40 Years of Housing, Health and Human Rights
On May 8th, Community Access will host its Good Neighbor Gala at the United Nations. We’re celebrating a milestone “Homecoming” anniversary—40 years of housing, health and human rights—and launching several strategic initiatives to build upon our four decades of making New York City a better place.
We are proud to be recognizing the Convention on the Rights of People with Disabilities (CRPD). This United Nations treaty has been adopted in 141 countries around the world to promote, protect and ensure the full and equal enjoyment of all human rights and fundamental freedoms by all persons with disabilities, and to promote respect for their inherent dignity. While the U.S. Senate has not yet endorsed the CRPD, it will have another opportunity to do so in 2014—and Community Access wants to bring more attention to this important issue affecting our community. In this effort, the U.N. Assistant Secretary-General for Human Rights, Ivan Šimonović, will be an ambassador for our cause and featured speaker.
Advancing human rights, including the right to live one’s life without fear or discrimination in a supportive community, animates key decisions Community Access makes and is at the heart of our mission. And, it also explains why, in our 40th Anniversary year, we are advancing our commitment to human rights via three strategic initiatives:
- Expanding our affordable housing stock by 1,000 units
- Training more peer staff for an expanding health care workforce
- Transforming crisis care by providing humane alternatives to hospitals and emergency rooms
I encourage you to join us to learn how you can help us make an even bigger impact. This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it too, if you like: I’d love to hear your thoughts on how we can make 2014 a landmark year both at Community Access and beyond.
