Category Archives: Action Alerts

GET READY TO RAAALLLYYY!!!

Action Alerts, Advocacy, Bronx, Brooklyn, Events, Manhattan, Queens, Staten Island, , , ,

GET READY TO RAAALLLYYY!!!

We support the Governors proposal to raise minimum wage to $15 an hour in NYS –

But there is NO MONEY IN HIS PROPOSED BUDGET to pay for it!

We need additional funding to pay workers the increased wages and to raise lower paid staff salaries so they don’t lose ground when the minimum is raised.

Where: Gov. Cuomo’s NYC Office

633 3rd Ave, Manhattan, 40th-41st St.

When: Friday 3/11/16, 11am till 1pm

More details soon. Rallies are being planned all over New York State, this is the one in NYC – more details to come on other regions..

Wini

  • Winifred Schiff
  • Associate Executive Director for Legislative Affairs
  • InterAgency Council of Developmental Disabilities Agencies, Inc.
  • 150 West 30th Street 15th floor New York, NY 10001
o­ 212­645­6360
c­ 917­750­1497

 

GOVERNOR CUOMO – LETS HAVE REAL ECONOMIC JUSTICE

Action Alerts, Advocacy, Bronx, Brooklyn, Manhattan, nyc fair, Queens, Staten Island, , , ,

SWAN of NYS  Statewide Advocacy Network– NY

Governor Cuomo Let’s Have Real Economic Justice

We are members of the Statewide Advocacy Network of New York SWAN-NY; family members and guardians of people with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities. We would like to add our support to the many voices calling for funding the proposed minimum wage increases in the 2016-2017 NYS Budget for the dedicated Direct Support Professionals who work with people with IDD.

As family members we know first hand what Direct Support Professionals are required to do and how important their role is. We also know what happens when they are not there. We are seeing gaps in support now, and we worry for the future. As the movement toward having people with IDD ‘out in the community’ there is a need for more staff, with better training especially for those with more intensive needs. All these factors have led to vacancies with more and more people with no services at all.

We ask an enormous amount from DSPs ranging from accompanying individuals in the community, administering medication at the right times and in the right doses, following eating protocols, assisting in activities of daily living for many different people day after day after day. We also ask that they understand and are responsive to their emotional needs. Direct Support Professionals are trained to deal with challenging behaviors and non-verbal people. Everything they do must be recorded and checked. DSPs are there when we can’t be and they are family when family members are not around. This is not a job for just anyone, it takes dedication and caring.

OPWDD has an understanding that the voluntary agencies will be responsible to hire, train and supervise the support staff. Being a DSP is a job with enormous responsibility and pitiful compensation. We endorse raising the minimum wage but without funding from the state not-for-profit agencies cannot afford this raise. Agencies have few options to meet this requirement, some may have to close certain programs and some may have to go out of business, leaving our family members stranded.

Agencies are already having a problem filling vacancies when other jobs that are so much easier and less stressful pay the same.  The vacancy rate is high and program staffing reflects this. There is a danger that safety will become a serious issue especially for those with more complex needs or challenging behaviors. Constant turnover is unsettling and threatens our family members sense of stability.

Direct Support Professionals deserve much more than they are paid now, and raising the minimum wage is the first step to equitable compensation for the important work they do. We wholeheartedly support this BUT without funding this raise there is a real possibility that both the agencies who employ DSPs and families who use Self Direction will find themselves unable to function at all and our loved ones will be deprived of needed services.

 

SWAN NY

Western New York: DDAWNY Family Committee, Barb Delong
www.ddawnyfamilycommittee.org ddawnyfamilycommittee@gmail.com

Capital Region: ENYDDA, Patrick Curran,
ENYDDA@gmail.com

Hudson Valley Region: GROW, Will Mayerik
www.grow-ny.org,  info@grow-ny.org

New York City: NYC FAIR, Elly Rufer
www.nycfair.org, nycfair@gmail.com

 

PETITION: ADVOCACY IN ACTION: “KEEP THE PROMISE”

Action Alerts, Advocacy, Bronx, Brooklyn, Manhattan, nyc fair, NYS Legislative Information, opwdd, Queens, Staten Island, , , , , , , ,

Please share with  EVERYONE

ADVOCATE TODAY

NYS Senator Bill Perkins and Assemblyman Robert Rodriguez are  circulating a petition to urge Governor Cuomo to make certain that people with Intellectual and/or Developmental Disabilities and the people who care for them, Direct Support Professionals, get quality service that they require.

Please get signatures on as many petitions as you can!

Download & Print out the attached petition.

REVISED:  Perkins Rodriguez Petition New

Mail petitions ASAP to:

Senator Bill Perkins

Harlem State Office Building

163 West 125th Street

Suite 912

New York, N.Y. 10027

Attn: Phillipe Marius

People with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities: Invisible no more!

Action Alerts, Advocacy, Bronx, Brooklyn, Manhattan, Queens, Resources, Staten Island, , ,

Concerned about the many changes to services for people with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities, family groups from throughout New York State announce the formation of a new coalition to advocate for their their loved ones.- SWAN-NY.

Please see attached PDF for press release, and suggested article pasted in below (and in attached WORD document).

Yours, 

SWAN of New York State

Invisible no more 
Families across State band together

Parents and family members of individuals with developmental disabilities have come together from across New York State to form a new coalition dedicated to advocating for their loved ones.  “Developmental Disabilities affect the lives of hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers. We might be the largest invisible group in the state.” said Brad Pivar, an Albany parent.  To raise visibility, family advocacy groups from across the state have created SWAN, the Statewide Advocacy Network of NYS for individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities (www.swannys.org).
Family Advocacy has been vital to the development of services in New York State. The level of care in NYS under OPWDD (Office of People with Developmental Disabilities) has been hailed as a model, nationally and globally. Now, say advocates, there is a quiet transformation aimed at reducing costs regardless of the outcome—and family members have a front-row seat to the negative results.
“We have thousands people who have spent years on the waiting list for housing,” says Barbara Delong, a Buffalo parent and member of DDAWNY Family Committee, “but there is little development of new housing opportunities. And housing isn’t the only issue.  There are waiting lists for all types of services and more people are entering the system every day.”
Advocacy efforts have been going on all across New York State, but there has been little coordination until now.  To change that, parents from four organizations in different parts of the state started a dialogue in September, to figure out how they could all work together.  “We welcome all advocates,” says Jim Karpe, a Queens parent and member of NYC FAIR, “including self-advocates, parents, relatives and friends.  Our aim is to create a vision which people across the state can endorse.”
“Our group has always wanted to connect with other parents around the state,” said Will Mayerik, a Westchester parent and GROW member.  Mr. Mayerik expressed his hope that the network continues to expand.  He added, “We know there are many families across the state who share our concerns.”
For information on SWAN and to have your local group join in, visit the website atwww.swannys.org.  Or, contact one of the four founding groups:  DDAWNY Family Committee in Western New York, ENYDDA in Albany Region, GROW in Westchester and Hudson Valley, and NYC FAIR in New York City.

Announcement of State-wide coalition- final Article on SWAN- final

Article on SWAN- final

Transformation Panel Draft Recommendations Released

Action Alerts, Advocacy, Bronx, Brooklyn, Events, Manhattan, opwdd, Queens, Staten Island, Transformation Agenda & Panel Meeting: May 19th, 2015, , , , , ,

.pdf: panel_report (1)

FYI: The MEAT of the report is in the  Appendix (pg17 – 19). No methods for implementation are reveled.

Below is the announcement of the publication on the report on Friday, January 8th, 2016 at 6:38pm

The Transformation Panel Report lays out the process, vision and recommendations of the Transformation Panel, a diverse group of people brought together by Acting Commissioner Kerry A. Delaney to re-imagine the OPWDD system. This collaborative document takes into account the voices of individuals and their family members, which were heard through a series of public forums held by the panel and Acting Commissioner Delaney.

Now, we are again asking our valued stakeholders—people with developmental disabilities, their family members and caregivers, provider agency representatives and government partners—to share their opinions. After reading the Transformation Panel’s draft report, please feel free to send your comments on it to transformation.panel@opwdd.ny.gov

The time for public comment will continue through January 22. Please be sure to send your comments to transformation.panel@opwdd.ny.gov by January 22 for them to be considered.

You may also submit comments in writing to:
NYS Office for People With Developmental Disabilities
Commissioner’s Office: Recommendations Feedback
44 Holland Avenue, 3rd Floor
Albany, NY 12229

After the public comment period has ended, revisions will be made to the report based on the feedback we receive and a final draft will be ready by mid-February. Work on implementing some of the recommendations has already begun, and will proceed to accomplish both short- and long-term goals.

On behalf of the Panel, we hope you find this report to be a statement on the vision, ideas and sense of collaboration that will guide the evolution of our system.

We look forward to your feedback.