View: New Innovative CI Program! Let Our Voices Be Heard: A Voting Initiative.

Since 2004, the Mental Health America chapter in Allegheny County (PA) has sponsored a consumer advocacy and voter education project - Let Our Voices Be Heard - that has proven effective in increasing the number of people with psychiatric disabilities in the Pittsburgh area who are both registered to vote and knowledgeable about what to do in the voting booth. For the general election in 2008, LOVBH expanded to four additional counties in Southwestern Pennsylvania, with consumer volunteers registering and educating an additional 500 individuals. Then, in 2009 LOVBH joined with the statewide Disability Voting Coalition in Pennsylvania (part of a larger mobilizing effort to build a voting block within the disability community), resulting in 705 new individual members and 60 organization members since then. Rachel Freund, who is the Director of Community Outreach for MHA-Allegheny County - has directed the effort, and says she is impressed with how the work of Let Our Voices Be Heard increases community participation, builds knowledge and confidence among voters with disabilities, and is succeeding in building a strong dynamic network of citizens within the disability community.