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.
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.
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.
