The family of an 11-year-old girl with cerebral palsy has accused the Blackpool Transport tram company of abandoning her on a day out after they refused to carry her wheelchair back from the seafront.
Has the whole darn world gone bonkers??
The sessions—which are free and open to the public—will be moderated by highly-acclaimed journalists Kathryn Gretsinger and Charlie Smith, and the great David Diamond (Headlines Theatre’s trailblazing co-founder and current Artistic Director). They “will get at the nuts and bolts of creating safe, affordable and supportive housing. Each day deals with location, financing and necessary supports and services.”
Moderated panels will be made up of people who have experienced homelessness, Metro Vancouver city councillors and business leaders.
Panelists will each present a short talk on the day’s topic, followed by an open dialogue with the audience.
The ideas discussed at the Sessions will generate an official Community Action Report—designed “to inform policy.” In fact, Headlines Theatre has written agreements from the following organizations to receive the report for their research for national, provincial, regional and local strategies on mental health and homelessness:
If you’d like to participate (and you really really should), The Community Dialogue Sessions are being held in Vancouver at the Firehall Arts Centre:
280 E. Cordova Street
Vancouver, British Columbia
November 24, 25 and 26 @ 1:30pm each day
Admission is free and open to the public
For more information call 1-604-871-0508 or email info@headlinestheatre.com.
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Learn more at headlinestheatre.com
Then…
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“Movember is an annual, month-long celebration of the moustache, highlighting men’s health issues, specifically prostate cancer and depression in men. Mo Bros, supported by their Mo Sistas, start Movember (November 1st) clean shaven and then have the remainder of the month to grow and groom their moustache. During Movember, each Mo Bro effectively becomes a walking billboard for men’s health and, via their Mo, raises essential funds and awareness.”
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Cyberbeg.com offers hope, by providing a way for homeless people to connect with potential donators. Think of it as a website dedicated to tangibly helping people. Before the emergence of “digital panhandling,” homeless people had no way of broadcasting their need for help to a large audience. After two years of posting cyber begs, the site has raised almost $23,000 for its members.
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Here’s a corresponding news segment from David Abel’s outstanding feature for Boston.com:
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Then…
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Quoting BBC News:
“A blind man has piloted a £3m passenger catamaran across the Solent to raise awareness for stem cell research, which could one day help restore sight. Colin McArthur, whose blindness is caused by a genetic condition, took the controls for the hour-long return trip. The father-of-five from Sandown, Isle of Wight, said he “enjoyed every minute” of the experience. It marks the launch of a project by the University of Southampton to find a cure for inherited blindness. Mr McArthur, 58, previously flew a Britten-Norman Islander plane and piloted a 130-seat hovercraft to raise awareness of retinitis pigmentosa, an inherited condition which causes blindness, often in later life. He wants to raise money for the research project, which is trying to discover whether stem-cells from the iris and cornea can be re-grown in the retina to restore the sight of people with retinitis pigmentosa. Mr McArthur, who is a trustee of charity RP Fighting Blindness, said: “Luckily enough the captain guided me through and told me which way to steer and how fast to go.” The Wight Link ferry, with passengers onboard, left Ryde, Isle of Wight on Thursday at 10:45 BST bound for Portsmouth and returned at 11:15 BST.”
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Hey PoolTablesDirect.com…quit being assholes! It took the members of the Mental Health Association in Jefferson County nearly three years to raise the funds for their new 8-foot pool table. You cashed their $2,297 check July 11 and never sent them their table.
Your new slogan should be:
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A movie trailer spoofing horror films, being shown in theaters in Britain and online, was launched a couple months ago to challenge the stigma surrounding schizophrenia. The segment is part of the “Time to Change” campaign run by British mental health charities Mind and Rethink, and funded by the Big Lottery Fund and Comic Relief.
The films have been launched nationwide to coincide with a poll by research firm YouGov, which reveals more than a third of people believe schizophrenics are violent.
Oh yes, did we forget to mention that the campaign stars none other than…MR. STUART BAKER-BROWN!!!
Quoting Hal Newman, current managing editor at BigMedicine.ca, former firefighter and paramedic with 3+ decades of experience in emergency services who “reinvented” himself after leaving the streets by becoming a Network Accelerant:
If you had to pick someone who would be the least likely to become addicted to road cycling more than 30 km each and every day at speed you need not look any further than me. So, it’s a bit surreal to think that come July 2010, I will be joining thousands of other cyclists riding the 250 km [in two days] from Montreal to Quebec City to raise funds to support the fight against cancer. I’m riding for Abraham, Rose, Mimi, David, Susan, Gil, Mario and many many others who fought cancer right up until their dying breaths. We say the words carefully. Sometimes in a hushed whisper. Sometimes spat out like a foul taste in our mouths. “Cancer” … “The Big CA.” So many family members and friends and colleagues who have waged pitched battles against cancer. Occasionally there are wins—and we celebrate those in grand style although truth be told, once cancer stages a home invasion it never really leaves. Even when it’s gone for good, we all wonder if cancer will find another way to come back into our lives. More often than not there are losses. And we mark those with sorrow and tears and a lasting hatred of a disease that shows no mercy and knows no boundaries. I spent a good chunk of my career as a paramedic/ firefighter. Cancer has become inexorably linked with those who are on the frontlines of emergency services. I’ve gone to the hospital to pick-up a friend/ colleague after his first round of chemo and I’ll always remember his reaction to being able to walk, albeit weakly, out the door under his own power. It was a cold, crisp day and yet he had his window down for the ride home so he could take in the sunshine and the wind. His cancer was beaten back and he’s still a part of our lives. I’m riding for Norm and Don and not enough others who have found a way to beat cancer. Norm Rooker, my brother-of-another-mother, wrote about learning he had bladder cancer . . .
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Quoting The Huffington Post:
On September 28, HuffPost featured the story of Monique Zimmerman-Stein, a mother who shares a rare genetic disorder with her children that causes blindness. Though Zimmerman and her family have health insurance, they are still saddled by astronomical debt from medical bills, which has forced this mother to save her daughters’ sight by sacrificing her own. Many readers, touched by the Stein family’s story, have asked for a way to help them. HuffPost Impact got in touch with Gary Stein, Monique Zimmerman-Stein’s husband, a Hillsborough County health department employee, who reported that the family’s medical bills have continued to amass. A few months ago, Stein had a heart attack scare and his daughter had a playground accident that sent her to the emergency room. After tests and scans came out clear, both hospital visits were deemed medically unnecessary and the family was charged additional co-pays, which have since gone into collection. A few weeks ago, Zimmerman-Stein had a minor stroke, known as a TIA, possibly caused by stress. She suffered no lasting side effects… other than the bill for the three-day hospital stay, which so far is $5,000—after insurance—and mounting. Despite this, Stein says “we find, every day, a reason to be brave because our system is difficult. I have a family to support and we make tough decisions every day on how to move forward and how to be normal.” Stein says they know they aren’t the only ones struggling to remain hopeful in the face of mounting health care debt. ”It just wrenches your gut to think that we live in such a great country but people can’t get the medical care they need and that they have to make decisions on what bills to pay, what things to forgo.” The Steins are acutely aware that their story is just one of hundreds of thousands, and Zimmerman-Stein is adamant in her belief that free clinics need to be supported and that our representatives need to be held accountable. “I don’t care who you are, everyone in this world gets sick,” she said. To help the Stein family, [The Huffington Post has] created a widget (see below) where readers can make a direct impact . . . You can give directly to the Stein family via their PayPal account by clicking on the widget below (the PayPal account should read “Just Dolphins”).
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UPDATE: Due to an “overwhelming response,” The HuffPost is extending the length of this fundraiser and have raised their goal to $30,000 (they were originally hoping to cover the latest round of the Stein’s medical bills—but, thanks to your generosity, they are able to help out with their other outstanding bills). Over 860 contributors have given more than $26,000 since last Tuesday afternoon. Quite an amazing accomplishment for the first day of the Impact section! Gary Stein, Monique’s husband, says the family is absolutely overwhelmed by the response from the online community. “We’ll do whatever we can to pay it forward,” he says. “I hope and pray that this amazing response can be repeated.”
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Quoting BBC News:
Sea Sanctuary, a charity based in Falmouth, will offer placements on a 43ft (13m) yacht. Sessions led by mental health professionals are aimed at helping young people address their illness and gain sailing qualifications. The scheme has won funding from the Cornwall and Isles of Scilly Primary Care Trust. Sea Sanctuary said the stimulation of sailing the charity’s yacht increased people’s wellbeing and made therapeutic change more likely.
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Quoting Sea Sanctuary’s official website:
We will provide comprehensive mental health care onboard a 43ft classic yacht. The support will be through therapy, education/training and respite care and will be available to individuals principally within Cornwall, but also the wider UK. Sea Sanctuary will seek to address the very real issue of mental health well-being for those who most need it.
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