Dear Friends,
As I sit here at my computer, I am pondering the new budget cuts and how they will affect people with disabilities and the people who provide personal care for them. As a person who has a disability myself, I have cerebral palsy and I am both a client of In Home Supportive Services (I.H.S.S.) as well as the regional centers that care for people with developmental disabilities.
The governor has proposed a two dollar an hour cut to IHSS and a reduction in hours to clients who do not make the functional scale will lose hours. Right now the cuts for IHSS depend on the county you live in.
The department of developmental disability (DDS) who control the 21 regional centers that provides services to clients who have cerebral palsy, epilepsy, mental retardation, autism, deaf and hard of hearing, have already undergone a 3% cut in March of this year. The governor is proposing another 7% cut effective July 1st. This is to all providers and service providers for all regional centers.
Ultimately, I am under the impression that these cuts are not legal under the Olmstead Act as well as other disability rights. But more importantly I believe that the quality of life of people with disabilities will suffer and it will move us back in time to a place where institutions were the norm and people with disabilities were never integrated into society.
Today people with disabilities get educated, work, have relationships, and most importantly be an everyday part of society. The governor is putting this all at risk.
In lieu of the resignation of several major disability advocates, I would like to ask for donations and your involvement of allowing me the financial ability to go to Sacramento. I will also need all of you to demonstrate alongside of me and try one last time to maintain what we have now. I want to let you all know that I am a working man and feel its necessary to assert all of my time and energy to this critical cause. I hope all of you share my compassion and that you will act to make a better quality of life for all people because if we are not successful in getting these cuts removed, we can only blame the people who do nothing. In advance I thank you for your support but more importantly, I urge you to contact me, come to Sacramento, and help me convince governor Schwarzenegger that these cuts violate civil rights and the well beings of people lives.
Donations can be taken through Paypal.com, and the email address is daretodream94704@yahoo.com
Thank you all for your support,
Nicholas Feldman
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