I spent most of today at the meeting of the Supporting
Families Community of Practice (CoP). If
you haven’t attended one of these meetings, by all means go to the DDS website
(www.dds.dc.gov) and click on the link to
the CoP to the left under “Top DDS Pages.”
You’ll find a wealth of information that’s been presented at past
meetings, and hopefully that will make you interested in attending next time. Incidentally, next month there will be a special
workshop, date and place not yet set, where family members can practice some of
the person-centered tools presented at earlier CoP meetings. Then in March there will be a regular CoP
meeting focused on employment, at which RSA (What’s that? See my page on
acronyms to the right!) will be present for a dialogue on current employment
efforts and where we need to go from here.
Before talking about today’s meeting, I want to say
something about the statement in my last blog post, “Giving Thanks,”about some Direct
Support Professionals facing a decline in pay rates due to a new wage
formula. Some folks have questioned
that, and I’ve tried to get a clarification from DDS since the subject is confusing
and I’m no expert. I haven’t yet gotten
a clear statement from DDS, but based on conversation I think I now understand
that those in DSP positions will not see pay reductions. I invite a comment from DDS on my blog to
make this even clearer.
So – today’s meeting.
The agenda was packed with a wealth of information – an overview of the
first three years of the CoP’s work, a presentation on the recently-issued
draft 2016 Olmstead Plan, an update on the District’s No Wrong Door initiative,
a briefing on the proposed “Citizens with Intellectual Disabilities Civil
Rights Restoration Act of 2015,” and a very lively discussion about ideas for the
2017-21 five-year plan for the Developmental Disabilities Council. You’ll be able to find the key documents
from the meeting on the DDS website very shortly. I want to call attention in particular to the
fact that the D.C. council hearing on the Civil Rights Restoration Act (see my
November 15 post, “Overdue Change for the District”) is going to take place at
11:00 on January 27. This is an
extremely important piece of legislation which can be found at https://trackbill.com/bill/citizens-with-intellectual-disabilities-civil-righ/1203275/. I’ll be discussing the bill in a future blog
post and will definitely be testifying on January 27th. I hope you too will take this one seriously
and either submit testimony, show up and testify, or both.
Besides serving as an important vehicle for learning about
key initiatives such as this new legislation, the Supporting Families Community
of Practice has evolved into an essential forum for people and their families to
come face to face with decision makers, talk about the realities we face right
now in trying to navigate the system, and push together for a better future. Today there was some excellent give and take
between presenters and participants, and Erin Leveton (erin.leveton@dc.gov) made a very good
decision in the early afternoon to offer an “open mic” session. Even though this shortened the sessions on
the last two agenda items, the time was well spent in order to give folks in
the audience a chance to raise burning issues affecting their lives.
When the meeting ended, we all had to return to those
present-day realities that remind us of the long road still ahead – I know I
did! Still, it was obvious that everyone
present welcomed the uplifting tone of this day, and hopefulness is the torch
that lights the way toward progress. Happy
holidays to all, and let’s carry that torch into 2016.
