HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!!!! We hope everyone had a nice HOLIDAY. Welcome to CDRC’s first newsletter of 2007. In this edition we will be discussing Rosewood, the 2007 legislative session, legislators visits and much much more.
Board Of Leadership
LAST CALL FOR CDRC
BOARD OF LEADERSHIP (BOL) APPLICATIONS!!!! Unfortunately, CDRC has not gotten very many
applications for its Board. So, we are giving it one last shot. If you want to
be part of our exciting and powerful groups decision making process, this is
your chance!! You do not have to be a member of CDRC to be part of the Board Of
Leadership. Members of Maryland ADAPT,
People On the Go of Maryland, Helping Hands, BAG, People Power, Stand Together,
TAG, and other local
self advocacy groups are strongly encouraged to apply. Deadline for application
is January 24th. The new BOL will be elected at the January 28th CDRC membership
meeting.
Freedom Stories Party
CDRC, Maryland ADAPT and People On the Go of Maryland are hosting a Rosewood reunion for ALL of the Rosewood survivors. It doesn’t matter if it was 50 years or two weeks ago, if you know anyone, or if you were a resident of Rosewood and are now living in the community, we want YOU to come and tell your story of freedom. We will be writing your stories, filming you telling your stories, and taking your picture while you tell your stories. This is also a great opportunity to see old friends you haven’t seen in a long time. This exciting event will be held January 30th at the Arc of Baltimore Employment Center, 6151 Metro Drive Baltimore, Maryland. Stop by anytime between 2:00 – 8:00. Call Sarah at 410-571-9320, or 410-074-6139, or 1-888-272-3449 for more info. Please come and tell you story and maybe help someone else who has had a similar story. We look forward to seeing you there. (See flyer in this newsletter).
Legislation – bills
CDRC will be working closely with the DD Coalition, The Arc of Maryland, the Maryland Disability Law Center (MDLC), The DD Council, and other friends of CDRC on two pieces of legislation they are introducing for the 2007 session. These two pieces of legislation are very close to CDRC’s heart. One of the bills will create a plan to close Rosewood over a two year period. The other is another Money Follows the Person bill. This time, it’s for State Residential Center (SRC) residents. The MFI – SRC bill will allow a person who is able to live in the community to have immediate access to a Medicaid waiver that will support their needs in the community. This way, the money will follow the SRC resident to the community. It will be a VERY BUSY session as usual for CDRC. We hope all of you got a lot of rest during the holidays because we will be calling upon YOU to visit legislators and testify on important bills.
Legislator visits
CDRC met with Senator John Astle, Senator Rona Kramer, Delegate James Hubbard and Delegate Bob Costa in December. We talked about the old administration, the new administration, who might the new administration pick for the secretary of Department Of Disabilities (DoD) and also for the Department of Health Mental Hygiene (DHMH). Early word is that the DHMH Secretary will be appointed very soon and the DoD Secretary may be appointed in February or March. We discussed the upcoming 2007 session with each legislator. We had good productive meetings with all of them. We have more legislator visits scheduled for January. We usually like to schedule legislator visits before the legislative session begins, but with the elections being held in November, a lot of the legislators weren’t able to meet with CDRC until just before session, or just after it starts.
Transition Committees
CDRC is on the new administration’s transition committee for both the Department Of Disabilities and the Department of Health & Mental Hygiene. These 2 committees are working to give the new Governor recommendations as to things he should deal with immediately after he enters office. The DOD committee was broken down in 4 sub-committees and CDRC has representation on 2 of them, the Olmstead sub-committee and the Community support/services sub-committee. The recommendations that each sub-committee puts together are due by the end of January. Once the new Governor and his staff review the recommendations, they will decide which issues to deal with immediately, which to handle later, and which they will not address at all.
New Tools Conference
A reminder that the New tools conference will be held January 19th and 20th at the College Park Holiday Inn. Make sure you register right away!!!
The next CDRC meeting will be:
January 28
1:00 – 4:00
3501 Russett Common (Library)
Laurel,
Maryland