The Arc of Illinois

July 12, 2010

Leaders in The Arc:

Today I was in Chicago meeting with Nora Fox Handler for her orientation as a new member of The Arcs Board. Welcome Nora!

Here is a TV News story on The Arc of Rock Island County and the budget crisis. Good job Kyle: http://www.wqad.com/news/wqad-arc-state-budget-070910,0,6827085.story

Arc Board Member Vickie Niswander was featured in a Guest Commentary in the Champaign News Gazette, Sunday! Her commentary follows.

Keep it up! We need to flood the media with our stories.

Tony Paulauski

The Arc of Illinois

815-4664-1832

July 11, 2010

Champaign News-Gazette

Now is the Time to Make Changes for People with Disabilities

Services for people with disabilities in Illinois are already pathetic, and about to get worse. More than 20,000 people with disabilities sit on a waiting list, many living with parents in their 80s and 90s. The new budget proposed by Governor Quinn cuts $94 million from community services for individuals with developmental disabilities the most cost-effective services while maintaining 8 state operated developmental centers that serve less than 3,000 people at a cost of more than $150,000 per person. Illinois already compares unfavorably to nearly every other state in the country in community-based services.  The governor, legislature and every citizen in Illinois should be embarrassed by these facts, but life and politics go on as usual. 

It is predicted that at least 3,000, and up to 15,000 children and adults with disabilities will soon lose services altogether, and 800 direct care professionals will be unemployed as a result.  Literally dozens of families in Champaign County alone are in critical need, and have been for quite some time.  Cuts that have occurred year after year in Illinois have them losing any hope whatsoever. They do the best they can because they have too, but they worry every day about what will happen to their loved one when they are no longer there to provide food, clothing, shelter, transportation, physical and emotional support. And worry they should, because the one good solution that has been offered, has been largely ignored.

Beginning in the Spring of 2008, the Illinois Council on Developmental Disabilities funded and published a document call the Illinois Blueprint for System Redesign.  The plan outlined three actions that would bring Illinois up to average compared with other states in their services for people with disabilities.  If enacted, the blueprint would eliminate Illinois waiting list for services. It would implement more cost-effective spending that gives people the option of less-costly community services.  And finally, it would close 4 of the 8 state-run institutions over the course of seven years, replacing them with community-based living options.

Yes, initially it would be more costly to continue maintaining expensive services as we transition to community-based services, but the final outcome would be far less expensive, with the added advantage of allowing people with disabilities to live, work and have friends and family surrounding them.  There is never a good time to make changes, but there is a right time to make changes, and now is that time.

The solution is complex but possible. What would make it possible is for people who care, including friends, family, neighbors, unions, and legislators to step up and defend community-based services for people with disabilities.  You know what is right. Speak for those who are, in many cases, unable to speak for themselves, and end this hideous debacle that places responsibility for the state budget on the backs of those who are least able to fight back.  Support the Blueprint for System Redesign in Illinois.

Call your legislator, call the governor and attend the Disability Legislative Forum on August 11 at the Brookens Gymnasium (1776 E. Washington St., Urbana) at 7 pm. Make your voices heard, and make a positive difference for people with disabilities.

Vicki Niswander

Vicki Niswander of Mahomet is the parent of a 27-year-old woman with a disability, the Executive Director of the Illinois Association of Microboards and Cooperatives, and the host of Disability Beat, a weekly public affairs program on WEFT Community Radio 90.1FM.