NISA/Northern Initiative for Social Action

36 Elgin St. 2nd Floor
Sudbury ,  ON  P3C 5B4

Phone: 705-222-NISA (6472)

NISA evolved out of a number of collaborative projects originally established within the Outpatient Occupational Therapy services of Network North (now the Northeast Mental Health Centre - Sudbury). The common objective of these projects was to reanimate consumers, to offer them meaningful and useful activities (or occupations), and to provide a setting for active social recovery rather than passive dependence on community services.

NISA was incorporated in order to unite and extend those initial projects; but the incorporation also reflects the value our members placed on the emerging sense of our own community. This sense of consumers' personal involvement and connectedness seems to us to be an essential element of mental health reform.

The basic task of mental health reform, therefore, is to make deinstitutionalization work, by providing appropriate community supports for consumer/survivors. NISA was, in fact, a pilot project in developing a wide range of such supports. It offered -- and still does -- enrichment, improved access, and alternatives to the opportunities available in the community. We have come to recognize three types of needs experienced by consumer/survivors:

Being: a basic acceptance of oneself; not having to apologize for one's existence.

Belonging: having other people to relate to; being part of a group; having 'family'.

Becoming: developing new skills and statuses; growing toward socioeconomic maturity.

We at NISA feel we have much to offer to the process of mental health reform. We have a working model for organization, cooperation, and community involvement. We have acquired experience, and a knowledge base which we have documented and shared with others both in Ontario and internationally.

NISA/Northern Initiative for Social Action is an organization run by and for consumers of mental health services.

Our non-profit charitable corporation is called NISA which is short for "Northern Initiative for Social Action". NISA serves an underprivileged and somewhat marginalized group that often goes by the term, "consumer/survivor". A consumer/survivor is anyone who has used or is using mental health services. NISA not only serves consumers/survivors, but its membership and board consist of consumers/survivors as well.



NISA is an organization run by and for consumers of mental health services. We develop occupational skills, nurture self-confidence and provide resources for recovery, by creating opportunities for participants to contribute to their own well-being and th