A peer-run recovery center in Clinton is holding its first-ever candidate forum on Saturday with the goal of empowering Iowans who need mental health and substance use treatment to participate in the election.
“The target population that we’re really trying to reach is the people that receive services and their family members,” said Todd Noack, executive director of Life Connections Peer Recovery Services in Clinton. “Because so many times it is hard and a struggle to navigate the recovery and support services, for both substances and mental health. And we know that. And so many times, nine out of ten, those people receiving services — and possibly their family members — don’t even vote.”
He said people who attend the forum will have the opportunity to hear from local candidates for the Clinton County Board of Supervisors and the Iowa House of Representatives. Noack and a representative from the county auditor’s office will also provide information about how to vote and why it’s important to vote.
Noack said he is trying to explain to the people he serves that the candidates running for office are applying for a job, and the voters are the interviewers.
“When we run for office…we don’t hear the full thing, and we don’t understand because we don’t talk to the people that receive the services,” Noack said. “As a matter of fact, the people receiving services have less input in the way things get changed than the leadership that changes it.”
Noack said he often goes to the Iowa Capitol to educate lawmakers and advocate for funding for peer-run recovery services. He said after an elected official spoke to him “in a demeaning way,” he thought he needed to do something different.
“It’s not just taking the people up there to advocate for them changes,” Noack said. “It’s getting the people that receive the services to learn why they should vote, and how to listen and what to listen for.”
He said he is also urging people with felony convictions to come to the candidate forum now that many Iowans with felony convictions who completed their sentences have had their voting rights restored. Noack said many people with felony convictions still don’t know they can vote.
He said by voting, they can try to push for changes to boost mental health and substance use treatment options in Iowa.
“This is why it’s so important to have these questions to these reps that are going to be coming and these county board of supervisors — to see who really is going to do the job for the people that receive services,” Noack said.
The Iowa Developmental Disabilities Council is supporting the forum with a voter empowerment grant. The forum is Saturday, Sept. 21 at 11:00 a.m. at the Life Connections Wellness Recovery Center in Clinton.
