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Save Our System: An Urgent Call to Action
How You Can Help
We are asking you to provide your voice and help us advocate for funding that will help us employ committed direct support professionals and provide them with resources. Every person deserves the right to live and the right to make their own choices in life. If we all stand together, our collective voice can make lasting impact for those in our community.
How you can support this movement:
1. Write a Letter
Ask congress to secure funding for community based services for the IDD community.
Sample letter: Ardmore family member sample advocacy letter .docx
2. Spread Awareness
Take a second to follow our Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn pages below. Show your support by sharing information the using #Iadvocate and #idisabilityawareness to bring awareness and create urgency about issues that face the IDD community.
3. Volunteer or Donate
Donate or volunteer at organizations that support people with intellectual and developmental disabilities. For ways to donate to Ardmore, please visit the following: Donate | Support our Mission | ArdmoreEnterprises.org.
Why Your Action Is Needed
The CDC reports that approximately 26% of Americans have a disability and within in this same community, 6.5 million Americans have an intellectual or developmental disability. This means many of our fellow Americans count on direct support professionals to help them achieve a fair life that doesn't restrict them to minimal basic needs. Unfortunately, funding for community based services that employ direct support professionals were not included in the Inflation Reduction Act that was just passed by congress, leaving the IDD community with significant labor shortages.
The state of our economy has threatened funding that pours into the labor force that perform these services and support people with disabilities. As family members of people with disabilities grow old and become unable to provide care, they worry about what will happen to their loved one. Most will look to organizations to provide community support and care but these organizations don’t have the labor force or enough resources to help these families. As a result many may die while waiting for their turn to receive help.
At Ardmore, we look beyond necessities. We believe every person should be empowered and supported to live a quality and equitable life with equal access to resources and opportunities. To these resilient people with intellectual and developmental disabilities, our organization is the bridge to enjoying the liberties of life that are promised to us as Americans.
Resources:
A guide to Advocacy:
Getting Started With Advocacy: Who to Contact (apa.org)
Advocacy sample-letters (1).docx
Find your local state and congressional legislators. Be in the know about legislation that affects the IDD community:
GovTrack.us: Tracking the U.S. Congress
Learn about the ongoing Direct Support workforce crisis:
Impact | Winter/Spring 2018 Volume 31, Number 1 | Winter/Spring 2018Volume 31, Number 1 (umn.edu)
IDD community Advocacy resources:
References:
CDC. (2019, November 19). Health Care for Individuals with Intellectual Disabilities. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. https://www.cdc.gov/grand-rounds/pp/2019/20191015-intellectual-disabilities.html
A coalition from #bFair2DirectCare, who care for people with disabilities, protest for competitive wages prior to the start of then-New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo's State of the State addresses in Albany, N.Y., Jan. 11, 2017. | Hans Pennink/AP Photo. ‘People will die waiting’: America’s system for the disabled is nearing collapse - POLITICO