07/13/2026
📢 A Message from the MadFreedom Advocates Board of Directors: DMH Termination of MFA Grant 📢
On Wednesday, July 8, 2026, the Department of Mental Health terminated our grant, with no notice, with almost two months left in the contract.
This grant funded the entirety of MFA’s important, meaningful work.
💔 We are heartbroken by this loss, though we remain steadfast in our commitment to center and uplift the voices of psychiatric survivors, mad folks, and others marginalized by the mental health system.
Challenging and shifting systems of power is lifelong work.
While the ability for MFA to employ staff, offer patient representatives within inpatient facilities, and administer programs like the POP grants has been terminated along with the DMH grant, the recent work that MFA staff and the Board of Directors have done to refocus and build up supports and public offerings has made a lasting impact.
These connections between and among people do not go away because funding for MFA has ended.
✊ While this chapter is ending, the movement, the relationships, and the work toward justice continue.
There is much to consider and strategize about regarding the future of this organization and this work.
The Board is ultimately responsible for steering these decisions and hopes to welcome input in the coming weeks, though for now we are supporting the Executive Director to focus on winding down current operations.
We will endeavor to be available for questions as much as possible during this tumultuous time.
🖤 With mad love and rage,
J Helms
Sean Donovan
Rocky Gagne
✉️: [email protected]
