You're Not Listening rally June 23rd

CALLING ALL CONCERNED

The “You’re Not Listening!” event takes place TUESDAY, June 23. This event will have a different feel/appeal than what has been done in the past.

There has been marching, rallying, chanting, singing, moments of silence, emailing, phone calling, meeting with your legislators, articles in the news, letters to the editor, interest stories on the news/tv and the list goes on… These efforts HAVE made a difference. A judgment was awarded resulting in 69 days without budget cuts and restoration of non-title 19 funded services – so far; restoration of Early Intervention Services and a renewed sense of urgency and attention to the disabled population. But we cannot stop there. We need assurances for our children well beyond the age of 3. Our State government is NOT LISTENING to our cries for justice for ALL disabled citizens.

Therefore think visual, symbolic, strong messages that convey images, feelings and thoughts, to other participants. Our focused target group is the Governor, Legislators, the press/media and passersby.

Ideas…Suggestions…

• Earmuffs representing you’re not listening/hearing us

• Trace two hands together and “cut” off one finger – representing a loss of 10%

**Place your name, address, phone number on the back for delivery to Governor/Legislators**

• Group of 100 people, 90 in white shirts, 10 in black.

• Candlelight Vigil – 100 candles, 10 not lit

We need large banners like bed sheets, bolts of cloth with statements representing what “You’re Not Listening” means to you and the individuals you serve. Use your body as a billboard – wearing white t-shirts with your message of “You’re Not Listening”. Or depict thoughts and feelings about being developmentally disabled – that it is a challenge in itself - having to justify that disability - having to justify necessary life supporting services - having to settle for anything less than whole is an injustice – merciless - acts of violence (another train of thought).

Timelines…..this is an estimate, details will be sent Monday 6/22/09

11:30a – Governors tower

12:00p – Press Release House Lawn

12:30p – House of Representatives

1pm – Senate

Prayer/Candlelight Vigil – 7pm-9pm

As Tom stated in his last email, “I am begging each of you to put aside any differences and work together to fight the extremely destructive appropriations that will hurt people with disabilities, their families and providers of service for years to come, if they are approved as currently recommended. We would love to see you next Tuesday and we hope you will support our efforts to get our Governor and Legislature to listen to our plea.”

Please forward this notice, as well as future notices, to anyone you think might be potentially interested.

Thursday's Rally

I've been keeping an eye out for someone in blogland who attended the Capitol building rally on Thursday, and I finally found someone here. It looks like there was a good turnout.
If you have run across any other links or news stories related to the most recent rally, please let me know!

Capitol Building Rally

Tungland Corp. is organizing another rally to raise awareness about the DDD/DES funding cuts. Here is the info from the flier that is going around:

Don’t Cut Us Out!

March & Rally

for

Arizona’s Developmentally Disabled Children, Adults, & Families

Thursday, March 19, 2009

MARCH 11:30 – 12:30p

Where: Route will be on the sidewalks around Wesley Bolin Memorial Park. We will start promptly at 11:30 AM and will circle around Wesley Bolin Memorial Park adjacent to the Capitol.

RALLY 1:00p – 2:30p

Where: The Senate Lawn at the State Capitol

Organizers: The Arizona Developmentally Disabled community and their provider service agencies represented by the Arizona Association of Providers for People with Disabilities.

Sponsors: If you or your organization would like to be a co-sponsor or volunteer for this event, please contact Colleen at 602.617.2129 or colleen@tungland.com.

· Speech by Arizona State Rep. Kyrsten Sinema and other community and political leaders, community members, and advocates.

· Activities during the Rally: Voter Registration, Locate Your Legislator, Participation via Petition, Give the Governor Your Opinion, Send a Message to Your State Legislator

· Music, Singing, Chanting

Why we’re marching and rallying:

· Last January 31, 2009 the Legislature passed a bill that drastically cut funding for 29,000 Arizona developmentally disabled adults, children, and their families. Governor Janice K. Brewer signed the bill.

· The Legislature ordered the Department of Economic Security to implement the cuts without giving the DES any guidance on how to do it. So the DES discharged staff, cut essential services such as Early Intervention Program (EIP) which helps children under three years olds with disabilities, and slashed the rates they pay to service providers by 10%. These devastating cuts threaten to put thousands of Arizonans with developmental disabilities in immediate and irreparable harm.

Contact Governor Jan Brewer, 1700 West Washington, Phoenix AZ 85007

Toll free 1-800-253-0883 FAX 602-542-1381 Phone 602-542-4331

Or online link at azgovernor.gov/Contact.asp

DON’T CUT US OUT!

They are suggesting that participants wear black t-shirts, representing both loss of services, and the elegance and respect that should be accorded to ALL people. I don't know yet if I'll be attending, but if anyone who reads this does, please let me know how it goes! I'd love to see some pictures!

Should I Bother?

That's been my question this week, every time I sit down to do something work-related. Do I bother putting together a few intake packets? What about the family I'm trying to start that hasn't been returning my phone calls? We are literally in a place where I could get a call tomorrow that it all goes kablooey as of Monday. Thankfully, that doesn't seem too likely since families haven't been getting termination letters. They ARE being told that authorizations won't be renewed, which means families won't be getting any new services, and many won't have services for much longer (most authorizations come up for renewal every 6 months). What's looking most likely right now, at least from my point of view, is that authorizations just won't be renewed, so kids will slowly drop off of the caseloads (mostly earlier than they should).
These are some pictures from the rally at the capitol building today. I don't know this woman, but I had to get a picture of her sign. I'd guess there were 400-500 people there- not a bad turnout for such short notice. And reasonably impressive when you squeeze them all into a fairly small outdoor area. :) There were also 2 news vans and at least one radio commentator that I saw walking around. I heard we were on both the 12 o'clock, and the evening news today, which is good. The more people see this and the less they are able to sneak it under the radar, the better. I did some searching and found a link to the video, but I'm having trouble embedding it, so here's the link.
I saw lots of families with young kids, and lots of adults receiving services. We tried to get in to talk to some of the senators and representatives, but were generally told that they were all in meetings, so we wound up leaving papers with secretaries and assistants. I saw a few important-looking people walking around appearing miffed that we were interrupting their day. Near the end of the day I ran into a speech therapist I know, and she said she'd been told that at least one senator was refusing to see people or take phone calls.

Here's our whole crew from Mosaic. I'm really happy that people from all of the different departments turned out, including the executive director and the HR lady. Granted, these cuts will affect everyone across the board, although differently. Really, though, the only person we left in the office was the receptionist.

Partway through the afternoon we went into the main area, thinking that the meetings and speeches were going to be here. We were wrong, but it was good for everyone to know we were there. :) One of the senators recognized all of the people from the disability community, so we all hooted and hollered a bit.
Once we realized we were in the wrong place, we hustled into the hearing rooms, where we got to listen in via closed circuit video. The hearings that were scheduled to start at 2pm actually started closer to 2:45. First they grilled someone about the cuts to higher education funding, then it was DES' turn. Some of what was said went over my head, but a fair amount of it made me want to scream. They basically said the cuts were going to hurt children, deny federally-mandated services, decimate the small businesses and nonprofits that provide services, and have more kids needing help when they are school-aged. And yet, they claim they have no other option for making up the budget shortfall.
So really, we did what we could. Letters and e-mails are still being sent, and we showed up and made ourselves heard. Oh, and I have a sunburn.