Good News, Bad News

June 4th, 2010 by John Dickerson

There was some good news and news that is not at all good this week.   The bit of good news came in the latest revenue report, showing that state revenue may exceeded the revised budget forcast for the third month in a row.  This is encouraging; however, state revenue is still below the original forcast that the two-year budget was built on. 

The not good news is that another round of cuts has been made that will be very difficult for Hoosiers with disabilities.  As of July 1, Indiana’s statewide crisis assistance program will shut down.  This important program served well over 1,500 people with developmental disabilities each year - people who were in extreme crisis.  It will be very difficult to keep people facing such a crisis safe without this program. 

The need to address revenue and look at how funds are being spent is why  The Arc has launched the Building Pathways to Empowerment campaign.  The new home page of the Pathways section of our web site  is now live, and there will soon be special sections including ways to share innovations, message boards, the latest news, and a calendar related to Pathways events and meetings.

The loss of the Crisis Assistance Program only underscores the importance of moving forward with the Pathways Campaign.  We encourage you to learn more and to join in this important effort.

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Telling Your Story - Putting a Face on “Faceless” Budget Cuts

April 23rd, 2010 by John Dickerson

Further state budget cuts were announced yesterday, but how the cuts will be implemented remains unclear.  Governor Daniels has asked all state agencies to reduce their budgets by a total of 15% - this does include the 10% cuts already announced last week that touch many of the programs for people with intellectual and other developmental disabilities.   

At this point, FSSA has indicated they are working to address the additional 5% cut through contract reductions that do not affect individuals or require further rate cuts, but no guarantees can be made. 

6 News in Indianapolis  reported on the impact of budget cuts, including interviews with me and Noble of Indiana - the local chapter of The Arc in Marion and Hamiliton counties.  Take a view minutes to view 6 News’ Kara Kenny’s report. 

This latest news only underscores the importance of The Arc’s Building Pathways to Empowerment Campaign.  A critical piece of that campaign is to put a “face” on the “faceless” impact of budget cuts.  To do that, we need to hear your story.   

This week we hosted a forum on Early Intervention and Education, and heard from Barb Kleist of The Arc of Greater Twin Cities, MN on the importance of telling your story.  Our web site will soon provide a simple way to share your story, upload video and share photos.  We will also have video clips of Barb’s presentation on why sharing your story is so important, and simple tips on how to to share your story in the most effective way.  

The Arc has a long history of making a difference - but only because families and self-advocates can make a very real and personal connection with policy makers on the impact of their decisions.   

Continue to keep up-to-date with our Building Pathways to Empowerment Campaign by checking in on my blog, connecting with us on Facebook, following us on Twitter and signing up to receive our E-Newsletter. You can find quick links to all of these on our web site, www.arcind.org

I look forward to hearing from you, and learning more about your story!

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In Difficult Times, Remembering a Founder’s Words

April 16th, 2010 by John Dickerson

Many years ago, during one of our more trying days at the Indiana General Assembly, I made the trip to Rushville to speak at the Rush County Arc annual dinner.  I must admit on that day I was weary, feeling the weight of the people who did not believe in what we were trying to do.  A moment from that night remains in great clarity with me today.

I was talking with one of our founders, who at that time was just months away from having to move into a nursing home as she was becoming more and more frail.  This woman, who started organizing our movement in 1949, asked me how things were going.  And in a self-indulgent moment I complained about the folks who just did not understand how difficult it was to get legislators to move forward.  She looked at me - all 5 foot 2 inches and probably 95 pounds of her - and gave me a stern look.  She waved her hand around, and said, “Look at all we have accomplished, more than I ever dreamed of!”  Then she looked me square in the eye and said, “John, when do you ever think it was easy.”

That message has stayed with me these many years.  We certainly are in no easy times.  The announcements over the last two days that FSSA is making cuts to funding in Voc. Rehab. and Medicaid Waivers bring more challenges to us.  The economic realities the state faces is making life more challenging for people with disabilities and their families.  Yet, it is important to put things in context.

The $30 million cut from the Medicaid Waiver program is very significant.  But what remains is nearly $470 million dollars a year.  The $12 million cut in the group home program is also significant.  But what remains is just under $400 million.  The overall budget for DDRS this year is over $1 billion and serves 17,500 people.   I remember in the early 80s when we were working hard to establish just 50 new group home beds for the entire state.

These cuts are going to be very difficult to absorb, and as we said in our statement yesterday, we need to find new answers, including eliminating bureaucracy and needless paperwork that adds no value to people’s lives.  But we also have to look to more than just what we have always done.  We are doing this through our Building Pathways to Empowerment campaign.

It has never been easy, and will not be so for a long time, but people are counting on us, both those who have help today, and those facing a waiting list decades long.  Thanks for all you do.

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Building Pathways to Empowerment

March 5th, 2010 by John Dickerson

Building pathways to Empowerment

While listening to a news show this morning I had the chance to listen to someone I consider one of the really smart people in the world dealing with our economy, Thomas Freidman, of the New York Times.  He was saying that whether or not health care reform passes, this is the last chance for a very long time for the American people to get a new slice of the pie.  After this debate is over, virtually everything we do is all about building a bigger pie tin that builds our economy.

I think he is absolutely right, and it is something that is at the center of the new effort launched today by The Arc of Indiana.

This economy and the resulting impact it is having on education/special education, health care and programs for people with disabilities, is at a critical crossroads.   We can rail against the cuts and play defense and work to lessen the cuts - which might be successful to a degree - but in the end we are fighting a losing battle and in many ways abandoning people waiting for services who are desperate. 

The Arc is starting out on a new path, one that starts from the premise that we can reinvent what it is we want as a product and what it is that addresses the new realities of today’s economy, while also focusing on the essential and fundamental values of personal choice, individual empowerment and seeking meaningful relationships. Indiana’s service system for adults spends $1 Billion dollars a year - much of it for things people do not feel add value and fall into the category of bureaucracy and paperwork.  We need to streamline, remove barriers and needless buearucracy and allow people to get back to what is best for people.

This change will need to involve what consumers - families and self-advocates- want and need, providers in what they provide, and government in how they deliver, pay for and administer these services.

It is a critical time for Indiana. Perhaps no other time in my career has been so challenging.  But in talking with families, self-advocates and providers in recent weeks, this also can be liberating.  We have always been the visionarys who sought a better way, there is no more better time to do that again than right now, and if not us, who. 

We hope you will join with us. Keep informed through all the electronic ways available on our website.  Join us at meetings we will be organizing around the state. Watch and listen to us on radio shows and television news programs. Read about this campaign in local newspapers.  We will be reaching out and speaking everywhere we can to share this new message.  Thank you for all you do every day.  We look forward to you joining us on this new pathway.

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Did Federal Stimulus Work? For People with Disabilities, Yes

February 18th, 2010 by John Dickerson

Did the federal stimulus work?  One can only wonder how people in Indiana would have been impacted had we not had the stimulus program to avoid massive cuts in education and Medicaid.  An article in the February 18th issue of the Indianapolis Star on this topic mentions only briefly that stimulus funds kept teachers employed and provided Medicaid health benefits.  Indiana expects to receive a total of $1.4 billion in Medicaid stimulus funding, not $1.4 million as reported in an early edition of the Star.  These funds are critical to the lives of Hoosiers who are elderly or disabled, as well as to the staff that serve them. 

Home care for people with disabilities and seniors is a key example.  Stimulus funds provided an increase in the federal contribution to Indiana’s Medicaid program, allowing thousands of vulnerable Hoosiers to receive the supports they need to live in their homes. The people who serve them continued to receive a paycheck, pay taxes, support their families and not end up on Medicaid and/or unemployment themselves.

It is quite amazing that politics continues to be played on the stimulus and other critical issues, rather than all sides pulling together to work to address the tremendous problems facing our state and country. 

The Arc of Indiana is committed to finding better and smarter ways to utilize federal and state funds that are so important to the people we represent.  We understand that we must all work together to develop new approaches that use tax dollars in the most effective way and direct help to those most in need.   We have been working for several months in partnership with leaders of provider agencies to push for the implementation of real reforms that can save significant funds and allow people to continue to receive vital services.  Without the federal stimulus dollars, we would be in a far different position - scrabbling to react to cuts in funding and services beyond those that have occurred, rather than working towards more innovative approaches to using scarce resources.     

While it is fair to ask if the stimulus worked, political noise should not be allowed to drown out reasonable voices that seek to rebuild our economy while at the same time take care of vulnerable citizens.

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Ground-breaking conference set for October 1st

August 24th, 2009 by John Dickerson

The news is filled with town hall meetings where the dialogue is hot and at times a bit frightening for people.  It is clear that health care reform has touched a nerve with those who both want it and those that are against it.  Few topics have generated such intensity in recent times.  Many more feel that finding common ground on many of the challenges facing us is getting more difficult.

 

Many feel this intensity reflects the great uncertainty many people are feeling every day.  Jobs are gone, retirement accounts have been devastated, and people caught in the middle worry about their aging parents, their children and their own security.

 

Rather than raising our voices, The Arc believes we can use technology to help us find what really is important.   

 

On October 1, 2009, The Arc is going to do something we have never done before.  We are going to ask people to use the state-of-the-art technology to ask families, self-advocates, and professionals the 60 most critical questions that we could fashion.  Covering every area from these critical questions will be answered by every attendee, breaking out the responses and sharing with everyone who attends, how people really feel about the critical choices people need to make.

 

Topics will include early childhood, education, health care, employment, family support, living in the community, future planning and guardianship, cultural competency, post-secondary education and training all will be covered.  We have had a group of families professionals, and self advocates working all summer to ask the right questions.

 

Nothing has ever been done to ask so many, such critical questions and provide near instant feedback.  And its affordable.

 

The registration for this ground-breaking event is just $15 for self-advocates, $19 for families, and $35 for professionals and that includes free parking at The Indianapolis Zoo with shuttle service.   That also includes lunch with special guest Tom Pomeranz!

 

Make your voice heard.  We hope to have the largest gathering of consumers, families and professional together for this incredible event. For more information go to www.arcind.org.  

 

Be there for something unlike anything we have ever done.  This is not the time for yelling at each other, but forging some common ground on what is important and where we need to go  I hope to see you October 1st.

 

 

 

 

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Traveling across country - impact of government cutbacks felt

July 5th, 2009 by John Dickerson

This Fourth of July holiday had found us traveling across the midwest to see family in South Dakota.  Each state we have spent time in, Illinois, Minnesota and South Dakota are all facing very tough decisions regarding state funding.  A common theme in each is that they must cut spending with human services and education heading the list. 

In Illinois, a budget impasse - which we avoided  in Indiana - is leaving many families and community organizations wondering what will happen.  In Minnesota, the Governor is using his authority to reduce the budget and people with disabilities will face real cuts.

There is no doubt that our future ability to educate and support people with disabilities in Indiana will depend on how quickly our economy responds to federal and state initiatives.  Many believe we have not hit bottom yet, others see signs that it the economy is responding to these initiatives. 

It is going to be a tough two years as the budget passed by the General Assembly will force some difficult choices.  The state budget combined with the reduced county revenue adds to the problem.  Some of our county leaders are working hard to continue their support of programs for people with disabilities while others have already targeted eliminating county funding for programs for people with disabilities, will put tremendous pressure on agencies and families. 

Our work is just beginning as we look toward the future.  It will again come back to how well we organize, find new answers to these challenging problems and pull together.   We have done it before and will again.

One of the values of traveling is realizing how good home looks.  Seeing what is happening in other states makes me realize how very good it is to be from Indiana - because of you.  Thanks for all you do.

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Special Session Debate On Three Critical Issues: How do you feel?

June 17th, 2009 by John Dickerson

I am often asked by people why members of the General Assembly just can’t get together and work things out.  The divide we face today on the Special Session underscores some of the fundamental differences people have about three key issues.

 

Public Education:  How much money should we put into public education, k-12 including special education and how should we treat stimulus dollars for special education?  How many new charter schools should be allowed in each district and what does that mean for the children left behind?  Public Education makes up about 50% of the state budget so what decide is critical.

 

The CIB – the Marion County entity that manages the Convention Center, Lucas Oil Stadium and Conseco Field House: Should the rest of the state help solve this problem and at what cost?

 

Gambling:  The gambling industry wants help, they are losing money and recently one of the race track/casinos said they may have to file for bankruptcy.

 

People across the state feel very strongly about these issues and their voices are heard and represented by our legislators.  How do you feel about these?

 

While these are being debated, we are working hard to make sure these issues don’t overshadow the issues that are important for people with disabilities and their families.  Please keep checking our website for the latest information, we need your help to be successful in not getting lost in the debate.

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