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March 7, 2005

Honorable <<insert full name >>
<< title of office>>
<< branch of government>>
<< address>>
<< city>> , <<state>> <<zip code>>

Dear << insert title and last name>> :

I am [choose one: A CONSTITUENT, A MENTAL HEALTH CARE PROVIDER, MEMBER OF THE COMMUNITY] writing from <<NAME YOUR AGENCY>> to request your help to save a vanguard community mental health program, Rainbow Heights Club, for a very vulnerable and underserved population of seriously and persistently mentally ill individuals.

Rainbow Heights Club is the first and only agency in the state to provide support and advocacy services to lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender mental health consumers, a dually stigmatized population that has nowhere else to go. Rainbow Heights Club is a project of the Heights-Hill Mental Health Service Community Advisory Board (Heights Hill CAB) and is located in Brooklyn. There are no other services available for this population.

<< PLEASE TELL WHY RAINBOW HEIGHTS CLUB IS A VALUABLE RESOURCE FOR YOU AND YOUR CLIENTS, AND WHAT YOU THINK THE NEGATIVE CONSEQUENCES MIGHT BE IF RAINBOW HEIGHTS CLUB CLOSED.>>

There are currently 250 members of Rainbow Heights Club, and ten new members join each month. The agency has been proven effective at keeping people out of the hospital and in the community. These are people who have been living with chronic mental illness for decades. If Rainbow Heights Club has to close, they will have nowhere to go. Many of them fear that they will become more disabled, lose their ability to function in the community, and be hospitalized again.

We are asking for your active involvement to keep this unique and desperately needed resource open so that all New Yorkers have the resources to help them stay out of the hospital and in the community. This is how you can help:

• Prevent the City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene budget cut from harming the hundreds of Rainbow Heights Club members by voting to continue to fund the contract with Heights Hill Mental Health Service’s CAB (advocacy contract #229) at its current level.
• If the above is impossible, please restore the lost funding of $203,500 to Rainbow Heights Club through alternative City resources.

Thank you for your attention to this potentially catastrophic situation. Please feel free to call me with any questions at ADD YOUR PHONE NUMBER.

Sincerely,
Name
Title, organization

New York City addresses

Margarita Lopez
Committee Chairperson
New York City Councilmember
237 First Avenue, Suite 405
New York, NY 10003
212.614.8751
fax 212.614.8813

Councilmember Christine Quinn
New York City Councilmember
224 West 30th Street, Suite 1206
New York, N.Y. 10001
t. 212.564.7757
f. 212.564.7347

Councilmember Letitia James
New York City Councilmember
67 Hanson Place
Brooklyn, NY 11217
t. 718.260.9191
f. 718.260.9099

Marty Markowitz
Brooklyn Borough President
209 Joralemon Street
Brooklyn, N.Y. 11201

Jerry Allred
Public Events/Special Projects
Brooklyn Borough President
209 Joralemon Street
Brooklyn, N.Y. 11201
t. 718.802.3804
f. 718.802.3778

Major Michael R. Bloomberg
City Hall
New York, NY 10007
t.212.New-York
f. 212.788.2460

Thomas Friedan, M.D., MPH, Commissioner
NYC Department of Health and Mental Hygiene
125 Worth Street
Room 331, Mailbox CN28
New York, NY 10013

Lloyd Sederer, MD.
Executive Deputy Commissioner, Mental Hygiene Services
NYC Department of Health and Mental Hygiene
93 Worth Street
Room 410
New York, NY 10013

Jorge Petit, MD
Associate Commissioner
NYC DOH MH
93 Worth Street
Room 210 D
New York, NY 10013
212.219.5433

Sharon Carpinello, R.N., PhD, Commissioner
State of New York
Office of Mental Health
44 Holland Avenue
Albany, New York 12229
(518) 474-4403