VOCAL-NY Gala for Healthy & Just Communities honors NYC Speaker Adams and other longtime advocates
The Voices Of Community Activists & Leaders (VOCAL-NY) Gala for Healthy & Just Communities celebrated the organization’s 25th anniversary of advocacy last Thursday, September 19.
At a lively gathering at the Roulette Intermedium in downtown Brooklyn, community advocates and leaders came together to celebrate their collective mission to improve the lives of low-income New Yorkers impacted by HIV/AIDS, the war on drugs, mass incarceration, and homelessness.
“I’m so excited to be here tonight to celebrate VOCAL New York’s 25th anniversary. We are so proud and grateful to be building on the legacy of our community organizing, our services that we’ve created together since 1999,” said VOCAL-NY Co-Executive Director Alyssa Aguilera.
For the last 25 years, the organization’s advocates have been instrumental in pushing criminal justice-focused legislation like the Challenging Wrongful Convictions Act, the Fair Chance Housing Act, the Public Bathroom Reporting bill, the Homeless Sweeps Reporting bill, Daniel’s Law, and City Fighting Homelessness and Eviction Prevention Supplement (CityFHEPS) voucher reforms. In recent years, it has expanded to include satellite offices in Kentucky in 2022 and Texas in 2023.
This year they also launched a national chapter called VOCAL-US. “This is just one of the many milestones we’re celebrating here tonight,” Aguilera said. “Some others include celebrating our first year and our new permanent home that we own, which has allowed us to dramatically expand our drop-in center and the life-saving harm reduction services we provide to low income people who use drugs every day.”
The gala’s honorees included New York City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams, former New York Office of Cannabis Management (OCM) Chief Chris Alexander, and longtime HIV/AIDS advocate Tracie Adams with their Justice, Compassion & Love awards. The three awards are tributes to VOCAL founders Joe Bostic, Joe Capestany, and Jennifer Flynn.
Speaker Adams, who received the Compassion award, was praised for standing up to Mayor Eric Adam’s administration and backing advocacy-led initiatives in the face of immense pushback from City Hall. She’s helped pass the CityFHEPS program reforms, affordable housing, and the passage of the How Many Stops Act and the city’s ban on solitary confinement in jails.
“VOCAL, we’ve come a long way and I’m just going to speak from the heart just to let you know that we do what we do in this first women-led majority in the city council in the history of the City of New York,” Speaker Adams said in her acceptance speech. “We lead very, very differently. We lead from the heart first.”
She briefly discussed the fight for elected officials to legislate from lived experiences as constituents themselves.
“The speaker is still fighting with us,” said Elizabeth Mackey, a leader with VOCAL-NY’s Homelessness Union, “as we’re fighting to ensure that the current Adams administration implements the laws that we pass.”
Alexander, who suddenly resigned as head of the state cannabis agency this May, was given the Justice award and received thunderous applause. Tracie Adams, 58, who has been a leader with VOCAL-NY’s Rochester chapter and has been living with HIV for 20 years, received the Love award.
“I’ve worked with VOCAL for years. I worked closely with the leadership to help secure the new headquarters and have been involved in many [of their] big fights,” said Councilmember Lincoln Restler, who attended the event. “What inspires me about VOCAL is that they represent directly impacted New Yorkers, people who were formerly incarcerated, people who are living in our shelters, people who are struggling with substance use issues. VOCAL is them. And as the people who are directly impacted, they are closest to the issues. They are closest to the problem and they are best positioned to guide us on the right solutions.”
During the gala, organizers also took time to remember VOCAL members who have passed recently like Carl Stubbs, Felipe “Flip” Rodriguez, Curtis Jones, Craig ‘Primo’ Mack, and Greta Allen.
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