United Way of Greater New Haven supports the 'Right to Work and Learn Program' at Fellowship Place with an emphasis on preparing individuals for competitive employment in the community and utilizing career development activities to promote recovery.  For that reason, we are sharing this recent editorial from the New Haven Register.

By Randall Beach, Register Columnist

A MAN NAMED THOMAS recently wrote me a letter from Fellowship Place’s new computer center, warning that Gov. M. Jodi Rell’s proposed budget cuts threaten the financial health of such crucial community “workhorses.”

Thomas said he is a longtime member of Fellowship Place, a collection of buildings on Elm Street in New Haven where adults with chronic mental illness are helped to lead more meaningful lives.

“In addition to its being very useful to me, I’ve found Fellowship Place to be a well-run, bustling, interesting place, serving over 100 clients per day in diverse ways,” Thomas wrote.

He said he was writing the letter in the McDowell Center, named for Fellowship’s founder, Phyllis McDowell. She started it in 1960 in the basement of the old Jewish Community Center on Chapel Street.

To read the complete article from the New Haven Register, please click on: http://nhregister.com/articles/2009/06/26/news/new_haven/c1-beachclmnfellowship.txt