We had a great time at The Great Cow Harbor Day Weekend, talking to artists and others marketing their wares in Northport. What struck us this year was the number of rescue groups who had booths, the individual strengths these groups bring, and the passion of those who serve them.

Almost Home rescues and re-homes unwanted and abandoned animals. They are also committed to assisting families to prevent unnecessary surrenders through their Training Wheels® program.

Said Volunteer and Board Member Deborah DuRussel, "Almost Home, like other rescue organizations, helps animals in need through rescue and adoption, but most notably, the work we do in the community truly sets us apart from the others. Our outreach program brings hope to many underprivileged, neglected or abused animals, as well as relief to good families who struggle each day with providing proper care for their pet."

The League for Animal Protection of Huntington is dedicated to the rescue, care and rehabilitation of stray, abandoned and abused animals in the Town of Huntington. In 1982, they built the Grateful Paw Cat Shelter, which is a refuge without cages for kittens and cats. Volunteers also assist the Town dog placement program, providing much needed services including volunteers' love and attention.

Little Shelter Animal Rescue & Adoption Center is Suffolk County's oldest Humane Society; a non-profit, no-kill animal shelter nestled on six wooded acres in Huntington. Founded by Anna Hunninghouse in 1927, they have been dedicated to saving abandoned dogs and cats, and placing them into loving forever homes ever since. They take pride in being a model for shelters nationwide. Age, physical condition, and socialization issues are never criteria for rescuing a dog or cat whose life is in jeopardy. They also run the Little Shelter Sanctuary for animals who cannot be adopted, the Sheltervale Pet Cemetery and the Town of Huntington Cat Shelter

The Northport Cat Rescue Association is a 100% volunteer operated organization that has found homes for over 70 cats this year, and is currently housing another 50, some of whom are too young to adopt and others of whom require some socialization. You can check out their Facebook page to learn more, including about an upcoming fundraiser!
We then got to talking with our friend Alicia Berwind, who is deeply passionate about animal rescue. She added these folks to the list:

Last Hope Animal Rescue & Rehabilitation, started in 1981, helps Long Island cats and dogs. They take in kittens and, when they can, stray cats so they may be adopted to only the best homes. Last Hope's most impressive aspect may be their dedication to helping feral cats, providing education and an extraordinary TNR (Trap, Neuter, Return) program that offers low cost vouchers and weekend clinics. Each year, they spay and neuter over 1,000 feral cats. Their main location in Wantagh offers cat and dog adoption, as do satellite kitten and cat adoption centers in Wantagh, Huntington Station, Syosset and Bellmore. Volunteers and donations are always needed! Visit lasthopeanimalrescue.org to learn more and check out their precious dogs, cats, and kittens. Maybe you will find your newest family member. Adopt don’t Shop!

Tender Loving Cats in North Babylon rescues cats and kittens all over Long Island. They will work with independent trappers and always ensure when taking outside kittens that the mom cat is fixed. President Rebecca Caro will only adopt out cats that have been vetted and fixed ensuring a purrrfect match! They place over 300 cats a year and just added a new location in West Babylon. Volunteers are desperately needed in 2 hour shifts!!! Please visit tenderlovingcats.org to offer a few hours, donate, or find a new snuggle buddy!

LION - Long Island Orchestrating for Nature rescues nontraditional pets. In addition, they help wildlife across Long Island and keep pets like chickens and tame ducks from freezing to death because they were abandoned. Many who get chicks for Easter or hatch domesticated ducks in schools don't realize they will not survive without proper nutrition and shelter. They offer education on this and many other humane programs in addition to helping over 100 animals per year. President John Di Leonardo is an anthrozoologist who leads many successful animal rights campaigns. Visit humanelongisland.org for more on that.

Nobody Starves Long Island, located in Middle Island, is dedicated to the idea that if we work together, it is possible to save them all. With a motto, "We can feed them all," their food pantry serves more animals than all of Long Island's major animal shelters combined, helping those who cannot afford to feed their pets. In special circumstances they have also offered additional assistance. They take donations for animal care as well as food donations.
Together, We can Save Them All!

By Justine Miller.
This was originally published on Facebook on October 29, 2013. We think it bears repeating. While Superstorm Sandy was awesome in its power to wreak havoc, especially on our South Shore, it was the incredible power of our communities that most deeply impressed us. We were among those who offered a hand here and there, alongside incredible neighbors like these and others who came from miles away on service missions of their own. One of those literal missionaries, lovingly dubbed a "Mucking Morman" by the folks working with him, told us he'd been to many disaster zones but had never seen anything like what he witnessed on Long Island -- So many people from so many communities, coming together to clean up the mess and tend to each other. Honestly, we hadn't realized just how incredible these folks were, either. Now, we will never forget. Seven years in, folks like the Friends of Freeport are still taking volunteers. Want to get involved? Email us!

It's been a year now since Hurricane Sandy literally destroyed my hometown of Freeport, NY. The news said it was going to be one of the largest storms ever to hit Long Island, a "perfect storm" if you may. The conditions were set up with a tide coming in, full moon and the winds bearing down. Then, it hit! The tidal surge engulfed Freeport. People were trapped in their homes while 8 and 10 feet of water broke down their doors and pushed in their windows. They helplessly retreated to their upstairs and attic crawl spaces, not knowing if the water was going to keep on rising up and up some more. Homes burned to the ground, Part of our gem of Freeport, the Nautical Mile, burned to the ground. The fire department was unable to respond due to the flooding and the fires had to burn themselves out.

Finally the waters receded. People came down from their refuges in their own homes. They went outside and bore witness to the devastation that Sandy wrought.

It was surreal, like an explosion went off and tossed my village around. There were boats everywhere! Because Freeport had so many marinas and just about everyone that lived on the water had a boat, it was complete chaos. Boats in the middle of roads, on lawns, half in and half out of the water and leaning on power lines. Cars floated down yards and streets. It was like someone took the south end of Freeport and threw it in the air and let everything hit the ground. One of the things that hit me most in the coming days was looking around and seeing the high tide line, in a lot of cases higher then the top of my head.

The electric was off. The National Guard came in to assist because there were looters out there. Can you imagine that? Looters in Freeport! Never in my wildest nightmares would I believe that MY TOWN would have looters come in like cockroaches to take even more from my people. Then the gas shortages happened. People waited on line for hours. The police had to regulate the crowds and fights broke out among my desperate community because they didn't have gas for their cars or their generators. They didn't have food, or kitchens to even make food, no fresh water, nothing.

The day after the storm a few people came together immediately, calling friends, relatives and neighbors to check on them. There was a desperate need for help, a need for just the basic necessities. Forget TV. The cold weather came in. These people needed blankets (if they even were able to return to their homes), They didn't need their luxuries, they needed the basic items for survival.

Well these few people (and I'm so proud to be one of them) began what would eventually become Friends of Freeport; a small group that would eventually evolve into an established, real, amazing group that has helped HUNDREDS of people return to normalcy.

It started small. We made magnets to sell as fundraisers with 100% of the profits going back to our people to get started on the work that was needed to help. We also formed a secret group, you might have heard of them, the Nite Sprites, that wanted to boost morale and give a little brightness to the ravaged community. We put ribbons of every color all over Freeport, lining Atlantic avenue and Woodcleft, on hundreds of houses, in front of schools. A germ of hope and community spirit started back up again.

Let me also commend ALL of the Village of Freeport employees! Tirelessly they worked, trying to protect the village, 24-7 they worked to right what they could in the village. The Freeport Police, the Freeport Fire department, public works, electric department, EVERY single department pulled together and worked so hard to return at least a little visible normalcy to the village.

There was also the Freeport Recreation Center set up to provide food, showers, clothing and information to the people. There were the Freeport Food Angels going around bringing hot meals to people who couldn't get to the Rec, providing more hope.

It was starting, The Hope was starting. It was AMAZING to watch it bloom. The community pulled together! We were going to survive Sandy and pull together as one! People started to believe again. They saw the needs of the community and people started checking on their neighbors, They started to care about those around them, started to want to help each other. Amazing!

So, back to this group, Friends of Freeport. This little group started calling for volunteers. The work that we are still called to do needed to get started. The volunteers came in like gangbusters. Regardless of the situations in their own homes, in the middle of winter, they came like a tide of miracles.

The coordination began. The groups started forming within FOF. The ripouts began. We had the sidewalkers to go door to door, telling people of the help that was out there and collecting lists of people that needed food (thank you Food Angels). We passed out as much information as possible to get help to people, and to inform them of what assistance was out there.

It grew! Bigger and bigger it grew! FOF kept going! Fundraisers, the website, the shirts, the magnets, the donations. All of it kept going, and still grows.

The volunteers... There will be a special FOF section in heaven for our volunteers. To this day, they keep going. As the ripouts slowed down the rebuilding began. We were accomplishing our mission! We were helping people get home. Not to a "house" that was destroyed, but back Home.

I am soooo proud of our group. My heart swells when I think of all that has been done. It truly is amazing and miraculous and it gave me faith in the human spirit again that there are people who do the right thing because it's the right thing to do. I believe in the goodness of people again. I know that I've seen miracles.

In ending, I want to say thank you to all involved, the board.members, the donors, and most of all the volunteers. Without you these miracles wouldn't have happened. And thank you to that Bitch of a storm called Sandy for providing hope and faith again.

Be an Encourager – The World has enough critics

The mission of Pal-O-Mine Equestrian is to provide a comprehensive therapeutic equine program using horses to facilitate growth, learning, and healing. Their population includes children and adults with disabilities, those who have been abused or neglected, the military and the economically compromised.
 
A Safe, Peaceful Place
The overwhelming sense we had when visiting Pal-O-Mine Equestrian last spring was peace. Peace and love and deep, deep commitment to serving the folks of diverse needs who come to learn and receive therapy. They say the word “miracle” comes up a lot. We’re not surprised.

“It doesn’t even smell like a farm!” said one woman, who is admittedly not always comfortable with animals, “I come from an extraordinarily stressful line of work. I feel my blood pressure going down here. This place is so calming.”

“It feels safe,” remarked another, “I feel safety, love and kindness.”

The farm is kept very clean. It is beautiful. There are inspirational messages and generously donated art on virtually every wall. The animals are carefully chosen to be calm, forgiving and tolerant. Each client is carefully matched with a trained professional attuned to their individual needs and an equine specialist who carefully minds the horses throughout each encounter. The multitude of therapists regularly consult with each other. All are required to participate in continuing education on a yearly basis. The volunteer training is rigorous as well.

“Like the horses, roughly one in ten of our volunteers makes it through the trial period,” notes Founder and CEO Lisa Gatti, “It’s not that there’s anything wrong with them as people or as animals. It’s just that they have to be a perfect fit to meet our very special needs.”

We’re going try to put this down in writing, but Lisa is right about another thing, too: You can admire Pal-O-Mine Equestrian from afar. To really feel it in person, though, is beyond words.

Some people do speak for the first time here. Others learn to walk. Many overcome trauma and other challenges, learning to make the best of what they have and how to better interact with the world around them. People come here and learn to be productive, contributing members of society. Many dare – sometimes for the first time ever – to dream. 

This whole place is a dream, manifested as a 25 horse, 13-acre farm serving 400 individuals weekly. There are sheep, chickens, one cat, a rabbit and other animals. There are 8 full-time and 35-40 part time staff of various specialties, as well as eighty regular volunteers and another 40 or 50 who come in to help with events. There’s a large organic garden, as well as unique classrooms and workshops, including a kitchen.  

Mostly though, Pal-O-Mine Equestrian is about the horses and their power to heal.

The Power of Pop Fiction
Lisa Gatti grew up riding horses. Her mother was in Special Education and she always knew she wanted to be a teacher, too. She didn’t put two and two together, though, until she came across – of all things – a romance novel.

“My father was in book publishing. He was very strict,” recalls Lisa Gatti, “When I was in college he used to send me piles of books to read on the weekends, trying to keep me in line.”

“I obeyed him one Friday,” she smiles, “though it was a book my dad’s secretary had tucked in there that I actually picked up.”

Palomino, by Danielle Steel, is about a woman who fell off a horse and opened a ranch for kids with disabilities. 

“It changed my life. I called my dad at 2am. He asked me if I’d been drinking,” she laughs, “’No!’ He told me to go to bed.”

The next morning she called him again. He told her that if she still felt this way after finishing her sophomore year of college, he’d consider letting her transfer.

“I was a good kid,” she smiles, “So I did just that.”

She loved helping at-risk youth. Her first teaching job was at an alternative high school for youth who were labeled “emotionally disturbed” and “juvenile delinquents.” They were just kids to Lisa; kids who were not as fortunate to have great parents like she did. Lisa used horses to teach them about punctuality, compassion, empathy, responsibility and respect.

These same kids were her very first volunteers when she founded Pal-O-Mine. It was at this point that Lisa began to learn the harsh realities of the world; facing discrimination and the like against both the kinds of kids and the program that she was trying to grow.

“I moved six times between 1994 and 2004,” she remembers. “Then, in 2007, I found a bank who was willing to make the loan I needed to purchase our own property, empowering us to grow into what we’ve become today.”

Lisa doesn’t need an alarm clock because she has such an extraordinarily motivating reason to wake up every morning. Still, she’s very clear that what she does isn’t for everyone. It’s really hard work and, despite all the success of this highly positive environment she’s fostered, there are still tremendous challenges and people who don’t value what they do or the people whom they serve. She shrugs. There are still plenty of bright spots.

“My first grant actually came from Danielle Steel! We needed $8,000 to get three kids to a competition in Illinois. They were living with me at the time. When the check came, I couldn’t believe it when I saw her return address on the envelope. I was even more excited to get a letter from Danielle Steel than I was about the money.”

“She didn’t write a word! It was just a check! But that check provided the opportunity for one of Pal-O-Mine’s students to win at the competition.”

Maybe one day Danielle Steel will inquire more deeply. After all, she’s inspired a heck of a story: A huge, heroic journey that’s been one wonderful, challenging test of perseverance and strength after another, filled with miraculous transformations.

Just the Right Horses
Gatti is clear: This is not an animal rescue operation. Each horse goes through a 3-month trial period. Lisa will explain to you that it’s not about the breed of horse, either. They have many, many breeds. What matters is their health and personalities. They have to be sound with a steady gait. Their ears and eyes need to be in good condition. Mostly, though, they have to be forgiving and tolerant.  

“Some of these kids have really serious issues,” Lisa explains. If a horse is unsteady, that can be a serious problem. If a horse is not exceptionally patient and willing to tolerate unusual conditions and occasional outbursts, that could be disastrous.

They are very mindful, also, that horses are horses and there are things you can’t train. Hand-fed horses are no good. “They become mouthy,” explains Lisa, “and we can’t discipline it out of them.”

“We do so much boundary work with kids who are traumatized. We are trying to teach them respect and we need horses who can help with that.”

“Imagine,” she continues, “a huge, 2,000 pound animal coming over just because it wants to be near you. That has HUGE impact because these horses don’t want food, just companionship. Often, this is the first time these kids have experienced that.”

The environments are carefully constructed. The center aisle of the barn, for example, is very wide and paved. This is to accommodate wheelchairs. It also means that the horses can only be tied off on one side of their heads, which is a fairly unusual arrangement. Whether or not the horse can adapt to that is generally one of the first tests of an animal’s suitability to the job.

“Roughly 1 in 10 horses ultimately make it,” says Lisa.

She leads us over to Miniature Sicilian Donkeys who sometimes pull wagons, “These are great for those who can’t ride due to their frailty, weight or fear. Their personalities help, too. They are strong and stubborn – perfect for leadership development!”

“Then, there are our ‘Celebrity Chickens’,” she smiles, “Lady Gaga, Ginger Rogers, Dolly Parton and Elton John. They’ve all been raised here and they’re very friendly!”

Cajun
Now, just because this isn’t a rescue operation, doesn’t mean there aren’t animals with stories. An Appaloosa named Cajun is a prime example. He actually was a rescue, from Hurricane Katrina.

“When he came he was wild-eyed,” remembers Lisa, “There were only three of us who could ride him for the first six months.”

In his past life, he’d been a rodeo horse.  Lisa points to a large scar on Cajun’s side where he was once gored by a bull.  Then that huge hurricane hit and he became homeless. On top of all of this, he’d been at Pal-O-Mine for two years when they discovered a huge mass.

“This horse is a cancer SURVIVOR. It turns out he’s great at connecting with kids who are survivors, too.”

Lisa talks a bit about how gentle he is with trauma-inflicted and adjudicated youth. “He’s super sensitive,” she says, “He just knows.”

Then she starts talking about our own massive superstorm Sandy. They had to evacuate the horses and move them to the front field. Lisa and the two others with her had no other choice but to let all the horses go and hope for the best.

“Then I saw Cajun,” she says, still looking somewhat incredulous, “He seemed to know just what to do. He lined up all the horses in formation, and took care of them all. He was the calm in the storm, keeping the whole team together.”

While the story still amazes her, she sees it in him every day, “Cajun seems to know instinctively who is the most fragile, and he tends to them.”

Goliath
Goliath lives up to his name. An enormous Belgium Draft Horse, he came from New Hampshire where he was bred to be a competitive pulling horse that lugs thousands of pounds of cement. He wasn’t aggressive enough, though. They tried using electric prodders to get him to pull up his feet, and he ignored them.

“This was bad for them, but good for us. So we got him!”

He requires a little bit of extra TLC. Since his tail had been docked for his previous job, he has a weave that they replace three times a year so he can brush off the flies.

“It’s expensive, but he’s worth it.”

The folks at Pal-O-Mine kept in touch with the farm Goliath came from, which is reputable. Those folks loved where he ended up, and before they cut off the tail of another horse that didn’t suit their needs they inquired with Pal-O-Mine to see if they wanted him, too.

“They have very different personalities,” notes Lisa. One will allow 25 kids to paint and crawl all over him. The other is too overly cautious. One is great for shows, the other just isn’t into it. They’re both really good for clients who have trouble with neck and trunk control, who require a second rider behind them.

She smiles, thinking that one doesn’t have to have special needs to have something to learn from the horses. She recalls a story of folks who wanted to do emergency training with them. They thought they knew what to do, and resisted assistance from the trainers. After 20 minutes of trying brute force, they finally asked, “Will you teach me?”

The folks at Pal-O-Mine proceeded to show them better ways to move a 2400 pound Goliath.

Just the Right Facilities
Lisa points to a small building, showing that the farm is not without classrooms. Still, they’re a little bit different, “Many of our kids are totally disengaged from the learning process. They have trouble with a traditional classroom setting.”

The saddle pads and hay bales in the Pal-O-Mine classroom are hard to throw around the room.  While there are books and other learning supplies, these spaces lack the trappings and formal feel that some kids have painful associations with. Plus, the animals can come in. They help.

A perimeter track known as “The Trail” traces the property. It serves kids with disabilities who may benefit from the terrain and the Green Belt that backs up to the Pal-O-Mine property, but who cannot travel far due to medical issues or behaviors. Some examples of such students include kids who are prone to seizures or who have obsessive-compulsive disorder. 

Along The Trail are little mailboxes in the shape of bird houses that were specially crafted by Eagle Scouts and the troops they led. Each contain small manipulatives that are used as sensory training tools. Many peer-to-peer activities also occur here. The students engage with all sorts of animals, as well as things like letter magnets, a water wall, and a basketball hoop. There’s a lot of focus on learning to share and to take turns as they ride.

“It’s really social,” explains Lisa, “They practice a lot of expressive and receptive language. Most importantly, for a lot of these kids, it’s the first time they ever get to feel like their typically able peers.”

She goes on, pointing out details that physical and occupational therapists find important, such as the different surfaces – cement, dirt, rubber – that their patients can learn to navigate. She expresses gratitude for a Bethpage FCU funded sidewalk, and points out connection paths between parts of the property.

Just the Right Staff
Pal-O-Mine serves individuals ages 18 months to over 70 years of age. They have worked with several school districts over the years, including Half Hollow Hills, Bethpage/Plainview, Central Islip, Nassau and Eastern Suffolk BOCES, Bayport/Bluepoint and Copaigue. They have programs for individuals with various physical disabilities, as well as with social and emotional challenges, including neglect, abuse and poverty. They offer alternatives to incarceration, as well as programs for adjudicated youth, veterans and corporate workshops.

All this requires careful planning and staffing. Pal-O-Mine maintains a 1 to 1 staff to student ratio, employing diverse professionals who work together. These staff members each stay within the scope of their practice, teaching and treating those individuals whom they are most qualified to work with. Then there are those who specialize in the horses. Several staff members live on the property.

With the school district programs, they specialize in teaching common core in uncommon ways. Throughout, lesson plans are structured, yet very flexible.  Generally, when a client comes in there will be three well-crafted options available. Depending on how the client is that day will determine which one is followed. There are takeaway and processing activities, allowing Pal-O-Mine teaching to go back to the classroom with its kids. There is tremendous focus on continuity and routine. 

Lisa talks of incredible successes they’ve had – the word “miracles” comes up again -- and visits from Superintendents and other administrators who would like to add more classes. She is also very proud of their community partnerships.

“We have had lots of Eagle Scouts completing their projects here.”

Still, the primary focus is the horses. “Horses move people,” says Lisa, “I’ve learned that my job is to shut up and let the horse do the work.”

She gives the example of a horse and a woman, emphasizing again that horses display an innate ability to read people, with their behaviors mirroring what is going on within. This particular woman was stuck in an abusive relationship. Session after session, the horse would nudge the woman and block her path, until one day, the horse bit her. That day, it turns out, saved this woman’s life!

“It was in that moment that she realized she had to DO something,” explains Lisa, “It was in that moment, she realized that she had the choice to DO something.  She left her abuser and never looked back. It was, literally, a break-through.”

This is not to suggest that folks are at all left alone with the horses. Lisa chooses to follow the EAGALA model, where there is at least one mental health therapist and an equine specialist always in the arena with the client. It is a solutions-oriented model, based on the premise that every client has his/her own answers. The focus is all about the experiential process, and there is never a right or a wrong. She notes again that therapists are carefully matched and that they consult regularly with each other. With grief and trauma, therapists remain vigilantly connected, guiding the process when things come up.

Much is done to maintain the integrity of this model. Continuing education is mandated for all Pal-O-Mine staff. There is rigorous training for volunteers as well, who are carefully selected for their attentiveness, focus and commitment.   

It’s emphasized repeatedly: As with the horses, everyone who is part of the Pal-O-Mine team, staff, interns, volunteers, EVERYONE is held to very high standards and a very strict code of conduct.

“It’s all about safety,” says Lisa, “physical and emotional safety -- for our clients, for our livestock and for each other.”

 Unique Work and Continuing Education Program
Lisa takes us down one of the connecting paths to another part of the property where there’s a green house, some gardens, pastures and another building. She explains that some of the students have been with Pal-O-Mine since they started in 1995. The question had long come up,

“Now what?”

Yes, there are many other programs available for adults with disabilities, but these folks wanted more Pal-O-Mine and less discrimination. Eight years ago, Pal-O-Mine crafted a special offering.

“What we do here is different from ‘Dayhab,’” explains Lisa, “It’s basically a paid internship vocational program that runs 5 days per week for people with disabilities who are 18 years or older. Keeping consistent with Pal-O-Mine’s policy, each intern comes in on a three month trial. It is after this three month trial, they are eligible for a stipend. Besides the organic farming and recycling classes, each intern learns the foundations of work. Examples of this include how to punch in using a time clock, how to put in for vacation and personal days, as well as learning to balance a checkbook, do a load of laundry or cook a meal.

The program has become sustainable. There are 40 interns with various disabilities participating. They sustain the program by creating and crafting their own unique items and then contracting with larger organizations, as well as with some upscale east end shops to sell their unique crafts on consignment.   They’ve made shoe racks and frames. They were recently contracted to make centerpieces for a golf outing. The project we saw them working on was one that’s very special to the group: key chains.

One of Pal-O-Mine’s students, a young man named Henry, had an idea, “What if we look up the colors for Cerebral Palsy (his disability), and make horseshoe keychains in those colors?”

He looked it up. Then, his fellows looked up the colors associated with their conditions – Down Syndrome, Autism…they thought of veterans and people who are survivors of breast cancer. Someone remembered animal abuse. A signature project was born!

The keychain making process is something of an assembly line, with students gathered around the table working together to decorate metal horseshoes with colored wire and beads. The finished products sell for $15 in the Pal-o-Mine office and elsewhere. Recently they made 100 for the Make a Wish Foundation.

There is also a working kitchen. Other ideas are developing, including using their produce from the organic farm and cooking with it.  They are thinking about ways to incorporate creative recycling as well. There are plans to build and maintain a sensory garden, and for a roadside farm stand.

Parents talk about what a life changing place it is, how their adult children learn to balance a checkbook and to feel productive. The main objective is to enable folks with many different disabilities to work together, meaningfully, and even to give back to the community.

Humble, Yet Strong and Ready to Grow
There will always be challenges. The rising cost of EVERYTHING because we live on Long Island is one, as well as other financial constraints, livestock concerns, government rulings and finding the perfect staff and volunteers for this ever growing program.

Despite these challenges, Pal-O-Mine has great reason for hope. They have tremendous confidence in their program and success rate. They are excited about their promising future.
 
Pal-O-Mine has always been very thrifty with its outreach, and has never had professional marketing guidance. They have had no government funding to date.  It wasn’t until their 20th Anniversary that Pal-O-Mine even had its first open house. Mostly, that’s because they don’t want to exploit their populations.

 “There are so many organizations and brands using veterans and other populations just because it is the ‘buzz word’ of the year” says Lisa, “even when they mean well, it feels wrong. We are about real people and protecting their emotional safety. Yes, this is a business. However, first and foremost, this is about human beings.”

This is not to say that their success hasn’t garnered some pretty big attention. They were featured on Oprah and The Today Show. They have definitely been grateful for that press. When the folks in our party were gathered around a table toward the end of our visit, they were asked why they support this organization and what makes it special. They came up with a list:

• Credibility. This organization is so professional, and deeply sincere.
• The 25-years experience proving that integrity
• I deeply value the way they take emotional safety and mental health very seriously
• I’m so impressed with the level of integration between the various specialists they have working here, giving a unique level of support to a client’s often complicated and sensitive issues.
• The diversity of people served, and the diversity of staff that makes it possible
• The variety of programs and focus on both safety and individual needs is incredible. I am amazed at the level of thought that goes into every detail
• I am not a super-animal person. Frankly I’m afraid of them and I’ve never been much for farms. But this place is different. It doesn’t smell. It’s peaceful. I have an extraordinarily stressful job and I feel my blood pressure going down here. It’s so calming
• It feels safe. I feel safety, love and kindness here.

A Race We Will Win
Pal-O-Mine is now embarking on their first-ever expansion campaign, “A Race We Will Win.” The $3M total project involves a broad range of items, ranging from building renovations, to major equipment, to helping secure care for the horses.  One item they’re excited to break ground on in September 2019 is an accessible sensory playground sponsored by The Andy Foundation. To see details regarding the other items, please visit this Pal-O-Mine webpage.

Money is really important, but it’s not the only way to help! In order to realize this vision, Pal-O-Mine is required to communicate how much they have to offer and rally many volunteers. They are seeking influential folks to serve as ambassadors, and for others who will help as they can.

Are you interested? Support can be as simple as sharing this article, or as deep as becoming a major fundraiser for Pal-O-Mine Equestrian. The organization encourages all who care to please reach out the farm, learn more,  and see what you might do together.

They greatly appreciate all the support that they can get.

Last updated July 3, 2020:  Anxious to get our hands dirty, and eager to do it in the most helpful way possible, we reached out asking folks in the know for their recommendations for Earth-and-Local-Ecology Friendly Landscaping resources. We received great responses!

Said Melissa Boo – The Empowering Environmentalist,  "Wouldn't it be nice if your landscaping took care of itself? When we use local, native plants in our landscaping, we're working with nature instead of against it. These plants have adapted to the seasons, conditions, and soils of Long Island, so they require much less care and attention than imported or exotic species. Plus, native plants boost our homes' bioproductivity.

Plants that have evolved in our region provide valuable ecosystem services to the plants and animals in the surrounding environment - from pollination, to habitat, to rainwater management, and of course, food. Landscaping with Long Island's native plants saves you time and energy as a homeowner, and creates a beneficial ecosystem around your property."

Some of our other favorite resources include:
*NEW* -- A friend recently invited us into The Long Island Native Plant Gardening Group on Facebook. It was formed "to discuss identification, knowledge, and passion for native plants. More specifically to discuss the inclusion and proliferation of native plants within our residential landscape and the benefits that come with them. "
They welcome folks from all of geographic Long Island who will share their garden, pollinators , beneficial insects, and of course any wildlife that is also benefiting from the planting they’ve created. Their moderators are highly knowledgeable and deeply experienced.
We're really digging it!
The Long Island Native Plant Initiative (LINPI), an all-volunteer cooperative effort of over 30 non-profit organizations, governmental agencies, nursery professionals, and citizens.  The mission of this organization is to protect the genetic integrity and heritage of Long Island native plant populations and thus biodiversity from a landscape to genetic level, by establishing commercial sources of genetically appropriate local (ecotypic) plant materials for use in nursery, landscaping, and habitat restoration activities.

Long Island Natives is the largest source for native plants on Long Island. LI Natives is a division of Country Gardens Nursery, a wholesale nursery operation established in 1947, located on the southeastern shore of Long Island, NY.

Green Inside & Out  is the website of environmental consultant, Beth Fiteni. They offer diverse consulting to help detoxify your life, including organic landscaping.


*NEW!* -- Beth herself wanted us to know about the North Fork Environmental Council, especially some really great webinars they’ve hosted that you can find on their website, including their “Organic Landscaping & Lawncare 2020” — NFEC’s 10th Annual Workshop featuring 5 experts in our first online webinar.

*NEW!* Beth, also warmly recommends BlossomMeadow.com, a small farm in Southold NY focused on growing premium berries, making award-winning jam, and raising mason bees. Knowing “native pollinators pollinate 2-3 times better than honey bees and that more complete pollination of a flower results in higher yields and higher quality berries,” they “maintain a tract of grassland and natural areas throughout the farm for native pollinators to live, follow organic growing principles, ensure multiple flower species are blooming throughout the growing season, turn off the lights at night (moths pollinate), plant multiple cover crops a year, and no longer keep honeybee hives.”

82 Sustainable Gardening Tips from Mother Earth News, "the most popular and longest-running sustainable-lifestyle magazine."

Beginner's Guide to Organic Gardening from Rodale's Organic Life, "an online handbook for living naturally in the modern world, a vivid chronicle of friendly, authoritative information about global cooking, gardening, design, wellness, and travel."

Anne Salmon from the Nature Conservancy -- Long Island Chapter offered this great resource:

PRFCT Earth PRJCT was founded in 2013 by Edwina von Gal. Perfect Earth Project is a rapidly expanding non-profit organization operating from offices in East Hampton, NY. They raise consciousness about the dangers of synthetic lawn and garden chemicals to humans, animals, and the environment, and educate homeowners and professionals about natural, PRFCT (toxin-free) techniques that provide beautiful, safe results at no extra cost.

One of our Favorite Local Farmers, Larry Foglia recommended the following:

The New England Wildflower Society sells native plants and provides quite a bit of guidance and information.

Also Look into:
Gary's Perennials -  Mostly bare root material

North Creek Nurseries  Mostly plugs/liners

KLT perennials 603-772-3698 Bare root fern and wildflowers from Vermont and New Hampshire.

Joyce's Perennials from McMinville Tennesse are a great resource for ferns and wildflowers

Our wandering Landscape Architect, Danielle Alexander, sent us this:

Hi, Love. I don’t have signal every day and haven’t had wireless in over a week. But since I magically have five bars...

I have always loved the classes at the Ecological Landscape Alliance. They are taught by the top professionals and have a focus on exactly what you are interested in. Their newsletter is GREAT...sign up! I went to a class two years ago at Prospect Park in Brooklyn - the material is so respected that my firm sent me there to collect new info and bring it back to the office.

I also always research my plants on the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center website and I’ve worked with the group on one of my projects. 

Claudia West is an amazing writer on how to best structure plantings in order to produce a lush and healthy landscape. She’s absolutely the best. She has collected all the old German texts on plant spacing and layering and translated much for her work. Her new book is AMAZING but expensive and I think the first run is gone.

Love from the southernmost town on the Carretera Austral, Villa O’Higgins in Chile!

Huntington Gardener, Barbara Wildfier, offered these treasures to visit and learn from:

Go Native Long Island: Run by a group of Master Gardeners, park stewards and highly motivated Long Islanders who are concerned about the overwhelming growth of non-native invasive plants that are out-competing our native heritage and diminishing the value of our rich and complex ecosystems. All of them have a love of native plants and a passion for working to conserve and foster biodiversity both on Long Island and throughout New York State. They started this blog to share their ideas and experiences, and to create local connections.

Friends of Hempstead Plains:  The Hempstead Plains is the last remnant of native prairie grassland that once covered 40,000 acres of central Nassau County. Today, as a result of commercial development only a few acres remain. The site is considered highly ecologically and historically significant. The Hempstead Plains supports populations of federally endangered and globally rare plants among its 250 different kinds of vegetation as well as several plant species that are now considered rare in New York State. It represents one of the most rapidly vanishing habitats in the world, along with scores of birds, butterflies, and other animals that are vanishing with it.  Among resources, they have a page dedicated to native plants.

North Shore Land Alliance -- Shore Road Preserve: The Shore Road property is located at 95 Shore Rd. in Cold Spring Harbor on the North Shore of Long Island. This 8 acre preserve is a former ExxonMobil fueling site turned thriving grassland with shoreline.  This beach is an important nesting site for horseshoe crabs.

North Shore Land Alliance -- Cordelia Hepburn Cushman Preserve: This 15.5 acre mature oak-tulip tree forest preserve on Route 25A in Oyster Bay Cove is filled with mountain laurel and pink lady’s slippers.  Relatively free of invasive vegetation, it is home to a number of New York State-protected species.

Ongoing Projects at Caumsett State Park: Explore a variety of efforts to restore native plants and remove invasive species at Caumsett State Park in Lloyd Harbor.

Thank you so much to all who contributed! We love collecting and sharing great resources. Know of one we missed that you'd like to share? Email and let us know! Thanks!

We recently attended an informative event at Adelphi University that offered a lot of important information on prevention, treatment and recovery from the personal and public health crisis that is opioid addiction. It was based on Jeffrey Reynolds' TEDx talk "Smacked by the Storm" , which discussed the opioid epidemic and how we can achieve the care and skills needed to navigate through this crisis.
 
The TEDx talk is down to earth, evidence based, and forward looking. We’ve seen it at least three times and will watch it again. The speakers on the various panels were passionate and knowledgeable. Dr. Reynolds, himself, emceed the event.
 
“I wish things were better now than when we did that talk,” reflected Jeff. “In some ways, unfortunately, things are worse.”
 
Jeff talked about the rise of Fentanyl, which makes Heroin look tame. On the brighter side, he pointed to the value that Long Island’s first Recovery Center has brought, in term of access to treatment and follow up care. He also expressed gratitude for the numbers who are taking this situation seriously, crafting meaningful efforts and establishing diverse partnerships, including the one with Adelphi.
 
Dr. Reynolds then warmly introduced Nassau County District Attorney Madeline Singas, who has made dealing with the drug epidemic central to her administration.
 
Keynote Speaker Madeline Singas, Nassau County District Attorney
Ms. Singas emphasized that Nassau County, and the Nation as a whole, is in the middle of a drug crisis of unprecedented magnitude. While we cannot arrest ourselves out of this problem, strong enforcement to crack down on dealers and distributors is critically important. She is proud that forfeited funds from these arrests have been directed to mapping out comprehensive solutions, including education and getting people into treatment.
 
Singas reflected on her earlier experiences during the crack epidemic, the junkies she had met then, and how the population affected by drugs like heroin is no longer simply that fringe. The opioid epidemic knows no class, culture, race, gender, age or zip code.  Opioid overdose is now the leading cause of death for individuals under 50 years of age, taking more lives than car accidents and guns combined.

She further reported that life insurance policies have now lowered life expectancies due to the opioid epidemic, essentially nullifying the impacts of advances in medicine and understanding of healthy lifestyles. In Nassau County in 2010, 82 people died of an overdose. In 2016, that number more than doubled, to 195.  Last year, 348 people were taken to the Emergency Room for overdose. 3000 were admitted into treatment programs.
 
“This crisis affects EVERYONE,” emphasized Singas, “Our Emergency Service Providers are CONSUMED with responses to these types of calls. All police and emergency service providers have Narcan. Some are administering it to the same people two, three, four times per month.”
 
She noted that Fentanyl is 50 times more potent than heroin. It’s also cheaper, with 2-3mg (enough to cover Lincoln’s head on a penny), being fatal. People touch it and overdose. It gets laced in marijuana and cocaine. In 2012, three people fatally overdosed on Fentanyl. In 2016, 39 died.

The opioid epidemic is at the crossroads of public safety and public health. She said, “It is nonsense to arrest addicts. It makes every kind of sense to arrest drug dealers and to take down criminal enterprises.”
 
Not only does arresting addicts fail to solve the problem, it exacerbates it. Singas spoke passionately about the need to overcome the stigma of addiction and ideas about moral failings, and to recognize that addiction is a disease and that these drugs physically change brains. Especially in young people.

She discussed work with doctors and how that culture has changed due to overprescribing/overfilling laws. In recent years, prescriptions for the top three killer drugs has dropped more than 6%. She is now pushing for other laws. For example, although heroin is much more potent than cocaine per gram, the drugs are treated the same. This allows people to effectively be carrying more heroin and yet receive a lesser sentence.
 
A major focus for Singas is stopping traffic at its source. She noted that most of these drugs come from China, Mexico, and out of state. Taking down entire enterprises is resource intensive, but is far more effective than arresting individual, highly replaceable small-scale dealers, “We HAVE to go to the top and make it very uncomfortable to do business.”
 
She reported that in April the 110 Crew was apprehended, constituting one of the largest take-downs in Long Island history. In May, over a million dollars’ worth of heroin and cocaine was taken off the street. Last week they caught 17 individuals who were smuggling drugs from Arizona to JFK Airport, using Nassau County as a hub from which to move drugs north to places like Syracuse and south to Maryland.
 
Speaking about related forfeitures, Singas proudly reported that they had directed $650M of seized funds to the Maryhaven Center of Hope – New Hope treatment center Unfortunately, New Hope cannot treat adolescents, so they have issued a request for proposals to help establish crisis intervention facilities for addicted Nassau County adolescents.
 
Singas spoke about the Nassau County Heroin Prevention Task Force, which monthly convenes diverse stakeholders including individuals in recovery, parents, teachers, treatment professionals, law enforcement, community members, and others. She also talked about going to schools and working with them to bring families to hear from police officers, as well as offering nurses and others training by drug recognition experts so that they can better identify and solve problems while they are small. 

She encourages parents to put drug avoidance on the same or higher level than other things they tend to emphasize. Yes, the college they apply to, the score on the SAT, the sports team they choose to play on is important. Still, what happens Friday night can have much bigger impact on a kid’s future.
 
One way arresting does help solve the problem, noted Singas, is through diversion programs. Individuals do get forced into treatment through plea deals.  Often, people do well with these programs. Still, while this can help and while cracking down on dealers is paramount, Singas emphasized strongly that the message to families and afflicted individuals has to be clear:
 
“We’re here to help.”
 
Keynote Speaker: Linda Ventura, Thomas’ Hope Foundation
Emphasizing the importance of mothers in making things happen, Dr. Reynolds recalled a meeting with a legislator who wasn’t entirely focused on the subject at hand: Improving access to treatment for opioid addiction.  A major issue is that many insurance companies want people to “fail out” of outpatient treatment before they will cover more intensive services.  Jeff remembered how an attendee finally got the official’s attention.
 
She took a Tupperware container out of her purse and put it on the table.
 
“Meet Thomas,” she said. “They told him to fail out of outpatient services first. Can you help him now?”
 
Since losing her son to addiction in 2012, Linda Ventura has become the founder of Thomas’ Hope Foundation. According to their website, they are “dedicated to promoting drug addiction awareness, prevention, and achieving victory for those individuals seeking sobriety through education, advocacy, research and treatment.
 
Ms. Ventura shared the story of her son, a gifted athlete and excellent student whose difficulty in dealing with multiple crises in his life spiraled out of control once he tried drugs. She shared a little bit about the impact of his disease and death on their family, as well as her personal mission to prevent as many people as possible from joining this “club” of grief.   Her bottom line:
 
EVERYONE needs to be engaged in prevention and treatment
 
EVERYONE needs to be given skills and support, starting at age 5, if not sooner!
 
This is about addiction. This is about so much more than addiction. This is about learning to survive and thrive in the modern world. We need to work together.
 
PREVENTION PANEL
Jamie Bogenshutz, LCSW, R, CASAC, BCETS, Executive Director, YES Community Counseling Center
 Ms. Bogenshutz explained that prevention takes on many faces. She doesn’t believe it starts at 5 years old. Rather, she finds it essential that we start in infancy, letting babies know that they are loved. Unconditionally.
 
Love and emotional support, she explained, is a key protective factor.
 
Yes, there are many risk factors including genetics, our environment and social relationships. All of these are lessened when we instill in kids effective decision making and coping strategies.
 
Why do people take drugs? Because they take away pain. Many addicts are responding to physical and/or emotional pain. Unfortunately that benefit is sharply limited and long term consequences are devastating. We need to develop and to teach other more effective coping strategies.
 
She emphasized: REACH OUT AND HELP. We need to talk about addiction because:

1. It’s preventable, and yet we don’t do enough to prevent it
2. It’s treatable, and yet we don’t invest enough in treatment
3. It’s undeniable, and yet we are living in denial.

 
Judi Vining, Executive Director, LONG BEACH AWARE
Ms. Vining emphasized that prevention is a community affair. We need to be mindful of the messages we send, to acknowledge that addiction is a disease, and to understand that prevention is a science. There is evidence-based curriculum that has been shown to work. Unfortunately, out of the 3-4 million people in the US between the ages of 5 and 20, only 30,000 are exposed to it. We can do better.
 
She expressed frustration with parents who express relief that their children are “only” involved in marijuana and alcohol. The statistics, she noted, indicate that a person who drinks regularly (i.e. 2x per month) at 15 years of age is 40% more likely to have problems with substance abuse later on.
 
Furthermore, studies also show that the single most reason that kids abstain from drugs and alcohol is that they don’t want to disappoint their parents. Parents may not believe this, but they should know it.
 
So, she advised, take the medicines out of the bathroom cabinet. Mark the liquor bottles. Above all, let them KNOW you are watching.
 
Lisa Ganz, LCSW, CASAS, Clinical Director, LI Council on Alcohol and Drug Dependence
Ms. Ganz reported that LICADD works in one way or another with over 90 schools across Long Island. She agreed with others that shuffling 500 kids into a yearly assembly doesn’t qualify as prevention.
Prevention, she emphasized, is about learning to navigate our world today.
 
It’s about navigating the conflicting and often damaging messages of culture and media. It’s about overcoming the drive for instant gratification, to consistently overschedule, and to neglect self-care. 

It’s about learning how to deal with the news – our kids are highly educated, with extraordinary access to so much information that they don’t know what to do with! How do we learn to enjoy life, to learn that it’s okay to enjoy life, without needing an escape?
 
These kids grow up on social media, which tends to be a shallow, scripted and judgmental forum for relationship building. How do they learn to deal and to communicate, in real time, in a world where everyone seems expected to perform?
 
How do we teach kids to build deep, supportive relationships? To identify, process and discuss difficult feelings? To make good decisions under pressure? To take breaks in order to mentally and physically recharge?
 
Academics are important. This may be even more so. We need to teach teachers (and parents and others) how to teach kids about how to deal with life on a daily basis; how to cope in a terrifying world and to realize that it’s not so bad if we can learn to take care of ourselves and those around us.
 
This is not a one-shot deal, she emphasized, “It’s like lipstick or deodorant -- You have to keep applying.”
 
TREATMENT PANEL
Moderator: Jeffrey Reynolds, Ph.D., CEAP, SAP, President and CEO of Family and Children’s Association (FCA); Anthony Rizzuto, Families in Support of Treatment (FIST); Claudia Ragni, CASAC, Director and Owner, Kenneth Peters Center for Recovery; Audrey Freshman,  Ph.D., LCSW, CASAC, Director of Continuing Education & Professional Development, and Postgraduate Certificate in Programs in Addiction, Adelphi University
 
A primary message from panelists was that the starting point in treatment is not necessarily the individual; that effective recovery occurs in systems of family and people who care about people. If someone calls concerned about someone, we should start by working with them. Often, families are mandated to participate in treatment. This is especially the case when dealing with individuals under 26 years of age who remain dependent on their parents.
 
Additionally, drug addiction cannot be treated in isolation. Other mental health issues need to be treated in conjunction, and complete medical evaluations should be conducted. Environmental factors must be considered. Patients must be committed to a long term endeavor, as with any chronic illness.
 
A major challenge is that overcoming addiction often requires more intensive treatment than insurance companies will pay for or that people can afford.
 
It was felt strongly that medicine can be an appropriate intervention. Do we sometimes replace one addiction for another, such as with Methodone? Yes….still, if it succeeds at significantly increasing quality of life, it should not be dismissed. Other drugs, such as Suboxone, can be poorly prescribed, but if administered properly to the appropriate patient, it can make a difference. Vivitrol, an opioid antagonist that basically makes it impossible to get “high” is another tool.
 
Patients and families should research the quality of services they are receiving. Unfortunately, there are predatory, for-profit entities who are more interested in exploiting this crisis for monetary gain than they are committed to providing quality service. Treatment is both an art and a science. Choose your service provider carefully and make sure they are using evidence-based treatment methodologies. Additionally, it was expressed that practitioners should be aware of their own limitations as professionals, and know when to recommend other help.
 
Panelists discussed the need for broader definitions of recovery, which may involve a long term process, ups and downs, and possibly long-term medication. Yes, relapse is common, but not all relapse is the same between or even within individuals. Further, abstinence does not necessarily mean recovery. With adolescents, we must be mindful that we are dealing with brains that are still developing, and whose development may be impacted by the substance abuse.
 
Yes, there can be substandard care. Still, the bigger problem is insufficient funding that yields insufficient treatment. Particularly given the individualized nature of these cases, panelists felt that qualified professionals should determine courses of treatment, not insurance companies.
 
If you had $10m to spend…what would you do?
Audrey Freshman suggested a major campaign to shift the definition of when these problems start, recognizing that trauma can be transmitted across generations and that at ages 0-5 we can start to identify risk factors. She also noted that need for controlled environments doesn’t end in high school. She would invest in sober colleges and other safe, secure environments for individuals in recovery.
 
Claudia Ragni echoed the desire to invest in sober high schools and colleges, as well as in more entities like “New Hope” where people can access care. She would love to see a LICADD in every community offering accessible prevention, treatment and recovery services.
 
Anthony Rizzuto agreed that money should be split across prevention, treatment and recovery. He would love to see Urgent Care centers designed for addicts that are easy to enter, with trained doctors and nurses on hand who can get people into treatment without delay.
 
RECOVERY PANEL
Robert Evans, Recovery Coach, Beneath the Surface Life Coaching, Inc.  explained that he’s an adult child of abuse who has experienced treatment since he was 13. He message was that, especially when one’s family is struggling, it is hard to acquire the necessary skills to maintain recovery without a lot of time. He felt strongly that he needed to be closely monitored in order to get healthy enough to be able to begin to take charge of his own life.
 
Krystal Stoddard, Peer Advocate, THRIVE reported to applause that she has been clean since 2014. She emphasized that, when a person comes out of treatment, the fog is just beginning to lift, and that people need access to continual care, be that a 12-step program or something else.
 
Richard Buckman, LCSW, CASAC, CEAP, SAP, CETII, CARC, Founding Member, LI Recovery Association agreed that skills require development. Further, he noted that folks need to be able to recover in their own communities and that building recovery-ready communities is important. He emphasized that help should be available no matter what stage people are at, mentally, be they thinking about whether they have a problem, are contemplating how to get help, or are ready to receive it.
 
Further referring back to treatment, he noted medication can be very helpful, but people who are on it often then find that they can’t get housing. He wished that legislators had had greater foresight, reflecting that an unintended consequence of legislation making it harder to get pharmaceuticals was that it spurred the heroin epidemic as those addicted sought anything they could find and afford to ease their pain. He noted that, since 2012, prescriptions have gone down incrementally each year. At the same time, overdoses are up. Dealers seem to be learning that killing their clientele isn’t good for business, but that’s certainly not enough.
 
A final issue was broadening our ideas of what life in recovery means. 12-step programs can be highly effective. Still, while 23 million people live in recovery, only 3 million participate in programs like Narcotics Anonymous. We have to look at what’s working for those other 20 million and see how we can tailor those findings to diverse individuals.
 
Robert Evans spoke about the prevention program his organization is pitching to schools. It involves 22 encounters per year, almost like a weekly class, and offers a diversity of elements that can help foster an environment conducive to sobriety.
 
Krystal Stoddard spoke about the THRIVE recovery community and outreach center, different pathways to recovery, and how effective support involves the mind, body and spirit. She emphasized the power of peers helping peers, and how meeting others who have overcome these challenges offers hope.
 
What would you do with limitless funds?
The recovery panelists shared desire for many of the items on the treatment panel’s wish list, agreeing that prevention, treatment and recovery each need substantial investment. Specific desires included sober schools and colleges, urgent care facilities designed to help addicts, and more recovery centers that are accessible even if one doesn’t have a driver’s license. Access to adequate care without the challenge of insurance companies was also mentioned. Wouldn’t it be nice if money wasn’t an issue?
 
One thing added was housing for folks in recovery, especially for young people on medication who can’t get housing due to that stigma. Richard Buckman referred to an out-of-state pilot program that involves a full-recovery community, including a factory where people work. He noted that there are many things we can model; that other states do better than NY, especially with the reentry from prison population. If 80% of folks in prison have a substance abuse issue, we should think about what that means and how we can improve outcomes for the individual, their family and society as a whole.
 
CLOSING – ACTION ITEMS
Dr. Reynolds implored attendees to do what they can to take responsibility.
 
“Look in your own home. Look at your own life.”
 
If you are a parent, show up at School Board Meeting and ask: “What exactly are we doing about this issue? Are our responses Evidence-Based?”
 
If a candidate for office comes to your door, advise them that we are facing a singular issue that is affecting our public health, our public safety and our economy. What are we doing about it?
 
Jeff noted that New York State seems to have finally awakened to this crisis and is now firing on all cylinders. Still, we can do more. On the Federal side, we are taking serious blows. All of these budget cuts make a huge impact. Although some will tell you that there are new initiatives, even the Recovery Act is only 70% funded. Cutting health care benefits, especially kids’ access to medical care and food stamps is a huge mistake. Changing the Affordable Care Act for the worse is a huge mistake. Together, these cuts compound and will have a serious impact.
 
Still, he noted, in politics “There are no permanent friends. No permanent enemies.”
 
Talk to your representatives. Help them see the light.
 
The bottom line, he explained, is that people need people. While systemic initiatives are important, nothing compares to taking individual initiative to help people we love.
 
If you know someone you’re worried about, look them in the eyes and say, “I care and I’m concerned”
 
The first five times you do it, they’ll tell you you’re full of it.
 
Then they’ll probably get mad
 
Keep going.
 
Trust your gut.
 
It helps.