Joseph Rogers, Recipient of Heinz Award

Joseph Rogers, President and CEO of the Mental Health Association of Southeastern Pennsylvania (MHASP), one of six winners of this year's Heinz Awards.

Rogers won the Heinz Award in the Human Condition category:

An advocate for user-designed mental health programs whose personal experiences and frustrations with the mental health care system helped propel the field's "consumer" movement, Joseph Rogers has provided impassioned, visionary leadership in transforming mental health care in this country. [visit www.heinzawards.net for more information]

In 1984, Rogers began working at MHASP, then a small non-profit agency with about a dozen staff. Today MHASP is one of the largest mental health associations in the United States, with a $14 million annual budget and a staff of 300, the majority of whom have mental illnesses.

Rogers was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia at age 19, and a bleak future was predicted for him. He is currently diagnosed with bipolar disorder. His personal experiences with hospitalization fuel the passion with which he works to get people out of mental hospitals and back into the community.

Teresa Heinz Kerry, chairwoman of the Heinz Family Foundation, called Rogers a "star in his field." Because his work "comes from a place of great pain," she said, it "demands a lot of respect."

In 1984, as part of his work with MHASP, Rogers founded the Self-Help and Advocacy Resource Exchange (Project SHARE), which became the umbrella organization for programs that provide such essential services as peer support, drop-in centers, housing, homeless outreach, mentoring and job training. Today, MHASP operates 40 such programs. Read more about these programs on the MHASP Web site.

The Philadelphia Inquirer and Daily News were among the nearly 100 newspapers across the country that wrote of Rogers' award on May 2, 2005.

Posted: May 3, 2004