Serving Individuals with Disabilities Since 1965
Andy’s been consistently at work since June 1, following some time off due to the pandemic. He has adjusted to guidelines to prevent infection–masking, distancing, sanitizing, etc. It’s a priority for him to keep himself healthy as well as his coworkers and customers in the Bill Walsh parts department.
If you are a person with an intellectual or developmental disability, the first thing you want to do is get on the PUNS (Prioritization of Unmet Need for Services) waiting list to get funding. This is whether you are interested in supports to keep living in your own home or with your family, to move into a group home, or have supports during the day or to get and keep a job. The state has information to help you sign up here.
Recently the state updated the categories for how they list people waiting for services. They are also trying to commit to no one waiting longer than five years to get funding. (We’ve seen people wait for as long as 7 years. That’s a long time!) Go here to read the information bulletin.
The Illinois Parents of Adults with Developmental Disabilities United group (IPADD) have issued this year’s legislative scorecard. They have been a very active group of parents for decades now, beginning all the way back when they had Yahoo Groups. Now you can find them on Facebook.
SU is strictly nonpartisan when it comes to politics. Our goal is to educate elected official and candidates of all parties on the needs of the people we serve. The most important thing to us is funding to be able to pay our DSPs wages commensurate with the incredibly level of compassion, skill and responsibility their jobs require.
Governor Pritzker presented his Budget Address yesterday, laying out his plans for state spending for Fiscal Year 2021, which begins July 1. The DHS Briefing Page can be found here. In terms of good news, he proposes funding to increase wages for our direct care staff. This is important because they don’t fund us well enough for them to make a decent wage. Sometimes they end up leaving a job they love in order to make more money. The proposal is to increase DSP wages by $1.00/hour July 1 and another $.50/hour January 1, 2021. This would help us keep up with the rising minimum wage and begin to get a little ahead of the increases, which is critical. We appreciate the Governor’s recognition of the importance of the work we do. We also appreciate everyone who brought the Ligas lawsuit against the state, which puts pressure on them to fund the service system as well.
Here is the relevant page from the budget powerpoint presentation:
Our DSPs are the heart and soul of our agency, and the care they give to the people we serve is why we do everything we do. However, we deal with an incredible amount of regulatory requirements and state surveys, pay for financial audits and accreditation, maintain a fleet of vehicles and maintain our homes and main building. These costs go up as well and the employees who perform this work deserve the state’s recognition in terms of funding as well.
What’s next? Advocacy! Just because the Governor proposes a budget, it rarely turns out the same once the Illinois House and Senate do their own work to come to agreement on what the spending priorities of the state should be. We fought last year to tie DSP wages to the increasing minimum wage and failed. That won’t stop us from fighting once again–what we do is too important not to fight.
The They Deserve More Coalition has put together a legislative agenda, asking for a 20% increase in funding, mostly for those important DSP wages but also some for other staff and other expenses that keep going up. Here are links to the bills that have been filed in the Illinois House and Senate. It would be great if you could ask your state representative and senator to become co-sponsors of these bills. That way they will know what’s important to us as they make the difficult decisions of what the state should fund when there’s not enough money to do everything they want to.
We’ve had some requests for transportation resources for our Epilepsy Grant. Here are the contacts for all the Illinois Public Transit Systems. If you need more assistance contact us on the Northwest Illinois Supports and Resources page.
New job in the house this am!!! Thanks Maze Nails with this work opportunity! Many of the consumers working this one usually do not make a paycheck. You cannot imagine how they are feeling today. Such pride and sense of accomplishment. Love it!!
We had a great time today making our own Murals, and a plus.. our hallways look beautiful as a result. Two of the Walldogs got wind and paid us a visit also, which was super cool. They were very impressed by everyone’s work, and everyone loved to hear the comments and praise from the two artists and from everyone in the building. It was a proud day for many
