August is the month of peer respites for 'What's Blooming with the Wildflower Alliance'. On August 4th, we released our first episode in the series on Afiya Peer Respite.

Today, we release part 2 of the peer respite series on Anemoni Peer Respite... EXCEPT that part 2 has itself turned into two parts!

We're calling part one of part 2 'Anemoni: The Origin Story.

This episode, we will hear from Ephraim Akiva who came up for the vision of Anemoni and now serves as its Director. Ephraim will talk about where the idea came from as it relates to both his personal and work life, as well as how another peer-run organization stepped in and almost derailed the entire process. He will also share the emotional story of Edith Goldberg in whose honor 'Anemoni' is named.

Additionally, we will hear from Thomas Brown (Advocate for the Mental Health Legal Advisors Committee [MHLAC]) and Sarah Yousuf (former Senior Supervising Attorney at MHLAC) who partnered with Ephraim and others at Wildflower to introduce peer respite legislation that may help bring even more peer respites (both affinity and general) to the Commonwealth in the years to come.