federal level, we have aggressively moved forward to build the broad-based collaboration necessary to support a system transformation of this magnitude.

Slide 8 – Federal Partners

Nine Federal Departments have joined our efforts...with each one of these departments and agencies playing its own distinctive role in promoting and protecting the mental health of consumers. Together, we have drafted a Federal Action Agenda, which outlines specific steps that we, at the Federal level, can take immediately to advance transformation. One of the most important outcomes of our efforts so far is the precedent for cross-agency collaboration that is now taking place.

Each of these Agencies and Departments has a stake in ensuring that all Americans are able to lead full and productive lives in their communities. Each organization has a pivotal role in making available the variety of services that will help them achieve and sustain recovery...including a home, a job, or something as basic as transportation so that they can access services.

Through the work we do together, we are literally changing the way we think about and go about providing care. In doing so we are embedding these new approaches...these new shared values...into the very fiber of how we work together. In doing so, we ensure that this work will continue...beyond the terms of the officials who are currently at these Departments and Agencies.

One of the most important key drivers to progress is the crucial role of consumers in the system. Recently SAMHSA asked the Institute of Medicine (IOM) to assess behavioral health care in this country. In their report, the IOM stated that the obstacles faced by consumers of mental health care exceed those encountered by consumers of general health care. The report identifies stigma, the limited insurance coverage for mental health care, and the coercion into treatment that individuals with mental illnesses can sometimes face as significant barriers to receiving the care they need. The report offers several steps to address these issues, chief among them that “all parties involved in health care for mental or substance use conditions should support the decision-making abilities and preferences for treatment and recovery of consumers.

The hope for and the promise of recovery is the fuel that is driving the transformation vision. To achieve the promise, it is critical that we move from old methods to bold actions. It is critical, too, that we change the language of mental health. As Admiral Cebrowski noted, “Language conveys culture…You cannot expect old language to carry new ideas.”

Three months ago, SAMSHA unveiled a consensus statement outlining the principle components of mental health recovery. The statement was developed through the deliberations of more than 110 expert panelists representing mental health consumers, families, providers, advocates, researchers, managed care organizations, State and local public officials, and others. We examined topics like recovery across the lifespan and recovery in different cultural contexts. We considered how recovery applied at individual, family and community, provider, organizational, and systems levels.

Slide 9 – Consensus Statement

Our meeting led to this consensus definition of recovery for adults.

“Mental health recovery is a journey of healing and transformation for a person with a mental health problem to be able to live a meaningful life in a community of his or her choice while striving to achieve maximum human potential.”

The process of recovery builds on the strengths of each individual. It is nonlinear and self-directed. It is holistic and person-centered, and it involves personal and community respect, responsibility and hope. It empowers consumers to make decisions that impact their lives. It recognizes the valued role of consumers in supporting and encouraging others as they continue on their own journey toward recovery.

Recovery is not an end point. Our definition implies a continuum of support...and a breadth of services that acknowledge the whole person and not just the disorder. The scope of this definition changes our entire perspective on how we should provide care.

Slide 10 – Components of Recovery

A copy of the Consensus Statement is included in your materials. You will see it offers 10 fundamental components of consumer-driven recovery. The first is self-direction— recovery that is self-directed by the individual, who defines his or her own life goals, and designs a unique path towards them. Second...is recovery that is individualized and centered on the person. With multiple pathways to recovery, each individual’s unique strengths and resiliencies, as well as his or her needs, preferences, experiences, and cultural background play a role in determining his or her particular path.

Consumers must also be empowered. They must have the authority to choose from a range of options and to participate in all decisions affecting their recovery, including the allocation of resources. Care should be holistic. Recovery encompasses an individual’s whole life, including mind, body, spirit, and community. Housing, employment, education, mental health care treatment and services, addictions treatment, spirituality, creativity, social networks, community participation, family supports—all of these elements are part of the recovery process.

Recovery is non-linear. It is not a step-by-step process, but one based on continual growth, occasional setbacks and learning from experience. Recovery should be strengths-based, focusing on valuing and building on the multiple capacities, resiliencies, talents, coping abilities, and inherent worth of the individual. Peer support is critical... including the sharing of experiential knowledge and skills and social learning, and providing encouragement and a sense of belonging.

Respect is at the heart of the recovery process, both self-respect and the respect of the community. Self-acceptance and regaining belief in one’s self are vital. Consumers have a personal responsibility for their own care and their own journeys of recovery. It may take great courage to take the steps necessary. Consumers must strive to understand and give meaning to their experiences, as well as to identify their coping strategies and healing processes.

And finally, there’s hope...the catalyst of the recovery process. Recovery provides the essential and motivating message of a better future—that people can and do overcome the barriers and obstacles that confront them.

The Recovery Consensus Statement is another major move toward system transformation. It provides the cornerstone for the structure we are building. Did you know that the word “consensus” comes from the French word, consentir, which means “to feel together?” Recovery for people living with mental illnesses is a topic about which we each feel very deeply. When we feel together...work together...and use our collective power to turn the hope for recovery from a vision into reality…we will achieve the success we seek.

A recovery-focused system is within our grasp. Never before have we known so much about mental health and how to enable individuals with mental illnesses to live, work, go to school, and participate fully in their communities. Never before has science given us such powerful evidence-based tools. Never before have consumers and their families rightfully been allowed to demonstrate the amazing healing power of self-direction and peer-support. We stand now at the threshold of a system of care in which recovery—not disability—is the expected outcome. That is truly great progress.

We’ve come together…which is a fruitful beginning. We’re keeping together…making real and measurable progress. How can we work together to create a successful recovery-focused, consumer-directed system?

I’ve organized my suggestions into 6 steps with questions that I encourage you to think about and include in your discussions over the next two days. The source for these questions is a recovery-based program inventory developed by Dr. Mark Ragins of the Village Integrated Services Agency in California. He describes his inventory as an attempt to translate the recovery vision into a practical evaluation tool. Such an inventory is definitely a worthwhile exercise for us to consider as we work to translate the talk of recovery into the walk of recovery.

Slide 11 - STEP 1/ENGAGE

The first step is to engage all stakeholders in creating a recovery focus. What does recovery mean to the people of Maryland and how can it be achieved? What partnerships are necessary? We are talking about a whole new orientation—one in which an entire community plans and delivers services based on a belief that consumers can improve over time.

A recovery focus means that services provided will help adults and children develop the skills they need for a life in the community. Our first challenge is to engage stakeholders in creating a focus that acknowledges their roles in recovery. Organizations must come together in ways that make it easier for consumers and their families to access appropriate services.

One statistic in the Maryland SIG application was particularly striking: growth in service availability for children and adolescents has been explosive, growing from a very small percentage of the system before 1997 to about 50% of both consumers served and expenditures in 2004. This is one of those complex issues of “success”...and, yet, the redesigned PMHS moves Maryland forward through alignment of finances, continuing to increase access to care, and promoting the mental health of children.

Slide 12 - STEP 2/EMPOWER

Step 2 in creating a recovery-focused system is to empower consumers and their families to take the lead. Consumers should be the key members of advisory boards, planning and quality management committees, and research planning groups. Ask them to share their vision of what this system would look like...what services it would offer, and what the expected outcomes should be. What will “success” look like to consumers and their families?” Because of their life experiences, consumers and families lend realistic insight into mental illness and what makes recovery possible.

Consumers are in a natural position to lead others on the journey of recovery. Consumers are the evidence that counters myth with fact…hopelessness with hope. That’s why we, at SAMHSA, are working hard—within our own Agency, and in States and communities across the country—to promote the importance of consumer-driven approaches… to spread the message of consumer-driven recovery. In fact, SAMHSA has declared 2006 as the “Year of the Consumer.” As part of this umbrella initiative, we are committed to helping States expand the use of peer support and other self help and mutual aid models…across a spectrum of needs.

A few months ago, we announced the availability of $2.5 million for seven Peer-to-Peer Recovery Support Grants to develop, design, deliver, and document peer-driven recovery support services that help prevent relapse and promote long-term recovery from alcohol and drug use disorders.

We are also near completion of a Peer Specialist Certification Resource Kit─a tool designed to assist in training former or current mental health consumers to become Certified Peer Specialists (CPS). The Peer Specialist Certification kit—complete with a manual with detailed information on how to design, plan, implement, and manage a peer specialist program—will be sent out to Commissioners and advocacy groups in each State. When this initiative is complete, every State will be equipped to adopt this Medicaid-billable peer training service and certification process…a process that will help to build an emerging workforce of people in recovery from mental illnesses…people who are strengthening their own recovery by helping others with their recovery. What an incredibly compelling concept! An entire workforce of peers driving change!

Through our work with the Annapolis Coalition—a group committed to promoting, identifying, and implementing strategies for improving our behavioral healthcare workforce —we will continue to examine the role of peers in the workforce.

Another key component of our consumer participation initiative is the development of an evidence -based toolkit on consumer-run services that will help raise the standards and facilitate widespread adoption of consumer-run services.

We also support a statewide consumer network grant program designed to harness the power of consumers to promote systems change. The program enhances State capacity and infrastructure by supporting consumer-run organizations.  Grantees throughout the nation are using these resources to address stigma, reduce mental health disparities, prevent criminalization, promote self-care and many other activities.

We also support five national technical assistance centers on peer support and we hope to issue new grants for these along with the State network grants, next fiscal year.

I know Maryland has a long and rich history of consumer involvement. The first consumer drop-in center started with federal Community Support funding from NIMH was established in Maryland in 1983. In June, 1985, On Our Own coordinated the first National Alternatives Conference— the first national conference of its kind for consumers. Today, there are 20 mental health consumer-operated programs in the state of Maryland with over 4500 consumers served in the statewide network.

Slide 13 - STEP 3/ENLIGHTEN

The next step is to enlighten…to infuse the system with the best new knowledge that science has to offer. That involves the widespread use of evidence-based practices. I am impressed at Maryland’s innovative plan to pay programs at a higher rate for implementing EBPs. As it now stands, it can take up to 20 years before an effective practice becomes a standard procedure. You could lose an entire generation of Marylanders in that length of time. A recovery-focused system will develop methods...like you have...to accelerate this process and reward providers who continue to educate themselves and others in new and promising practices.

Maryland ’s Supported Employment Initiative is an excellent example of a commitment to evidence-based practices. Lissa Abrams, Director of Adult Services for MHA works with the folks in the Division of Rehabilitation Services (DORS) and they are now merging administrative procedures between the two systems to assure that consumers who want to work are able to access needed supports quickly and efficiently. MHA and DORS staff have jointly trained and participated in the national evidence-based practice project through the Johnson & Johnson/Dartmouth University Initiative. They have also been involved with the Institute for Community Inclusion to develop and implement a “seamless” system for the provision of supported employment in Maryland.

SAMHSA will continue to work with you to support efforts like these...we are committed to making state-of the science more accessible to providers and consumers.

Slide 14 - STEP 4/EXPAND

A focus on recovery also means expanding our view so that we see each consumer as an individual...and our system pays attention to wellness and health promotion, and not simply to symptom suppression or clinical concerns. A recovery-focused system respects the fundamental rights of consumers. These rights include the right to choose care through advance directives and the elimination of seclusion and restraints. The focus shifts from a treatment plan to a recovery plan.

The strength of Maryland’s Public Mental Health System is due in great part to its long-term, well-organized, and effective consumer, family, advocacy, and provider organizations. Each of these stakeholders is included in every level of MHA planning, policy development, and decision-making.

Slide 15 - STEP 5/EMBRACE

Step 5 calls for us to embrace transformation as a continuous process and to commit to achieving the goals of transformation over time. A system must continue to evolve as we learn from new research, as service informs science, and as we respond to the changing needs of consumers and their families.

I applaud Dr. Al Zachik (Zah-Check), Director of Maryland’s Office of Child and Adolescent Services for making a long- term commitment to building an effective early childhood mental health system of care in this State. Governor Ehrlich showed his support for this transformative activity when he approved 1.87 million new dollars for FY2007 to expand early childhood mental health consultation to child care centers into other areas of the State beyond the two pilots. 

The idea is to build a process of change into the system—to have continuous quality improvement as your primary constant. Think of transformation as a strategy for success that involves small, medium and large steps.

Slide 16 – Steps of Transformation

We can take small steps to continually improve what the mental health system is already doing. We can take medium jumps as exploratory moves...to push the boundaries of our core competencies or to create something new within the existing paradigm. And every so often, we’ll experience a great leap...when we can shift the paradigm and create a program that is dynamically different through leveraging new ideas.

In reality, changing the form and function of the mental health system in Maryland and throughout the United States will be a long-term process. Even though our vision should be idealistic, our plans should be realistic. We can still celebrate our success...even the small leaps move us forward. A celebration of progress is important, not just for providers and consumers, who might get discouraged sometimes by the pace of change, but for others as well. The more often we can point to recovery, the more apparent it will become to funding legislatures and the general public that mental illnesses are just that—illnesses that can be treated.

Slide 17 - STEP 6/EXPERIENCE—LEARN FROM IT!

The last step is to learn from experience by monitoring outcomes. Outcome data establish accountability. This is how we answer questions like, “Do our programs achieve positive outcomes for consumers?” and “Which services are the most successful in promoting recovery?”

Today, we’re hearing this call for accountability louder and more clearly than ever before. Departments across the Federal Government are heeding the call to set priorities and make sure tax dollars are being spent wisely. We must demonstrate that we are delivering real, measurable, concrete improvements and outcomes for those we serve.

What does this mean for SAMHSA? It means we’ve had to get real about accountability. We’re moving past providing funding for treatment and services to providing funding for the most effective, evidence based treatment and support services that move consumers and families along the path to recovery. One way we have accomplished this is through the use of National Outcome Measures, or NOMs.

NOMs is a strategy to use data to help Federal and State substance abuse and mental health managers determine program effectiveness and ultimately improve services in the communities they serve.

Slide 18/NOMs

Developed in collaboration with States, the NOMs initiative looks at these ten domains which embody meaningful, real life outcomes for people who are striving to attain and sustain recovery, build resilience, and work, learn, live, and participate fully in their communities.

NOMS are really about putting people’s needs first. It is about reporting on our performance in helping people attain and sustain what they say they need to achieve a life in the community. The tighter our measurements become, the more we can show our effectiveness…the greater the number of people served…and, the greater the hope for recovery and a life in the community for everyone.

Maryland relies on its strong public-academic partnerships to help assess the effectiveness of the mental health care being delivered in this State. Executive staffs at MHA and university leaders collaborate regularly on system and program development. In fact, MHA has a very productive relationship with the University of Maryland’s Division of Mental Health Services, which is headed up by Dr. Howard Goldman—a true vanguard of transformation, whose work on the Surgeon General's report on mental health and the Commission’s subcommittee reports is impressive and worthy of praise.

Since the 1990’s, the University has been providing technical assistance and training on systems development for MHA and the Public Mental Health System. Several years ago, the relationship expanded to assist MHA in its efforts to disseminate and ensure that excellent mental health care was being implemented and that evaluative research into the effectiveness of the mental health care delivered could be meaningfully assessed through measurable outcomes.

Most of my comments today have been about things that are going on at our various system levels—here in Maryland and other States, and on a national basis. I’ve talked about the progress we’ve made in areas like the recovery consensus and suggested several approaches that we can use to work through the “steps” to create true recovery-focused systems.

However, the most important change does not come from any system. I believe the greatest source of transformation will come from the potential of the individual…of the self.

We are the system! Our attitudes and beliefs guide the actions we take. Change does not just happen—someone has to make it happen. First and foremost, we need transformative leaders—those exemplary individuals...like those from Maryland that I’ve mentioned today...whose actions inspire others to follow.

System change begins with personal change. Perhaps you’ve heard the expression... “Things don’t change; people do.” We each have the capacity to become transformative leaders. We become credible through action. Our courage and integrity in taking risks makes it possible for others to change. Providers, for example, can educate, empower, and enable consumers to make more informed decisions. Consumers can take more responsibility for their own recovery—through self-management and learned coping skills. Administrators can actively engage consumers to co-lead or conduct programs. Look around you...here in this audience, this morning...leaders exist in every role, at all levels of the system. We are leaders when our principles guide our actions and when our attitudes speak louder than our words.

I would like to end by sharing some words from the introduction of a wonderful little book called Common Good, Common Ground: Building Commitment and Community. The editors express themselves by saying:

Slide 19 -Quote

“Once we have started to think together, we must act together. The most distinctive virtue of any community is its ability to mobilize and collectively work for the common good, ensuring that all members of the community have an equal opportunity to live, learn, serve and grow. Each and every member of a community is accountable and has a shared responsibility to contribute.

Community is not a coalescing of individuals who look alike and think alike. Community is not a place where people are robbed of their uniqueness, culture and heritage. Community does not require us to blend our similarities and ignore our differences.

Community is an amazing gathering place, a wishing well for our thoughts, our hopes, our fears, and our dreams. Community is a place where people are free to learn, explore, create and build; free to celebrate and to work; and where individuals, families and cultures are treated with justice, equality and respect. Community invites members from all walks of life not only to have a voice, but to share that voice.

... And from our shared understanding of diversity and our shared responsibility of action comes a shared destiny. We are truly one people, endowed by the richness of all cultures, bound by the laws of interdependence, and impelled by the hope of creating unity-in-difference.”

( 1)Common Good Common Ground: Building Commitment and Community. Edited by Dr. Stuart C. Lord, Ryan Hays, Kelly Haley, & Wayne Meisel. Peter Pauper Press: New York. 1999.