VOICES OF COMMUNITY ADVOCATES & LEADERS
>>Save the Date for the BIG VOCAL organizing and bupenorphine forum! May 31th, 2007 and click here to co-sponsor!
Click here for a flyer for the Brooklyn based Hepatitis C support group!
Every 1st and 3rd Thursday at 1:00 p.m.@ VOCAL
Mission
VOCAL (Voices Of Community Advocates and Leaders) is a membership lead organization comprised of drug users, those who identify with drug users and allies, organizes as a movement for the education, prevention and treatment of HIV/AIDS and Hepatitis C (HCV) and sound public policies affecting drug users. VOCAL Raises HIV/AIDS HCV awareness within communities of color, and among drug users, provides support around HCV treatment options and alternatives, and engages in advocacy to ensure that the rights of drug users are protected and that discrimination against drug users is not tolerated. VOCAL is the voice of the voiceless. We, in our Voices , as Community Advocates and Leaders in our neighborhoods , will engage in strategic advocacy and will bring about systemic change and social justice.
>>For a brief history of drug user organizing and its effectiveness in other countries, click here.
VOCAL has the only HCV support group open to the community and specifically for drug users in Brooklyn. Members of VOCAL participate on a number of local, city, state and National policy committees representing the voice of the harm reduction consumer with HCV. VOCAL members have also been invited to present at National conferences such as The Drug Policy Alliance, the Harm Reduction Coalition and the upcoming International Harm Reduction Conference in Toronto, Canada. VOCAL is the first membership organization of active drug users to organize itself as a Users Union. The Union is organized from a public health perspective within a harm Reduction frame work that empowers drug users to mobilize themselves for a more just society.
>>VOCAL also uses a peer model to distribute clean syringes throughout our neighborhood in Brooklyn. We distribute clean syringes and collect dirty syringes every Tuesday between 12-2 and Thursday between 2-5 p.m.
>>VOCAL also provides flu vaccinations, Hepatitis A & B vaccinations and community health information. Contact Mike Duncan for times.
VOCAL uses a four stage process for building our organization, winning victories that result in real improvement in the lives of our members and for promoting sound public policies:
The first phase is Group Formation/Base Building. VOCAL will actively organize those at greatest risk for HIV/AIDS and Hepatitis C infection, (primarily active drug users), These individuals will become knowledgeable about their rights and become connected to VOCAL.
VOCAL members, who have already participated in community organizing and have proven themselves to be leaders, will join by participating in our intensive policy and advocacy trainings. The core difference between VOCAL and other advocacy or organizing groups working on drug policy reform is that VOCAL will develop members who are directly affected by these issues AND highly sophisticated in the policies that affect their lives.
The second phase is Advocacy Training and Popular Education-VOCAL leaders receive training through NYCAHN's award winning leadership development training-POWER Academy. VOCAL members will then be held responsible for becoming “experts” in one of the issues that affects our members. VOCAL members will be accountable for growing the organization through fundraising and base building and bringing it to the scale needed to address systemic conditions and root causes. VOCAL members will be expected to go through an intensive learning process.
The third phase is action. We will begin to impact the policies that directly affect our lives. Primarily VOCAL will engage in an analysis to identify the “tables” where we can strategically place VOCAL members. We will place our “experts” on the Ryan White Planning Council, the Federal AIDS Policy Partnership, the NYC Continuum of Care Coalition, the New York Injection Drug Users Alliance, the Harm Reduction Coalition and others in order to win concrete victories.
In the fourth phase, through this increased presence on all level of policy making bodies, VOCAL will bring a “drug users perspective” to the dialogue. VOCAL will maintain a role in the formation, accountability and implementation of services that directly affect the lives of active drug users and their loved ones. VOCAL will address multiple policy issues impacting the provision of social and medical services (i.e. healthcare, harm reduction and housing).
MEMBERSHIP CRITERIA
VOCAL;
Voices Of Community Advocates & Leaders 
• A Member of VOCAL makes a pledge of commitment to the mission and vision of VOCAL NY Users Union in the following ways,
• Members complete a membership orientation attending and participating in the organizing and advocacy trainings as well as Human Rights, Harm Reduction, HIV/ HCV education, prevention and treatment forums.
• Members are committed to attending the monthly Membership meeting held every last Friday of the month. (Unless a change in date and time is announced).
• Members participate in at least two VOCAL lead actions or events a year.
• Members of VOCAL NY Users Union pay yearly membership
Dues of ($10) Ten Dollars.
TO JOIN CONTACT:
Louie Jones, Organizer
(718) 802-9540 x 18
@ VOCAL, NY Users Union
80 Fourth Avenue
b/t St. Marks & Bergen
Take the 2,3,4,5,Q,B,D,M,N&R
Train to Atlantic / Pacific
For a Powerpoint presentation on the history & mission of VOCAL: NY Users Union, click here