1. Announcements
DD Council
FRIDAY, February 12, 2016, 9:30 am- noon
IAC, 150 West 30th Street, 15th floor
Information: Marco Damiani (212) 947-5770 x 456; manhattanddcouncilchair@gmail.com
Family Support Services Committee
Tuesday, February 9, 2016, 10:00 am – noon
Sinergia, 2082 Lexington Ave. at 125th Street, 4th floor
Information: Yesenia Estrella (212) 643-2840 x 349; yestrella@sinergiany.org
Transition Committee
Wednesday, February 10, 2016, 9:30 am – noon
AHRC, 83 Maiden Lane, 11th floor Board Room
Information: Kathy Kelly (212) 780-2724; Kathy.kelly@ahrcnyc.org
Legislative Committee
Monday, February 8, 2016, 10:00 am – noon
Sinergia, 2082 Lexington Ave. at 125th Street, 4th floor
Information: Jim Malley (212) 928-5810 x 101; Jmalley@esperanzacenter.net
Children’s Committee
Next meeting to be announced.
Information: Christina Muccioli (212) 780-2532; Christina.muccioli@ahrcnyc.org
2. Report on Statewide Family Support Services Committee
• On a recent phone conference, committee members discussed recruitment strategies of all the councils across the state. Focus of councils is mostly on visiting/evaluating family support services (FSS) in their region.
• Councils used to have larger roles: OPWDD used to allocate money every year or two for new FSS programs, which were determined through a Request for Proposals (RFP) process. The councils used to be involved in setting priorities for the RFP, reviewing proposals, and making recommendations for what should be funded.
• OPWDD is no longer issuing RFPs statewide. Council role is still to alert DDRO to unmet needs and to evaluate FSS programs.
• Manhattan is the only council that sees its mission as outreach/education as well as evaluating programs—the only council that regularly has presentations geared to issues families confront.
• Recruitment strategies vary by locality: rural, moderately populated, urban. One council uses the FSS satisfaction surveys, where families can indicate whether they are interested in learning more about the councils, to contact potential members; several use fairs; one holds their own fair.
• Some Councils have geographical challenges—need to travel long distances between areas. Some have both day and evening meetings. Manhattan has some evening meetings, where turnout can vary greatly. Some councils are using websites, FB, Twitter. Some councils have a lot of support from their DDRO. In rural areas, the DDRO is involved in outreach to families, even sending invitations to meetings. Some councils have a consistent core group, which varies from 4 people to 20 people.
• Most councils struggle getting members to do the program evaluation visits. Manhattan has a few members who do the visits, but not on a regular basis. The visits are very interesting. At the visits, we look at compliance (are the programs providing the correct amount of service, is the service well documented) and quality (are the people benefitting as they should from the service, is the service helping the families, are the staff well trained and supervised, etc.) At these evaluation visits, you can learn a lot about what makes a good program, and you can contribute a great deal from your parent perspective. You can make suggestions that might improve a program. It’s a wonderful way to contribute.
• Council members do all visits together with the DDRO staff. Janet Davis, Manhattan’s FSS Coordinator, has been doing visits for years. She is an expert. Janet and I will train new volunteers so that you have a good idea of what to look for at the visits. The following people volunteered to participate in FSS evaluation visits: Melodie Walton, Michelle Druitt, Colette Corry, Sunny ONeil, Elizabeth Ayala, Adriana Maya, Michael Haas, Carol Dillon.
3. Speaker: Richard Bosch, Deputy Executive Director, IAC, on the Governor’s Proposed Budget
• Richard explained the budget process: the Governor releases his budget proposals; he can amend them within 30 days. After this, the Assembly and the Senate negotiate over the budget items. The outcome of the negotiations is the final enacted budget. The Governor released his proposals January 13, and we are now awaiting the 30-day budget amendments.
• There was a joint budget hearing on the OPWDD budget earlier this week. You can access it at http://assembly.state.ny.us/av/hearings/. You can also get more information on the budget by going to https://www.budget.ny.gov/ and clicking on Briefing Book, then checking the few pages on the OPWDD budget.
• OPWDD budget:
o Total is $4.4 billion. OPWDD claims this is an increase of 4.3%, or $6.2 million, but Richard pointed out that much of that money is just for annualizing last year’s new residential services.
o $120 million for new residential, day, family supports, and other services, including residential services for students aging out of residential settings. Services are funded by 50% state and 50% federal Medicaid dollars; so that $120 million is really $60 million from the state.
o $24 million exclusively for residential services for those leaving developmental centers and for those moving out of ICFs.
o $15 million for the START programs in NYC and Long Island.
o $15 million for new affordable housing opportunities, in development projects that have a set-aside for people with developmental disabilities.
o 0.2% cost of living increase.
o NOT included: funding to implement the proposed $15/hour minimum wage. Non-profit providers have no way to pay for this without cutting staff or services. (More information under 4 below.) The cost of this is $270 million just for this year.
• Special Education budget:
o Nonpublic special education preschools got no increase again after 6 years without an increase. These schools are cutting staff and eking out savings. A dozen schools closed last year and more will likely close this year. The public sector ((UPK) is better funded and pays its teachers more; UPK is stripping teachers from the nonpublic schools, which now have very high vacancies.
o Nonpublic special education schools and preschools were given $2 million for teacher recruitment and retention.
• Richard also discussed the recent letter from OPWDD stating that transportation was being cut from respite programs. Janet Davis clarified that this does not apply to NYC respite programs which have transportation costs built into the rates; the only programs affected are those that bill Medicaid separately for transportation.
4. Current/Recent Advocacy Efforts
• Biggest advocacy issue is the wages of direct support staff. The Governor is proposing a $15/hour minimum wage to be increased incrementally, but doesn’t include any funding for this. For the non-profit agencies who rely exclusively on government for funding, there is no way to provide the increases, which they will be legally obligated to do if the $15/hour minimum proposal is enacted by the Legislature.
• Non-profit agencies are not McDonalds—they can’t raise prices, purchase less costly ingredients, cut profits. They cannot provide the increase without cutting staff or cutting programs. We don’t just want the minimum wage for direct support staff. They now make a bit more than the current minimum. We want funding for wage increases that will not only meet the minimum wage but exceed it to the same degree that their current wages exceed the current minimum.
• There is now an advocacy effort to call the Governor and your legislators to advocate for funding in the budget for wage increases for DSPs.
• NYC Fair
o Lynn Decker reported on the recent activities of this dynamic family advocacy group. At their recent meeting with the Transformation Panel to discuss its official recommendations, parents expressed disappointment that the recommendations were very general statements of principle without any specifics for implementation.
o Willie Mae Goodman arranged a hearing with Senator Perkins and Assemblyman Rodriguez for families to come and speak out about their concerns. NYC Fair co-sponsored the meeting, which was very well attended. People spoke about a variety of issues including the need for development of additional residential services, the need for the state to provide funding to implement any new minimum wage, the many problems with regulations governing self-determination, and other issues as well. Following the meeting, Senator Perkins is working with several parents, including NYC Fair, on next advocacy steps.
o NYC Fair is working on other projects, including peer mentoring for new parents, analysis of the waiver renewal application, and the transformation panel recommendations.
o NYC Fair is also forming a coalition of statewide advocacy groups in order to have a stronger, more unified family voice across NYS. The new statewide group is called SWAN: Statewide Advocacy Network
o For more information, go to www.NYCFair.org.
5. Ideas for Future Meeting Topics
Members suggested a presentation on the Able Act. Margaret will try to arrange it.