Article: Smoking Cessation Programs For People With Mental Illness Are Hard To Find, Featuring Fellowship Place’s Katelyn Trauger
Betty Williams says giving up crack cocaine was easier than her ongoing struggle to quit cigarettes. “A cigarette is a friend” said Williams, who lives with schizophrenia and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. People with mental illness account for 44% of the cigarette purchases in the United States, and they are less likely to quit.
Pictured: Fellowship Place’s Katelyn Trauger
Colleen Shaddox Photo.
Winners of Fellowship Place’s 2019 Campership Contest Announced
Winners of Fellowship Place’s 2019 Campership Contest were announced at Community meeting on April 9. A total of six awards were given, two for Best Art, three for Best Writing, and one for Best Overall Entry. Winners will receive a free summer vacation to Camp CONNRI, an adult vacation and retreat center in Ashford, CT. Funding is made possible by the Birgitta Johnson Campership Fund for Fellowship Place. Fellowship Place has sponsored the annual trip to CONNRI for the last five years, giving agency clients an opportunity to leave behind urban life and enjoy outdoor activities like swimming, boating, and nature walks.
Pictured: Fellowship Place Board President Anne Demchak with the winners at the award ceremony. From left to right, Don, Zane, Anne (in orange sweater), Cheryl, Betty, Ken, and Desiree.
Fellowship Place Hosts Free Tax Preparation Clinic with Yale University
For the third consecutive year, volunteers from Yale University have partnered with Fellowship Place to provide a free tax preparation service for agency clients and members of the Dwight neighborhood. The volunteers are part of VITA (Volunteer Income Tax Assistance), a program sponsored by the IRS to help low income people file their taxes. This service is especially helpful for people new to the workforce and who have never been responsible for filing taxes before. The Yale students held the first of two tax preparation clinics on Feb. 15. The second clinic will be on March 2. A very special thank you to student leaders Jasmine Liu and Paul Banegura for organizing the clinics.
Conversations with Legislators at Fellowship Place
On Tuesday January 28, Fellowship Place hosted a coffee with area legislators on our New Haven campus, for a conversation with consumers, including family members and program participants, and members of the Fellowship Place Board. The morning discussion, which focused on why non-clinical services are so important to the mental health service system, was followed by a campus tour. Thank you to Senator George Logan, Representative Pat Dillon, Representative Kathy Kennedy, Representative Robin Comey, Senator James Maroney, and Dr. Dakibu Muley and Carlos Sosa-Lombardo of the City of New Haven Community Services Administration. We greatly appreciate them taking time out of their busy schedules to listen to first-hand accounts from our consumers, their families, and our staff about the challenges that exist today for those receiving and providing mental health services in our community. We are grateful for your support.
Fellowship Place
441 Elm Street
New Haven, CT 06511
203-401-4227
Fax. 203-789-4451