Nebraska Advocacy Services - The Center for Disability Rights, Law, and Advocacy

NAS provided support and assistance to the Mental Health Association of Nebraska (MHA-NE) to actively participate in two major initiatives--The VISA Project and The Voter Empowerment Project. The Village Integrated Services Agency Project involves creating a new consumer-driven mental health service delivery pilot program modeled after the Village Integrated Services Agency of Long Beach, California. We assisted MHA-NE in planning, fundraising, and gaining support from other organizations for the project. MHA-NE facilitated bi-monthly stakeholder planning meetings and trainings; sought support from providers, state agencies, and other non-profit advocacy organizations; created and distributed public relations materials; and secured agreement for the initiation of the pilot project through Region V Mental Health Services.

The Voter Empowerment Project was another initiative undertaken by MHA-NE to increase consumer voter registration rates. NAS provided support and assistance in logistics, planning, fiscal and program management for the project. As an outgrowth of advocacy presentations given at our Nebraska Leadership Academy, the NAS public policy staff consulted with the consumer advisory board for this project and provided technical assistance regarding initial program design, implementation and development.