The individual receiving The Howie T. Harp Award will be announced and awarded at the Consumer Conference. It is our way of acknowledging …
- A) Self-Identified Consumer
- B) Statewide leadership in furthering the goals of the consumer movement in advocacy and/or services;
- C) Longtime service.
Photo Courtesy of Sally Zinman
Howie The Harp was a legendary leader of the client movement in California and the nation. Howie started the first consumer run organization in the United States, the Insane Liberation Front in Oregon. He went on to start drop-in centers in New York and California. His work was primarily focused on advocating for homeless and poor people with mental disabilities. The movement lost him too early as he passed away at the young age of 42, but not before he left a lasting imprint on the peer/consumer community. Along with a handful of tremendous pioneers he set a trajectory for peer-run services and peer/consumer advocacy that we continue today. The Howie T. Harp award was initiated by our predecessor, California Network of Mental Health Clients.
Reaching Across: Mental Health Clients Helping Each Other EBook by Sally Zinman, Howie the Harp, and Su Budd.
Photo Courtesy of Sally Zinman
