We are a local chapter of the national grassroots organization, The Icarus Project. destigmatize mental illness by celebrating and cultivating the "dangerous gifts" associated with mental illness. We welcome everyone, allies and advocates; people who take psych drugs and people who do not, people who use diagnostic labels and people who do not identify with these terms. We do not exclude people on the basis of politics, lifestyle choice, recreational drug use, "criminal" behavior, or other outsider identities. We all have a lot to learn from each other, so we respect each others' choices. While the current social system and medical model have the tendency to divide us, we want our experiences of madness - as we understand them - to unite us.
We believe we have mad gifts to be cultivated and taken care of, rather than diseases or disorders to be suppressed or eliminated. By joining together we can inspire hope and transformation, overcome stigma and alienation, and tap into the true potential that lies between brilliance and madness.