The Arc of VA's General Assembly Update - Weeks 1 and 2
In this update you will find information about:
* Report on 1/14 Budget Hearing
* Chief-Patrons of Budget Amendments important to The Arc
* Status of the "R" Word Bill
* The Arc of VA's Chapter Days
* The Arc in the News...
HUNDREDS OF ADVOCATES PACK THE ROOM AT RICHMOND BUDGET HEARING!
Members of The Arc kicked off this year's session with an incredible start!
Hundreds of self-advocates, family members, direct-support professionals and
concerned citizens from all over the state packed the room at Virginia's
General Assembly building for the public hearing on the Governor's Budget
Hearing to say that NOW is the time for Virginia to invest in
community-based services for people with intellectual and developmental
disabilities! Wearing blue T-shirts and "End the Wait" stickers, EVERYONE
helped to make the message of "A Life Like Yours" heard loud and clear at
Virginia's capital on Monday!
Over 50 concerned citizens provided public comment before members of the Senate Finance and House Appropriations Subcommittees at Monday's public hearing about how they or someone they love are personally impacted by inadequate community-based funding for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities. Despite the wait list's growth rate of one person per day, the Governor's introduced budget included funding for only 75 MR Waiver slots per year of the Biennium (150 total). Speakers asked legislators to help Virginia move away from its institutional bias and current ranking of 47th in the country for community-based for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities by funding 725 MR Waiver slots each year.
Many thanks to all who attended and helped out for this very important advocacy opportunity! Let's all help keep the momentum they started going throughout session!
MEET THE CHIEF PATRONS...A BUDGET AMMENDMENT FOR 1,450 MR WAIVER SLOTS (725 each year).
Chief-Patron in the House of Delegate: Delegate Kirk Cox
Chief-Patron in the Senate: Senator Mary Margaret Whipple
Background: This would amend the 2008-2010 Budget to include $66.7 million
to provide community-based supports and services to 725 people on the MR
Waiver wait list each year for two years.
A BUDGET AMMENDMENT TO HELP 1,000 PEOPLE WHO ARE INELLIGIBLE FOR MR WAIVER
Chief Patron in the House of Delegates: Delegate Stephen Shannon
Chief Patron in the Senate: Senator Chap Peterson
Background: This would amend the 2008-2010 Budget to include $5 million
which would provide community-based supports to 1,000 people with
intellectual disabilities who are ineligible for the Medicaid MR Waiver due
to Virginia's strict eligibility criteria.
A BUDGET AMMENDMENT FOR 300 DD WAIVER SLOTS OVER THE BIENNIUM
Chief Patron in the House of Delegates: Delegate Mamye BaCote
Chief Patron in the Senate: Senator Edward Houck
Background: This would amend the 2008-2010 introduced budget to include
funding for community-based supports for 150 people on the DD Waiver wait
list each year.
A BUDGET AMMENDMENT FOR A 4.2 RATE INCREASE FOR MEDICAID MR/DS WAIVER
REIMBURSEMENT RATES
Chief Patron in the House: Delegate Phil Hamilton
Chief Patron in the Senate: Senator Emmett Hanger
Background: This would amend the 2008-2010 introduced budget to include
funding for a 4.2% increase for Medicaid Waiver reimbursement rates
A BUDGET AMMENDMENT FOR A HOUSING STUDY
Chief Patron in the House: Delegate Jim Scott
Chief Patron in the Senate: Senator Henry Marsh
Background: This would initiate a DMHMRSAS study to be done in conjunction
with VHDA, CHCD, and community advocates which would create a plan for
utilizing capital funds for the building, acquisition and renovation of
community-based housing for people with intellectual and developmental
disabilities.
STATUS OF THE "R" WORD BILL...
Legislation to ban use of "retarded" in VA code have been reported out of
House and Senate Committees with unanimous votes!!
Members of People First and The Arc have been hard at work to eliminate Virginia's use of the term "mentally retarded" in the state code! Delegate Chuck Caputo, Senator Janet Howell and Senator Patsy Ticer are the Chief Patrons of this ground-breaking bill that would amend the Virginia Code to eliminate references to "mentally retarded" and "mental retardation" , replacing them with the term "intellectual disability" instead.
On January 15th, the bill went before the Health, Welfare and Institutions Committee in the House of Delegates. "The use of retarded has been demeaning," said Delegate Caputo, sponsor of HB760. "Many people have suffered for years under this stigma.", when he introduced the bill before committee. "Some words hurt, some words sting, some cause stigma," said Sen. Janet Howell, who is co-sponsoring the bill. " 'Retardation' is one of those words. The time has come to really change our outlook on people with intellectual disabilities, " she said. "Just in my lifetime, we've seen people with intellectual disabilities go from not being allowed in classes to being full participants in every aspect of our society."
Self-advocates Jill Egle and Erin Thompson, of The Arc of Northern Virginia then testified before this committee, describing how the "R" word is offensive and outdated. Here is an excerpt of their testimony: "In our self advocacy group, People First, we don't like the "R word" which is label and stands for Retarded. We don't like it because it hurts our feelings and it puts us down in our lifetime. 40 years ago doctors used to label us as retarded because it was accepted in society when a child was born with a disability it was okay to say the "R word". In 2008 it is NOT okay to use the "R word" when you are talking about ANY PERSON. We want to be known as a person first. A person with a name-- not called a diagnosis, an I.Q. Score, a mental age, or somebody's child. If the State and state organizations must describe our disability-- we request that the term Intellectual Developmental disability be used rather than the current term, Mental Retardation.
When Jill and Erin ended their testimony with "Virginia is not retarded anymore!" the room cheered and The House Committee for Health, Welfare and Institutions voted to report the bill out of committee with a unanimous vote. The bill also was referred out of the Senate Education and Health Committee with a unanimous vote. It will now go to the Committee of Courts and Justice. To track this bill with us each day, visit Legislative Information Services (http://leg1. state.va. us ) and search HB760 or SB620.
What can you do to help Jill and Erin get rid of the "R" word? Call or email members the Senate Subcommittee of Courts and Justice! Let them know that you support the People First movement to eliminate "Retarded" from the Virginia code! Members include the following Senators: Reynolds (Chairman), Saslaw, Stolle, Norment, Howell, McDougle, Hurt
CHAPTER DAYS UPDATE
The Richmond Arc helped get our "Chapter Days" effort off to a great start
on the first day of session-with 15 people from their local chapter "walking
the halls" to ask their Delegates and Senators to support "A Life Like
Yours" this session! Many thanks to the self-advocates and staff who worked
very hard to make today's A Life Like Yours 2008 advocacy calendar
distribution a huge success! It was a busy day for everyone-with over 140
offices visited within an hour and a half!!! By the time we were wrapping
things up to call it a day, we were hearing that several of the legislative
aids were already handing their copy of the calendar up! Great work Richmond
Arc-you all did a fabulous job!
That same week, we were joined by a group of advocates from The Arc of Northern Virginia for their Chapter Day-and what a day we had! Jill Egle, Vivian Alanzo, Erin Thompson and Nancy Mercer "walked the halls" here at the General Assembly, followed by their "paparazzi" Will Schermahorn who videotaped their advocacy efforts in action. Several members of the Northern Virginia delegation stopped Jill, Erin, and Vivian in the hallways to tell them how impressive their testimony was at the public hearings and also said how nice it was to see a friendly face from "home" at the General Assembly building. Once again we all learned the most effective (and most fun) advocacy is when you be yourself, and make it local- building on the personal relationships you have with your elected officials!
Chapter Days Next Week ...
January 22nd-The Arc of Harrisonburg Rockingham
January 24th-The Arc of Northern Virginia (Part II)
January 25th-Hanover Arc
The Arc in the News...
Richmond Times Dispatch
CBS-9
NBC-29 (Charlottesville)
Daily Press
Roanoke Times
