POWER-C UNITED PURPOSE
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Our mission is to strengthen holistic health, rights protection and wellbeing in the United States for people experiencing mental health and/or addiction conditions and their communities (families, neighborhoods, etc.), through national advocacy and activism, and system and policy reform.
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We envision a future where all individuals and communities (families, neighborhoods, etc.) can live happy, healthy and independent lives in their communities and have equal access to free, voluntary, culturally responsive, trauma-informed, affirming, equitable, community-based systems, supports, and resources that center the right to self-agency, identification, determination, bodily autonomy, and informed consent for all, free of forced treatment, coercion, and criminalization.
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We serve all individuals but particularly recognize those with mental health and addictions challenges, lived and living experience, co-occurring serious mental illness, people in recovery, people who use drugs, folks who are systems-impacted, the people of color, 2SLGBTQIA+, and disabled communities, and others experiencing systematic oppression and marginalization, and more
OUR VALUES
Self Determination & Choice
We believe that all individuals have the right to self identification, agency, determination, bodily autonomy, informed consent, choice, and as long as they are not hurting others, the right to center their personal goals and desires when it comes to their health and treatment. Conversely this means we oppose forced or involuntary treatment, hospitalization, institutionalization, incarceration, and any other coercion, criminalization, or act that comes without explicit consent
Human / Civil Rights and Justice
We recognize that our systems, institutions, and society as a whole is built on stolen land, labor, resources, and other atrocities that settler colonialism, white supremacy, and capitalism brings with it. Which is why we believe in holistic, restorative justice, human and civil rights, and principles based upon love, kindness, and freedom for all
Peer-Led and Lived and Living Experiences Centered Movements
We believe that the true experts are the people who have lived it. Everything should be for community, by community, centering the concept of, “nothing about us, without us”
Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, Accessibility, and Intersectionality
We believe that the inclusion of diverse people, thought, experiences, ideas, perspectives, and more is of tremendous value, and we must approach the process of liberation through an intersectional lens of equity, centering those who have most historically marginalized including people with disabilities, 2SLGBTQIA+, people of color, rural populations, veterans, and more.
The Balance of Multiple Truths
We believe in finding, as best as possible, the balance between all things. The balance between urgency and trauma-informed intention, inclusive consensus and action, system reform and abolition, the spectrums of harm reduction, recovery, sobriety, and people who use drugs, etc. We support multiple pathways of healing and recovery. We oppose false binaries, single truths, and a standard, “one size fits all approach” in favor of defining things for oneself, while finding balance with others.
Youth, Family, and Cross-Generational Leadership
We believe in the power of history and experience as well as new, fresh perspectives, leadership, and ways of doing things. We honor that all generations have something to learn from each other and none are inherently superior over the others.
Actionable Hope
We hold hope for a better future for us all and recognize that hope is the catalyst of our journeys of recovery and wellness, but can’t come into fruition without work, action, and advocacy.