Category: 2018

By Liam Dougherty
Philadelphia ADAPT

Today ADAPT lined up at 9am. I ate a quick breakfast and went to the Walgreens down the street for some snacks, because I knew it was going to be a long day.

We first walked over to the regional Housing and Urban Development office, where several of our members went to meet with some officials and most of us waited outside. We chanted loudly about the lack of accessible, affordable, integrated housing and demanded an increase in HUD funding. Without accessible housing, it is impossible to transition out of a nursing home into the community-many of our people are unable to leave because of this lack of housing on the outside. We also chartered an airplane to fly around government offices with a huge banner demanding support for our causes.

Next we went over to the Medicaid office in the state department building to discuss Money Follows the Person. Many people in our community believe this legislation this legislation does not prioritize consumer choice. We quickly snuck into the building and flooded the elevators and hallways. We could all feel the power of ADAPT.

After a successful meeting we went to the office of senator Cory Gardener. It was getting cold and late, but our energy was still high. We chanted outside of his building to demand that he sign on to the Disability Integration Act, which would make it easier for people with disabilities to live in the community. We projected our demands onto the building across the street to be sure everyone in his office could see.

We returned to the hotel at 7pm, after a very successful day.

By Kathryn Carroll
Capital Region ADAPT

The first day of the Fall national action was a great reminder of the multi-level Power structures we have to confront to protect our rights. We started off our day by visiting the regional office of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). HHS has the power to addresses many of our concerns on the national level. For example, HHS could finalize the regulations to put an end to electric shock torture in the U.S.,  including at the Judge Rotenberg Center in Massachusetts. After HHS, we visited a State-level institution – the Colorado Division of Housing (DOH). We addressed DOH because it has the power to change the way the transition housing program is implemented across Colorado. In some cases, the State can implement better programs than the fede3ral government. In this case, DOH could go beyond the federal “floor” and devote more funding to transition housing services to get our people out of nursing homes. Finally, we ended our day at the Regional Transportation District (RTD) office.  RTD manages the public transportation for the Denver. Like so many other municipalities, Denver needs to improve access to on-demand transportation like ridesharing and taxis. In one day, ADAPT confronted Power at the federal, State, and local levels to force change to ensure our people have access to community living.

By Mayra Puma
Chicago ADAPT

My name is Mayra Puma. I’m from Ecuador, born and rise in Chicago. My parents are from Ecuador, I have been to Ecuador a lot of times. Ecuador isn’t accessible at all. Two years ago I joined Chicago adapt and went to my first national action in Boston after that action. I went back to Ecuador and tried to talk with the centers for people with disabilities but they closed the doors on us, I came back home I thought of counting going to national actions but money was tight and my parents wasn’t supporting me on rising money. So I wasn’t sure about going on this action so I made a gofunme page to rise money and it worked I made it to my second national action in Denver Colorado. I traveled with my new Grace and my personal assistant.

On Sunday morning at 8 in the morning I went to airport with my parents they dropped me off. Our flight was at 11:55 in the morning Chicago time to go Denver. We checked in and went to our airline, we landed in Denver at at 1:30 in the afternoon, looked for taxi. We had to take two taxis at the airport to get to the hotel because we couldn’t go together in one taxi they were little, only space for one power wheelchair so we had to paid $70.00 for each. We got to the hotel and got settled in our rooms.

On Monday was a late start we got up at 8, we had breakfast and went to the meeting. After the meeting we went to department of human services than we went to a rally saying up with attend care down with nurses homes that last it 4 hours I camp back to the hotel because I was freezing my feet . When everyone returned to the hotel there was a meeting to talk about what happened and that it was dinner time and bedtime.

On Tuesday we Colorado housing division housing to ask them for accessible affordable housing people with disabilities. We:were yelling accessible affordable integration housingwe met with the director of housing asking them to give us more state state funding to help get people with disabilities out of nursing homes.

On Wednesday, we went to Colorado do public aid. We blocked the entrance to the office to HUD and the state of Colorado.

On Thursday with a easy day we were waiting to talk to congress women to ask for affordable healthcare for people with disabilities so we could have affordable health care for all. After the action we back to hotel got really for party.

When I heard that we having a wedding I got really excited about attending the wedding got dressed up for the wedding. At the wedding we danced, talked with hang out, some people were drinking wine having a good time. I danced a few songs with friends a few songs I danced alone. Having the opportunity to go to national actions makes grow to be good color leader. I’m walking my way to be a color leader then a day leader . Becoming a leader will be big accomplishment for my parents family and for the disability community. Fighting for our rights and getting what we need to get people out of introductions and nursing homes.

I thought Denver was more accessible than Boston when it to food. There are many veracity of kids of food to eat, I attended meetings at the end of the day. I love experiencing new things in life. Going to actions opens doors in my life. There was a day where I was driving with my eyes closed. My personal assistant had to let me use her phone to hear music so I won’t go to sleep while driving my wheelchair that helped me to stay up while driving my chair.