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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:

• Vote to restore the over $3.15 million cut in mental services to New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene (NYC DOH MH).

• Pass a 2005-2006 budget that restores the mental health service line to the NYC DOH MH back to the 2003 level.
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 State Politicians

Please send the above letter to:

Governor George Pataki
State Capitol
Albany, New York 12224
518.474.8390

Hon. Peter Rivera
New York State Assemblymember
Chair, Mental Health Council of NYS Assembly
1262 Castle Hill Avenue
Bronx, NY 10462
718.931.2620

Hon. Deborah Glick
New York State Assemblymember
853 Broadway, Suite 2120
New York, NY 10007
212674.5153

Hon. Joan Millman
New York State Assemblymember
341 Smith Street
Brooklyn, NY 11231
718.246.4889

Hon. Roger Green
New York State Assemblymember
55 Hansen Place
Brooklyn, NY 11217
718.596.0100

Hon. Sheldon Silver
Speaker
New York State Assembly
250 Broadway, Suite 2307
New York, NY 10007
212.312.1420

Hon. Velmanette Montgomery
New York State Senator
30 Third Avenue, 6th Floor
Brooklyn, N.Y. 11217
718.643.614