Here are a collection of documents from the July presentation.

Caitlin explaining the idea

Caitlin showing the idea boards	One of the sample video projects being displayed

A link to our ‘murphy bill’ flyer here

One of the videos features for #FirstResort is linked here

In case you missed last night…here is a small taste. What do you want as your‎#FirstResort?

Wanna learn more and join the conversation? Reach out to: icarusvideoproject@gmail.com

A Wall St. Journal article published on the same day as the nearly bipartisan vote (2 opposing out of 400) linked here

Text from our Orlando statement:

We at the NYC Icarus project are a group devoted to social justice mainly through our work to empower, educate and advocate for mad people – those who typically are labeled as mentally ill – including this event.

We consider systemic oppression like racism, homophobia, biphobia, xenophobia, islamophobia, and transphobia as part of the traumas that effects our well being whether its violence enacted on our bodies or our minds. The recent events in Orlando are a nearly publicly acknowledged act in the US and the world of hate against the LGBT community, particularly those in Latinx communities. It also negatively affected the Muslim community and those who identity as both LGBT and Muslim. We also note the numerious terrorist attacks that affected other nations in the proceeding weeks including in Iraq at the end of ramadan.

We believe all aspects of someones identity and experiences should be acknowledged and validated during healthcare inlcuding mental health care. Unfortunately in our current system, that is rarely the case in an ER, by therapists, by psychiatrists, by social workers, and in prisons.

We wish to acknowledge this shortcoming and try to work with LGBT groups and allies including those gathered here tonight to address these issues. We want to extend our sympathies to all gathered here tonight who were directly or indirected affected by this tragedy.

Healing from such a tragedy requires people to seek support from communities like the people gathered here tonight. Its important to find people who you trust, who will listen in a non-judgemental way to allow ‘you to talk about your feelings regarding this tragedy if they feel able to listen. Our view of healing extends to all modalities including the one embraced by my transgender cousin in Florida: dancing with people you love. There is also grief. Grief is a personal, nonlinear process for everyone. Each person does it in their own way and it takes a different amount of time for each person. Anger and outrage are also healthy emotions to feel after tragedy.

One way we can direct those strong emotions is to join others to engage in social justice. At this event, we are going to start a project to help all mad people by allowing us to speak about what members of our chosen and biological families can do to help us heal. We also encourage everyone to enage in other work after this event to make the world never repeat such tragedies.

At the end of our event we have space to talk amongst ourselves. If anyone wants to talk about how the events in Orlando effected them with others who were affected, we will have a space in the front area for that.

resources:

If you’re struggling after learning about the shooting in Orlando, and you need to talk to someone, please reach out.

Suicide Prevention Lifelife: (800) 273-8255

Trevor Project: (866) 488-7386

Trans Lifeline: (877) 565-8860

Text an anonymous crisis counselor: 741741

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