Kristin, let me first say that I'm sorry I didn't have the opportunity to see your full presentation, and that I didn't have the chance to express my gratitude for making the time and effort to travel down to D.C. for the, um, conference. The offer that was made last week to help cover some of your expenses for traveling down to D.C. still stands.
Yes, the turnout was disappointing. I was given an estimated number of 30 individuals that had planned on attending the conference, and I suppose if you count the number of people who would have come on Sunday, plus all of the presenters, you would have about 30 people.
We viewed this as an opportunity to reach out to politically engaged youth to present an in-depth discussion of the behavioral modification industry. Sadly, this was perhaps the largest forum to have that discussion.
There are other large conferences where there are many more youth who attend (in particular the FFCMH conference in December), but it is my experience that while these youth are more personally effected by the issues of the behavioral modification industry, they are more politically apathetic. Still it is our (the board of Youth ACT) intention to present a similar discussion at that conference.
As for the conference itself, Kristin's presentation from what I could observe was excellent. After she finished I presented for about an hour (no notes, no powerpoint) and took questions from the audience. The primary point I tried to address was the fallacy of the "good program", and the differential experiences of individuals who may have had good experiences within a program, because of their luck in who their staffers were. Kristin was there for our first presentation, so you can ask me or her for more info regarding that presentation.
In the afternoon, I was able to address the issue of Isabelle and more broadly the different groups that are involved within the fight against the industry.
I explained the reasons why Youth ACT does not align itself with CAICA. They are:
The lack of transparency within the organization CAICA (no listing of board members or the "editorial board")
The lack of appropriate citations for material on the webiste
Isabelle's inability to answer or confront difficult questions that were asked of her on the CAFETY website last year when she made an effort to allign herself with CAFETY.
The general sense that Isabelle is an unreliable partner due to her inability to focus on common goals.
More recently evidence has come to light regarding Whitmore Academy, which I don't believe I need to go into here, that casts an appalling light on Isabelle.
Alex from NYRA tried to provide some defense for her actions, citing some of the positive actions she had taken to help get some youth out of programs, even housing them in her home.
I countered that while I'm willing to give Isabelle the benefit of the doubt that she may be "well-meaning", I explained how most operators of residential treatment programs are equally "well-meaning". I even when so far as to give Isabelle a label of having a Jesus complex, much like many of the operators of programs.
The members of NYRA seemed to get the message regarding how the actions of Isabelle were counter-effective.
However, the group assembled was equally concerned about the witchunt atmosphere present on Fornits and the threats of blacklisting that are regular on this website. I made the point that Isabelle was frankly not worth the hastle or the defense.
NYRA did not wish to base their decision on the threat of being blacklisted, and so a complete dissociation from CAICA was taken off the table.
They did understand the implicit condonement of referring youth to programs, by linking to CAICA, so a compromise measure was reached where NYRA would place a disclaimer on their CAICA link (similar to the one CAFETY was contemplating for Anti-WWASP at some point) that would condemn Isabelle's practice of referring youth to programs and to referrers, while providing the link to CAICA for informational purposes. They also agreed to include the links to Fornits, TAUSA, and HEAL, which had been conspicuously absent from their list of resources.
Before I left, I told Alex I would get in touch with him for the next board meeting, which he coyly responded "if I'm still on the board".
As Alex stated during the second presentation, behavioral modification is about #5 on the list of priorities for their organization. It is not an issue they have a great deal of expertise in. What NYRA does have however, is a budget, however small that it is, a sustainable structure, 501c(3) status, an office in Washington D.C, and a sensativity to the issue. These are all resources.
I know how this group by in large feels about compromises, and I know how people tend to react when they feel bullied into making decisions. I have tentatively accepted the decision of NYRA, pending your input on their decision. I believe that they get it now, and are willing to cut off the pipeline of mis-information. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't think that this issue was ever simply about HTML code. I'm assuming that the links will be updated by the end of the week. I look forward to hearing from all of you regarding our meeting this past weekend.
