[Congressional Record Volume 159, Number 51 (Tuesday, April 16, 2013)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E471]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




    ELLIOTT STEELE, VINCENT HOUSE, HONORED WITH AWARD OF EXCELLENCE

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                         HON. C. W. BILL YOUNG

                               of florida

                    in the house of representatives

                        Tuesday, April 16, 2013

  Mr. YOUNG of Florida. Mr. Speaker, Elliott Steele, the Executive 
Director of Vincent House, a remarkable organization in Pinellas Park, 
Florida, was recently honored by The National Council for Community 
Behavioral Healthcare with an Award of Excellence at its National 
Council Conference.
   Specifically, Mr. Steele received the Reintegration Award for 
Achievement for his tireless work, and that of his wife Dianne, to 
found Vincent House, a clean and safe haven for people recovering from 
mental illness.
   Vincent House helps adults living with severe and persistent mental 
illness achieve recovery through work partnerships within the 
community. The more than 600 individuals who have sought help there 
have been treated with the utmost dignity and respect by the staff and 
volunteers. As a result, they have built up in themselves a sense of 
new-found confidence, self-esteem, and real life social and work skills 
that have improved their quality of life, led to their independence, 
and helped them regain their pride in being able to find real-life work 
experiences in our community.
   Vincent House was the outgrowth of the love, compassion and 
dedication the Steele's had for their daughter, who was diagnosed in 
1993 with severe mental illness issues during her freshman year of 
college. The Steele's decided to devote themselves to finding a way to 
help those like their daughter who had lost hope and for which 
traditional treatments were not producing results. They each quit 
highly successful careers in 1999 to devote their full-time focus to 
the cause.
   By 2003, they opened the doors on Vincent House in a small 
storefront in a Pinellas Park strip mall. The concept was based on 
programs established in several other communities where a community 
center or club house would create a place where those with mental 
illness could be surrounded in a loving and supportive environment by 
people who listened to their dreams and helped them reintegrate into 
the community through volunteer and work opportunities. Those who pass 
through the doors of Vincent House are not considered patients, they 
are considered members. And once they become a member, they are a 
member for life.
   The Steeles were joined in their quest to help those with mental 
illness by Bob Dillinger, the Public Defender for Pinellas and Pasco 
Counties, who shares a passion for helping this underserved population. 
Together they found funding within the community to open Vincent House 
and to move into a larger, stand-alone facility two years later. It is 
a facility that has already almost doubled in size to meet the 
increasing demand for these services.
   Mr. Speaker, having had the privilege to tour Vincent House and 
attend their annual Breakfast of Hope, I have seen and heard first-hand 
the success stories of those who have passed through its doors and are 
now proudly working in our community. Every one of those club members 
who walks through the door and one day walks out that door with a 
positive experience and a job is better than any award Elliott and 
Dianne Steele can receive. It is a sense of achievement that is shared 
by all of Vincent House's staff, volunteers and members of the board.
   Vincent House is an excellent program that I believe can be 
replicated in communities throughout our nation. It is my hope that my 
colleagues in the House will take a look at Vincent House and share 
information about its success with their constituents back home. It is 
also my hope that my colleagues will say thank you to Elliott and Diane 
Steele for a job well done.

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