Senator Sharif Street joined Val Arkosh, Acting Secretary of Human Services, for a Mental Health Awareness Tour in North Philadelphia on May 25. The visit was an opportunity for Secretary Arkosh to survey three district locations that provide mental health resources for diverse populations. The visit by the secretary happened to have taken place during Mental Health Awareness Month. It just so happens that in Pennsylvania we have a Governor who cares about mental health and drug recovery. In his budget address, Governor Josh Shapiro called for increased resources for mental health services.
During the tour last week, Senator Street stated, “It’s always good to be back here with Mel Wells and all our friends from One Day At A Time. One Day At A Time (ODAAT), as you all know, started with Reverend Wells at his home, bringing folks in because that was the time when the crack and cocaine epidemic was strong. Mel and I were kids back then. People were getting addicted to different substances, and those problems continue to this day. Thousands of people have gotten their lives together because of ODAAT, and today they’re doing much better. Reverend Wells did all this completely on his own. Back in those early days of ODAAT, Rev. had no contracts and no license. The Department of Licenses and Inspections was threatening to close him down. Reverend Wells found a young, first-term City Councilman, John Street, and he asked him for help. John Street told L&I to go away, and it was shortly after that ODAAT started to get its paperwork and licenses in order. Years later, this program, ODAAT, is doing great things, helping people in lots of different ways, from cleaning up streets to doing job training, to HIV services that they’ve provided for years, to providing homeless shelter services. One Day At A Time is doing so many things.”
Senator Street has had a long-standing relationship with ODAAT. He added, “The resources that we get from the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania most of those resources come out of the Department of Human Services. Secretary Arkosh is a licensed doctor. She ran the Montgomery County Commission, and now she is running the largest department in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania that gets about 40% of the state budget. A lot of those dollars go to deal with the most vulnerable citizens. I wanted Secretary Arkosh to be here for a couple of reasons. One is to get our programs funded, and two, the opioid epidemic now doesn’t just hit our community, like the crack cocaine epidemic. The opioid epidemic is affecting people in every corner of this Commonwealth. In a lot of places across our state, they’re just figuring out how to do this addiction crisis. They’re still thinking if you give a person 30 days off of drugs, their whole life will change. We know that, but you gotta stay away from people, places, and things. , …
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