Hello,

My name is Billy Hayes and I am the Executive Director of the PEER Center.

The PEER Center is a not-for-profit advocacy and support center for mental health consumers. We are funded by grants from the State of Florida Department of Children and Families and Broward County.

PEER Center's name was chosen to represent its goals of "Personal Empowerment, Education and Recreation." PEER Center is the largest independent consumer-run mental health program in the state and one of the largest in the nation. (Consumer-run means that a majority of the agency staff have been diagnosed and have survived a mental illness). PEER Center was one of eight consumer-run agencies in the nation selected to participate in a nation-wide governmental research project funded by SAMHSA based upon the Center's national recognition for excellence in offering consumer-run support programs.

Central to PEER Center's mission and vision is an understanding that people with psychiatric disabilities can and do recover and that consumer-run agencies can be designed to enhance this possibility. PEER Center programs provide consumers-survivors support to remain in a community setting and avoid being placed in an institution or criminal justice system through crisis intervention and housing assistance. It is our mission to help people through the horror of homelessness, hopelessness, stigma, isolation, and low self-esteem caused by mental illness. We are motivated by one desire with a long-range goal: To support the national trend toward greater consumer participation in promoting empowerment, rehabilitation and recovery for those persons with persistent, serious mental illness. Our aim is to assist consumers/survivors achieve a higher degree of independence than previously thought possible and to integrate those persons into the community as healthy, productive and law-abiding citizens.

It is an honor for me to be in service of such a great cause. In order to secure it for the future, and to better the lives of our members, the PEER Center is asking for your monetary donations as well as donations of clothes, appliances, cars, and computers.

The PEER Center will arrange to have your donated items picked up and provide you with a receipt for your tax deductible purposes.

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