A Message from MadFreedom Advocates

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.

MadFreedom Advocates (MFA) is a grassroots, non-profit organization run by and for psychiatric survivors, mad folks, and others marginalized by the mental health system. We’re working towards equal rights, better services, and ending discrimination. MadFreedom Advocates works across Vermont to support leadership, education, and advocacy for people with lived experience of trauma, institutionalization, neurodivergence, extreme states, or other marginalization by sanism.