Drop-in Center Consumers Protest Current Management

by Nathan Lasher

Citing recent mismanagement of the organization, approximately eight community members and consumers of the New Vision Drop-in Center located at 113 Market Street in downtown Kittanning organized in front of the building to stage a protest from 8:30AM until 11:30AM yesterday.

The New Vision Drop-in Center is one of three centers that are run by Armstrong County Mental Health/Mental Retardation (MH/MR); the other two are in Indiana and Rossiter. The centers are semi-independent of MH/MR as they have their own Board of Directors. Each of the three sites have representation from consumers that attend the programs. Those consumers nominate and vote representation on to the Board of Directors. Other representatives from the sites as well as community members are present on the Board.

According to MH/MR Executive Director Jim Kuemmerle, the centers provide a social network for consumers with a mental illness. It’s a place where individuals can go if they want to hang out and socialize with their peers. They also do programming in areas such as how to use computers, but it’s really designed to provide social interaction with others. Consumers also have the opportunity participate in outings such as trips to Pirate Baseball Games or to local state parks. “They try to do different things as a group to support each other in their recovery from their mental illness,” said Kemmerer.

Protesters yesterday morning felt frustrated due to what they feel is a misrepresentation on the Board. “The members are tired of Indiana taking over the Kittanning Drop-in Center,” said Protester and Drop-in Center Volunteer Crista Reefer. “There is nobody from Armstrong County on the Board for the three centers.”

Kuemmerle confirmed Reefer’s statement. “Looking at it from an Armstrong County perspective, the representation they had recently on the board, they had a disagreement and those individuals were kicked off of the board,” said Kuemmerle. “So, that little bit of recent history has led to a lot of problems and resentment between the consumers of both counties; folks, locally, feel that the people from Indiana County are telling them what to do.”

Reefer listed recent problems involving Board Members Christy Anthony, Jim Bernard, and Annette Bernard who are all from Indiana County as reasons for the protest. “The consumers were invited to a meeting to speak up and say what they wanted for their drop-in center, and Christy Anthony, who is mainly in charge of all this, got up and walked out; she had something better to do,” said Reefer. “Annette Bernard fired Belinda Brown who has been running the drop-in center and has made that center huge. They closed it. Right now they’re saying that Annette Bernard closed it, and Christy Anthony is saying that she knew nothing about it. But, the note on the door that said it was closed had Christy Anthony’s phone number on it. Several of the Board Members have gone to Jim Kuemmerle, who is in charge of the funding for all three centers, and said that they want them to be split up because Kittanning is being walked all over.”

Kuemmerle responded to Reefer’s comment by saying, “Belinda is the Executive Director of the Mental Health Association of Armstrong County. What happened a few months ago, they tried to come up with an arrangement to try to have Belinda and her organization run the day-to-day operations of the Drop-in Center. Part of the problem was that they never had any type of contract or business agreement. It fell apart because it turned into a ‘he said, she said’ type of thing because the Board of Directors thought it was one type of an arrangement, and Belinda thought it was a different type of arrangement. As a result, they couldn’t come to an agreement, and it totally fell apart. Recently, they tried to repair that, and I said I would only let them try to think about doing that if they had a signed business agreement in place. That has gotten bogged down because of a disagreement in wording. So, we still don’t have a formalized agreement.”

Protesters also felt that past monies awarded to the Kittanning Drop-in Center had been funneled to Indiana Drop-in Center operations. Kuemmerle was neither able to confirm nor deny these allegations. However, he did say that he has been working to try to bring in consultants who are planned to provide intensive training in a technical assistance program to Board representatives. “It’s to bring everybody together and try to create a program I think they’re all wanting, but I think they’re working against each other,” he said. “I think that’s why they are so frustrated with how things are going; they want to try to run independently, but I don’t know if they have the ability to do so; I don’t mean that in a derogatory fashion. My goal with bringing in the consultants is that at the end of the day, if that’s the model we’re going to move forward with, then at least all of the different program sites will have the abilities to succeed. Right now, I don’t think any of the sites, the way it’s configured now or if it was broken up, have the ability to run an organization.”

In the end, Kuemmerle saw the protest as a positive event. “The consumers are advocating for themselves,” he said. “I’m sure the word has made it back to some folks in Indiana County, and I’m sure there were some feathers ruffled by that. But, I would definitely look at it as a positive thing because they took a very proactive, public approach to their dissatisfaction. They’re standing for themselves and really trying to advocate for each other. So, that is a very positive step. Hopefully, we can take the energy and do something good with it.”

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