Deaf Activists in the Eye of the Storm in Albany!

Posted on August 30, 2008

by Dean DeRusso, Deaf Systems Advocate

We got the Governor to know we want to be independent…

August 19 was the day when emergency budget sessions about state budget cuts were scheduled.   Those cuts would mean loss of employment and loss of services in the community.

Cuts to Independent Living and Home Care would push people back into nursing homes.  But, for the Deaf community it was about removing effective communication in the community, in other words, removing their voice and hearing in the community. Read more

ADAPT Takes on Albany: Stop the Budget Cuts!

Posted on August 21, 2008

by Anita Cameron, Systems Advocate

Two busloads of Rochester ADAPT members traveled to Albany bright and early Tuesday morning to send a strong message to Governor Paterson to stop the budget cuts to Independent Living Centers and home care.  Independent Living Centers are slated to receive a 6% cut in funding (in addition to a 2% cut earlier in the year); while the home care cuts will have a potentially devastating effect on personal care attendants, and the consumers that they work for. For many of the over seventy of us, this was the first action they ever participated in. Read more

How Do You Spell Power?

Posted on August 21, 2008

by Stephanie Woodward, Transportation Advocate

Before embarking on our trip to Albany, I was unsure of how we were going to be effective.  I thought with so many people on the trip, someone would get lost or it would move rather slowly with lots of people and wheelchairs to move around.  When we arrived in Albany though, I was amazed by the cohesiveness of our whole group to get off the bus, unload all of the wheelchairs and start the Action immediately.  Moving at such a rapid pace, I feared that I would get lost throughout the labyrinth of the Empire State Plaza.  However, I learned quickly that the cohesiveness of the group did not end with the unloading of the buses, but continued throughout our whole Action in Albany.  There were people from our group strategically placed throughout the Plaza directing and helping the whole group to ensure everyone arrived in the governor’s office. Read more

Did You Ever Wonder How CDR Does It?

Posted on August 21, 2008

by Diane Coleman, Assistant Director of Advocacy

Although I’ve been in ADAPT since 1985, I am new at CDR and just experienced my first Albany action.  It was definitely that – an experience.  I’ve always wondered, given CDR’s national reputation among disability activists, “How do they do it?”  Now I have seen it first hand.

The decision to go to Albany on the day of the emergency budget session was made one week before.  This is when state budget cuts were announced.  On that day, a preliminary action alert was sent out by the Advocacy Team, and logistical work began.  That included ordering two charter buses that could accommodate over 40 people each, and starting an ever growing list of staff and volunteers from all departments who wanted to make the all day trip, which requires three and a half hours each way plus the protest time in Albany. Read more

Doing the little things well

Posted on August 20, 2008

by Chris Hilderbrant, Director of Advocacy

Our trip to Albany to protest the cuts proposed by the Governor and ultimately adopted by the NYS Senate and Assembly blew my mind for a few basic reasons.

Read more

Is Florida behind the rest of the world in their Medicaid Policy?

Posted on August 12, 2008

by Rose Dodson, Quality Assurance Coordinator

A recent article in the AARP magazine’s “The Law” column caught my eye. The case discussed was “Should Medicaid beneficiaries with disabilities be forced to live in nursing homes?”

John Boyd, who is fighting the policy in Florida, is an educated man who, because of his disability-related needs (he is a quadriplegic) and Florida Medicaid policies, must live in a nursing home. Florida Medicaid rules “force some adults with disabilities to stay in nursing homes.”  John and five others are pursuing a lawsuit that will force Florida to look at the way funding for long-term care is spent. Apparently, the state is far behind the national average for funding community-based services. The lawsuit addresses the fact that the ADA requires that programs for people with disabilities are in the most integrated settings, which nursing homes are not. Read more

“Constructiveness of Compassion”

Posted on August 9, 2008

by Lara Kassel, Medicaid Matters NY

On July 31st, I watched a webcast of Governor Paterson speaking at the weekly National Press Club Luncheon in Washington, DC.  He focused his talk on the sluggish state of the economy and how it has gravely impacted New York State.  The theme and tone of his talk were not-surprisingly grim.  Earlier in the week, he had announced that the state economy is in the worst shape it has been in in over ten years, forcing the reopening of the already-deficient 2008-09 state budget to attempt to chip away at the now $6.4 billion deficit.  The Administration plans to make $630 million in cuts to state operations, and the Governor has called upon the Legislature to return to Albany for a special session on August 19th to come up with an additional $600 million in cuts.  (You may hear these actions described as “savings,” but I prefer to use the word “cuts” because it is a better characterization of what they actually are.)  A hiring freeze is being imposed, including attrition of positions when state employees retire.  The cuts overall equate to 7% of the state budget, on top of the 3.3% cuts already made a few months ago. Read more

Call to Conscience: Rochester ADAPT takes on RGRTA about unfair fare reductions!

Posted on August 8, 2008

 by Anita Cameron, Systems Advocate

Almost 60 people from Rochester ADAPT crowded into Room Monroe B, at Monroe Community College (MCC), where the Rochester Genesee Regional Transportation Authority (RGRTA) was having its monthly meeting of the Board of Commissioners. After delivering a strong message at the hearing last Thursday, August 1st, we decided to take this message to the RGRTA Board—Make the fares fair! While RGRTA is reducing fares for fixed route riders to 1991 levels, Lift Line riders will still be paying more than they were in 2005! Read more

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