Author: cjohnmurph

ADAPT is a national grass-roots community that organizes disability rights activists to engage in nonviolent direct action, including civil disobedience, to assure the civil and human rights of people with disabilities to live in freedom. Formed by a collective of local ADAPT Chapters, National ADAPT has worked for the past 30+ years to promote community living for aging and disabled people through reform of the outdated long-term service and support system. An essential part of living in the community is the ability to participate in free and fair elections.  There must be full accessibility to the ballot box and the electoral infrastructure including but not limited to the two-party system.  In order to ensure that voters with disabilities are able to participate in the voting process, people with disabilities must be able to vote by mail, utilize curbside voting, and voting sites and voting machines must be accessible.  And whether at home or at polling places, people must be allowed to obtain assistance from others if needed. The overall process should make it easier for older and disabled people to vote and not hinder their right to vote. 

Voting rights and Build Back Better are of equal importance to the disability and aging community. Build Back Better must be passed with $150 billion for affordable, accessible, integrated housing, and the $150 billion for Home and Community Based Services.

Build Back Better will provide the necessary expansion of Home and Community Based Services (HCBS) under Medicaid to address the current need for services for disabled and aging Americans. It will guarantee a “living wage” and benefits to attendant care workers employed in home care which will assist in recruitment and retention of this workforce  It will expand affordable, accessible, integrated housing development and rent subsidy programs targeting low- and moderate-income people with disabilities, especially people receiving HCBS services,  and it will provide support to home accessibility modification programs that will enable people to leave or avoid institutional settings, thus saving millions of health care dollars

In honor of Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday, we remember the importance of engaging in direct action and civil disobedience to advance the policies that keep America moving toward an accessible and inclusive community for all. Tactics that are very much embedded in ADAPT activism.  “Every man of humane convictions must decide on the protest that best suits his convictions, but we must all protest.”- Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

We call on Congress to pass the John Lewis Voting Rights Act, the Freedom to Vote Act, and the Build Back Better Act.

TAKE ACTION!

Contact  your Senators at the Congressional Switchboard and ask them to support these important bills.

Call them at 202-224-3121

Send them messages on social media as to why these issues are important to you.  Remember to tag National ADAPT.  

Follow National ADAPT https://linktr.ee/adaptnational

National ADAPT joins grandmas across the country who have gathered in Washington, D.C. to turn up the pressure on the Senate to swiftly pass this legislation that will transform the way people with disabilities and the elderly access care now and in future generations. Elected leaders, direct care workers, family caregivers and people with disabilities will meet in front of the Capitol to share our decades of fighting for home and community based services and affordable, accessible, integrated housing , and demand that Congress take  action  in support of this once-in-a-generation opportunity to improve the quality of life for people with disabilities, the elderly, and direct care workers. 

What: 

Grandmas, elected leaders, care workers, disability rights activists and other caregiving advocates rally outside the Capitol to push the Senate to swiftly pass the Build Back Better Bill. The event will be livestreamed and grandmas across the country will participate virtually by sharing photo and video stories on social media. Spanish and American Sign Language interpretation available on site and online. 

Who: 

National ADAPT with support from the Long Term Supports and Services Coalition, Caring Across Generations, Care Can’t Wait Coalition, and Real Recovery Now coalitions. 

When and Where: 

Thursday, December 9, 2021 at 12:00 pm ET 

In-person event: Outside the Capitol in Washington, D.C. 

Virtual event: https://www.facebook.com/theRealNationalADAPT

For more information:

Jennifer McPhail           512-627-5869               jennifer.adapt@sbcglobal.net

Rhoda Gibson               617-504-1792                rhodagibson2@gmail.com

NationalADAPT.org @RealNatlADAPT on Twitter & Instagram, ADAPT National on Facebook, National ADAPT on YouTube ADAPTnational@gmail.com

#DisabledNotDisposable #CareCantWait #BetterCareBetterJobs #HoUSed #ADAPTandSurvive #TheGrandmasAreComing

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OUR MESSAGE TO SENATORS: PEOPLE ARE DYING SHAME ON YOU!

For years we have told policymakers that Institutions are where we send people to die. 

Now we know it is true. 

Over 53,000 of our siblings have died in nursing facilities. We don’t even know how many more have died in all other types of institutions, including group homes, and state hospitals. 

While our people are dying, Congress is at home on legislative break. Our Senators need to hear from us NOW. They returned to work on July 21^st, they will ACT within the next 2 weeks. 

ADAPT calls on advocates across the country to call, write, and where safe, visit our Senators in their home offices and in DC to tell them:

FUND HOME AND COMMUNITY BASED SERVICES NOW. $20 Billion should be dedicated to support people living in the community by making sure programs remain in place, workers are paid for their services, and personal protective equipment is available for disabled people and their workers. 

MAKE MONEY FOLLOWS THE PERSON a permanent program, or extend the program for 3-5 years. Short-term funding extensions are not keeping the program running and people need a way to get to the safety of their own homes. 

Take action by contacting your Senators and these suggested action activities, sample press release, script, and talking points are also available HERE.

To find the home office locations for your Senators’ Home Offices, enter your address at: https://www.govtrack.us/congress/members/map

The Senators for your state will be listed, and a link to their official website is available. 

ADAPT DEMANDS Congress support our right to live in the community by funding home and community based services, supporting our Community Workforce, making personal protective equipment available, and ensuring we have affordable, accessible, integrated housing.

ADAPT has sent an Open Letter to Congress demanding action. We must ensure Congress pays attention and responds to our needs!

Post on social media, write an email, organize a car parade around your Congressmembers Offices! In any way you can, tell Congress: 

• Unnecessary institutionalization has been illegal since at least 1990.  Now the COVID pandemic has exposed further dangers of congregate living.  

• Forcing people into institutions is not only a violation of our rights, it is a DANGER to our safety, well-being, and our LIVES. 

• We need the services and supports that allow us to safely shelter-in-place in the community.

• Community services must be available to keep people from being institutionalized in congregate settings.

• Programs, services, and supports must be available to allow people to move back into the community to live in the most integrated setting. 

• Direct Service and Support Workers are essential to keeping us alive, safe and healthy. They deserve to be recognized and protected by receiving increased wages, overtime pay, hazard pay, and protective gear.
  
• The number one barrier to home and community living is lack of affordable, accessible, integrated housing. Housing must be developed.  The shortage of housing that is affordable, accessible and integrated is past the critical stage.  Likewise rental subsidies must be vastly increased.