Action Alerts!
This page is to keep you informed about issues and legislation concerning individuals with developmental disabilities and ways in which you may get involved.
Take Action: Ask your Representatives to Cosponsor
You - the workers and their allies - have finally made your voices heard in Washington, DC, and must continue to be active. Now more than ever, we must work together in support of basic labor protections and better quality of care for individuals we support. Your efforts to gain support for the Direct Care Workforce Empowerment Act by contacting your Representatives have been successful - more than two dozen members of Congress have become cosponsors of the bill! Let's keep the pressure on. Learn more about the bill and contact your Representatives. Please click on the red links to learn more and to contact your representatives in Congress.
Caught in the Crossfire: Consumers, Families and Agencies Ready to Move but Still Waiting
Below is a link to an article published in the Star Ledger which highlights the critical need, especially in these difficult economic times, to move towards a cost-efficient process and the wise expenditure of State funds to meet the needs of thousands of people living with developmental disabilities. The article discusses the 15 families who had their funding cut, as part of the recent FY2010 budget reductions, to move into the community from institutions despite that they had housing and plans in place. If more efficient processes had been in place, families and their loved ones may have already been living in the homes designed for them. Reducing funding for these families will come with an increased cost to the State as institutional care is often more expensive than similar care in the community. In this difficult and painful budget climate, New Jersey cannot afford inefficient processes that lead to costly outcomes. As always, NJACP members stand ready to support people in the community and continue to call on the administration and the Legislature to ensure that cost-effective ways of distributing public dollars and timely processes are in place to provide services to the many people who wait.