I am thrilled to announce our big advocacy days for 2017. As so many of you know personally, Virginia continues to fall behind in providing services to people with developmental disabilities. We are not in compliance with our Dept. of Justice settlement agreement, our waiting list for Medicaid Waivers has ballooned to over 11,000 people, and we’re now staring down significant budget cuts for next year.
More than ever, we need you. Please join us on Tuesday, January 31st on our bus to Richmond. This will be our annual DD Advocacy Day, our busiest day of the year for talking to legislators. We need people from all over NOVA who want to come and advocate for funding and rights for people with developmetnal disabilities. If you’d like to join us, please send me your name, phone number, and address.
A region-wide budget hearing will be held on Wednesday, January 4th at the NOVA Community College Annandale Campus. We need folks to come early to hold spots in line, speakers, and supportive attendees.
There are local hearings, too. Fairfax has a hearing on Saturday, January 7th and Arlington has a town hall on Thursday, January 5th. We need speakers for both town halls.
More details are below. Please be in touch if you have questions or would like to join us for any event as a speaker or supporter.
Lucy Beadnell, Director of Advocacy