 who has been adept at raising issues of social justice, especially with regard to the intersectionality of racial justice and disability concerns. Welcome, and thank you for your commitment to people with disabilities and their families. I'm honored and pleasure to be able to speak to you today. I, every day that I'm in office, which has now been almost 20 years, I've been thankful to the opportunity you all give me to speak out on behalf of Vermonters, particularly those who are most struggling to get by day-to-day living, whether it be issues with disabilities, whether it be economics, whether it be social stereotypes and challenges that people are facing. And so it's a real honor to speak with you today. When I think about what government is, can be, and should be, and what our country and our state is, can be, and should be, I envision a place where, with the resource that we have, nobody is left in a situation where they can't meet their needs, where they don't have the services to live with dignity, and that is what defines a civil society in my life. Now, we always have to deal as political figures within the constraints of what our society is willing to put in the form of taxes and revenues, and then figure out how to try to meet the needs which are greater than those resources. What frustrates me about that box is that we have some of the fastest-growing wealth inequality and income inequality that we've seen in decades, almost a century, and yet we are saying that there aren't enough resources out there to help remedy those inequities and to help provide those services that in a civil society that we can and should be need to be met. So, I can't speak on behalf of the governor. He doesn't include me in what his vision of the state is on a day-to-day basis, so I'm not speaking on behalf of the governor. I think he'll be speaking to you later today. And I hope that you have good questions for him, because a lot of the discussion that comes from the top leadership in the state has to do include the word taking care of our most vulnerable. And there are many groups that are vulnerable. There are many groups that are most vulnerable. And I would have to say the group we are with today should be in that category with respect to those that we will not leave behind. But when we level fund services, when we cut services for people to be able to stay in their homes and get the assistance they need, when we don't have the adequate resources that we've known as true for years and years and years, we don't know how one can say this budget meets the needs of those who are most vulnerable. And it's important that those of us who are allies speak up for these issues. But it's also important, as many of you already do, that you speak up and make it clear that the needs that are out there are not being met. And it is inappropriate as leaders to say we are meeting the needs of the most vulnerable when we are not. Because those of us who have a voice to project what's happening in the state as elected leaders who often have the microphone who have the ear and eyes of the media attention on us on a daily basis. If we portray a false reality, then many people out there that don't see your reality on a day-to-day basis will not understand the real need that is out there and therefore will not be as friendly to the idea that we need to have the resources to meet those needs. Because they say, why pay more, the needs are being met. That's what we're being told. So I just want to say that I'm someone who understands that. I'm someone who is willing to speak out about that. But the work I've done over the 20 years that I've served has always been bolstered by the participation of all of you and everybody else outside of this building. And so I thank you for coming in today to bring your voice from outside and around the state into the building to meet with your legislators, representatives, and senators. Tell them about the reality, not the story that's being told. And to communicate with the media and to communicate with our op-eds but just tell the story of the truth that's out there so that people recognize that there seems to be this disconnect between reality and the political rhetoric. So I thank you for whatever way you can participate in that part of elevating the public consciousness while I will do it in whatever way that I can. And to wrap up, because I know there's other speakers, I'd like to pass around some business cards so you can reach out to me and also a couple of clipboards that if you want them, you can sign up for an electronic newsletter from my office which is one of the ways I try to tell the story of what's going on in this building beyond what you hear in one-minute news clips or sound bites. And I would also welcome your story in these newsletters. I try to put out a paragraph or two from any group that wants which then might have links to more information to say, here's what's really happening. And I send this to thousands of Romaners to try to get your story and your truth out there in ways that sometimes they can't hear or they're not necessarily part of BCDR's newsletter list. So I ask you if you want one, as long as there's enough to take a card and sign up for the newsletter and please reach out anytime and I know that I'm more than willing to help tell your story in the process. Thank you. Because there's a limited number. Now in self-advocates, disability-serving people with disabilities run by people is fear where people with disabilities have the opportunity to really connect with their legislators to speak up about issues regarding the budget and any decisions that will impact their lives directly by telling their stories and having the legislators really remember what they told them whenever decisions are made and also just with including myself to really speak up about what it could do because disabilities need services to really services or cuts to services outpatient to and from their jobs because sometimes emotional supports because things can get chaotic. Your voice is heard. You come to an estate house. Legislators need to know what self-advocacy is and self-advocacy when I say that it's a movement, not a program and it's for people with disabilities to speak up and gain independence and take responsibility for their own actions and also just to get their voices heard. In the past I was their president but Pam asked me to stand in for her. Her voice has taken a trip out of state and she's going to follow it tomorrow morning. Disability Awareness Day is our community awareness testing and our well-being. With all that's going on in the world and the state lately, this is a timely theme and I think that you folks know and experience what those things outside of what is strictly medical have an effect on our health and well-being. Housing, our ability to get work, our ability to get support just to get out in the community and those are all very much, those are all issues that are very much in play this year when we look at what's on the agenda in the legislature, either that's been put there by legislators or very much, maybe even more pertinently what's been put there in the administration's budget proposal. So we've got a number of folks have made this possible for us and I'm not reading this right but I will look at some different notes and just say that before I hand the microphone over I want to thank the Vermont Developmental Disabilities Council, the Vermont Statewide Independent Living Council and the University of Vermont on disability and community inclusion. These partners give you the green, they give us the money to make this kind of gathering happen and there's more of that than needed than you might think. It takes a lot to organize this kind of thing and everything from buses to food and the food is going to be great this evening and to bring our special guests who are listening in and I won't get that away yet at this point but there's a number of factors that go into that and so I just wanted to make sure before we get too far that I thank those folks because what they do is very important to our movement. I want to also thank the member organizations of VCDR because their contributions are a big part of this as well and I want to thank all of you for showing up. I've been floating around the state house and running around from different committees and different things that I've had to do today and everywhere I have gone I've seen the halls full of people with disabilities, their families, their allies, folks who care and that's what makes a difference. We have got to show people a reality to the statistic that one in five Vermonters are living with a serious disability. Now if you expand that to family members that's pretty much everybody if you really think about it. So thank you all very much for coming. So one of the things that affects our well-being as adults and so far as we've been accused of being adults is our education and right now there are things being discussed that have maybe a glimmer of positive to them and a glimmer of negative to them in terms of our special education system and to talk about that is going to be one of the most informed people I know on the subject of special education who's represented many people to get what they need out of the system and that's a free and appropriate public education for people with disabilities. So I'm going to hand it over to Marilyn Mahoski who works in the Disability Law Project of Vermont's Legal Aid. I think it's just awesome and I think it's really wonderful as that said for everyone to be here to be advocating and making the rights and the needs of people with disabilities visible. So Ed had asked me to speak or I've been asked to speak about legislation that's pending before that actually just came out of the House Education Committee relative to changes in funding and special education and I want to start by acknowledging and recognizing and reminding everybody that students with disabilities have a legal right to receive special education and related services tailored to their individualized educational needs. This federal entitlement came about after years of children being warehoused and excluded from our public schools starting in 1974 with the passage of the Education for All Handicapped Children's Act the predecessor to the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act Congress remedied this inequity. As Ed said, children with disabilities are entitled to a free and appropriate education in the least restricted environment. In an effort to save money on special education funding that admittedly makes it a big part of our local budgets the House Education Committee has passed a bill out of committee that would fundamentally alter the funding model for special education. In addition, the bill seeks to reduce the reported high number of Vermont students determined eligible for special education by identifying and providing support to struggling students early on. The rationale being that early intervention will obviate the need for higher costs of special education costs in the future. While identifying and supporting students who need additional support early to certainly best practice and a laudable goal it must not obfuscate or stand instead of the state's responsibility under federal law to provide a free and appropriate public education to students with disabilities. Other states including Texas who have shifted to a census-based funding model which is the model being discussed at our state house for funding special education has faced federal investigations stemming from a failure to timely identify and deliver services to children with disabilities and to children with suspected disabilities. While Iran is not Texas any bill that fundamentally shifts the delivery of educational supports to struggling students and away from students with federal entitlements to individualized education plans must have clear guidelines for determining when a child's needs are not being met by the multi-tiered system of supports and a special education evaluation is warranted. Any delay in the identification of a student with a suspected disability is a violation of the student's rights under the IDEA. Any denial in the delivery of special education services to students with disabilities is a violation of their rights under the IDEA. As the bill moves forward to consideration by the Senate we hope that the bill will be strengthened by an affirmation that local school districts are not relieved of their obligations despite a lack of funding to ensure that the educational needs of students with disabilities are met. And certainly the disability law project will continue to monitor and to advocate to ensure that as this bill moves forward the rights of students with disabilities are not weakened. Thank you. I think y'all know Max. Max Barrows from Green Mountain Self Advocates. Max, here you go. It's my job. Mountain Self Advocates as outreach director and I am a person with autism and I received developmental services. I'm here today to tell you straight up that we do not support the governor's recommended budget cuts for developmental services. The $4.3 million cut is yet another blow to our system. We need to be proactive, not reactive. Without services I am sitting at home. That will have a negative self-esteem and it's not going to make my mother very happy. I have mental services to work. My job gives me confidence and connections to people. It puts strength in me and I learn from people. It puts positivity in my spirit and the stronger I am the less services I need. The ripple effect of people getting the services they need is they are working and giving back to their community. People see what we have to offer. We are givers, not just takers. It results in a win-win situation for society. How's that for results based accountability? Nine years there has been over $14 million in cuts to developmental disability services and because of these cuts the agencies have no more places to cut that won't directly impact us. At a recent advisory meeting with the commissioner we heard that these cuts will reduce respite services employment services and community support services. The cut will have a larger impact on people living with their families or on their own. These are the very services that allow us to live with dignity, respect and independence. Services for me services for you services for you and we cannot continue to balance the budget on the backs of our poorest and most vulnerable citizens. I am a self-advocate and the self-advocacy movement is committed to lifting up people with disabilities. So the bottom line we need services and support to accomplish this. Thanks so much. I wanted to kind of wrap up by pointing out a few other of the items of concern that are on the table today in the budget process. Max has covered the developmental services very well, better than I could do it. One of the things that he alluded to one of the characteristics unfortunately of many of our peers is that they're not living on top of the economic pyramid so to speak. There is a $300,000 set of cuts to Vermont legal aid that just plain shouldn't happen. Because of the way their services are structured and the contracts they have to represent people in mental health hearings a cut, the $200,000 slice of that is going to directly affect what they can offer to people who are low income and unfortunately the overlap with this community is huge. So that I want to put out there when you're advocating for things it's not a direct disability service but that cut could really hurt our community because they do incredible work at helping keeping people in their homes helping them fight discrimination and other kinds and helping them access economic services that otherwise take the sophistication of a lawyer to be able to handle the complicated programs that are out there. The other part of that $300,000 cut is about $100,000 cut to the office of the Vermont healthcare advocate and that program where people figure out how to access payment for medical services. So if you've got a problem with Blue Cross if you've got a problem with Medicaid if you don't understand Medicare any of those healthcare finance people I know my shop is full of experts I love my people and you won't find better people anywhere but when there are detailed program things like the Vermont healthcare advocate at the Vermont legal aid so those cuts please don't forget those when you're talking with your legislators the other thing that I want to highlight another thing I got a couple more they're going to throw me out of here by the time I'm done there's a promise broken and I mentioned that in room 11 today but last year the legislature strongly supported putting some resources into the people who give direct services in mental health services and in developmental services what we think of as our community mental health development developmental service agencies and our special service agencies like Pathways like Howard Center like Washington County and like NCSS HCRS these people hey hey we got about 10 of the basic agencies and I think there's 5 or 6 of the special services agency upper valley services somebody throw an egg at me if I forget yours a shout out to community mental health let's hear it guys folks counted on a small raise last year they got a 2.1% raise for direct service employees and there was a commitment at the time that there would be another phase to that this year and that they'd be able to start looking up the scale so that their therapists and their social service the people who give social services would start to come to a closer percentage of what you'd get for the same service say as a state employee or working in a school and this year that was not at all to be found in the governor's budget so this is something that we need to be working for because as max pointed out people need these services and it's kind of a double hit because they did the cut he described to individual services service plans and they've failed to give a raise and it's a real that's a heavy hit that leads to worse turn over real problems and then I wanted to point out there's also things that don't get a lot of attention Vermont Association for the Blind and Visually Impaired that helps people access education access services and looking to get a small percentage increase for I believe the last nine years and their major programs have been level funded for that long and they scramble to get private funding they scramble for this that and the other thing but they're not getting the help that we owe each other through state services and through state support and then the one that I think hits me personally I can't explain because I'm not on the program myself but the attendant service program being eliminated completely when about 30 years ago when that was first instituted in this country that was a model it's kind of I make a little analogy and it may not be great but I guess it's not a great analogy but I think about myself and my own life getting back and forth to work I put that little orange tag on my mirror and when the snow is all over the place when it's all steep grades everywhere except for those one or two designated spots that tag when I put that up that's for me that's a little bit of an equalizer I can get around as well as Pat McDonald once I've got one of those because I can park my car and get in and out it just gives me a little chance to compete with the rest of the folks who don't have the same mobility impairments as I do well if you think about something I think about if my spinal cord injury had been a little bit worse at the fifth and sixth vertebrae which is where it was hurt if it had been a little bit worse I would have needed personal care to be able to do things like toileting feeding if I didn't have the use of my hands I got some use of my feet I can throw my own chair in the back of my car if I didn't have some of those things I would need some attendant services somebody to help me do some other basics and then boom I'm off and running and I'll live a live a decent life and we have peers like I don't know if any of you got a chance to hear Dave Saggy on the radio this noon peers who have used that program and built their life you know they've done what they needed to do they're getting out in the community they are living a healthier life because they get out in the community they have jobs they can do so much more with a little bit to equalizing with the rest of the people out there and to me it is shameless that that program has been frozen for three years and that they are talking about eliminating that program and so it's not the biggest cut that's out there but to me it says something it's the dollars and cents it says you know we don't care if you have to impoverish yourself to get state services oh yeah we'll give you state services but you better spend down and qualify for Medicaid you better be living on the edge of the economic cliff before we're going to help you out and it's really to me that's one I just don't know what else to say so I'll stop talking about about that I am going to say one last thing before I open it up if we have people from the press who would like to ask questions I think all of us are available if Maryland is still here if people want to ask questions but one other acknowledgement that I would like to give everybody in BCDR deserves a hand everybody in this room for coming out deserves a hand I just have to say this Stephanie Monty who works at VCIL deserves a hand because she has been the glue that has kept everything together she's done an incredible amount of work to help us out thank you all very much and if there are questions if they have an issue and I'm certainly nervous that you hear about the services what should they do what should they do well I'll tell you I think you're to talk to your legislator individually your own legislator is your best in-road let them know what these services mean to you duriers you know like I said one fifth of Vermonters have a disability how many if you take any one fifth how many of those one fifth have family members family members we all got family you know of one sort or another acquaintances people we care about and so basically everybody in the state is affected by disability issues and so you got to let your legislators know that you are watching you are thinking about that now at the steps that are the process are going through this week the house appropriations committee will be making decisions as to what they take in and out of the governor's budget to hand to get voted on in the house so now these next couple of days are really important for telling your legislators would you talk to people upstairs on that committee so they get a sense holy mackerel people care about the development of this program or people care about developmental services so the issues that are most important to you let your legislator and since you're in the building don't forget to pigeon hole your senators because they get another whack at the whole process it goes through the whole process again in the senate so there's the short answer are there any other questions yes sir what if you're a person with special needs who is getting some services but are not getting a lot of services because they got one foot in and one foot out you know and not really considered disabled how do you deal with those issues when dealing with legislators well I think with a legislator the best thing is to give them a picture of what you live through and regardless of the degree of your disability let them know how that affects your life and if you have if you are on some program but not another let them know the ones that you think are important and if you know other people who may have greater needs like what I've just talked about the attendant services the participant directed attendant services program I'm not on that program I've known people that I really care about who have been and who are on that program and so I have no qualms about telling people what that program is all about so I think that's the I think that answers your question thanks any other questions yes did somebody have a question oh step over that way thing do you want me to give you the microphone come a little closer that's as far as we've got before yeah a little bit more okay what would you do if like your parents in there my parents are in their 60s and my dad's gonna be 71 in my dad's gonna be 71 and I'm trying to like have them I don't know who this I don't know what decide on what they're gonna do move up here okay I think if I am understanding your question you're asking what do you do if you have older parents that look like they're gonna need your help to take care that's a hard question that we are all gonna face as we get older and I don't have a real good answer for you there but I think that what you may want to do is talk to someone either in social services either at your developmental service agency explain it to them and if they don't have a good answer calling disability rights Vermont or Vermont legal aid might be good because there may be something to do with your living circumstances but I think the first place that goes is the developmental service agency and they may be able to help you out you know looking at the individual situations of your case Zach can you come up this is a question for the cameras here I will have been here I'm Zachary Hughes I'm a good advocate around I've been 30 years in Vermont as of tomorrow one of the things I like about Vermont is the variety of services we have here one of the services that just was spoken about is the attendant service program and without that my mom would not have been able to do what she did my dad helped her by getting paid through that program this is a vital program and I urge legislators and everyone else to take a look at it and I'm kind of getting emotional because I'm talking about this this afternoon and I appreciate it questions comments you have a question come ahead about the process and the guardianship piece and I have a question on that how to get the developmental services able to communicate with the legal aid person to I wasn't quite sure about that part and wanted to learn I think I'm going to turn that over to an advocate at Legal Aid then that person can talk to that person about what you're saying so maybe what you need to do is talk to the legal aid yourself and then try and have legal aid work with you to talk to the developmental services agency you have done that okay maybe we can talk privately and I'd be happy to try and walk you through that alright folks I think we're probably winding down thank you all for coming talk with your legislators folks and definitely show up at 4 o'clock hi I'm Kirk Postelwight I am the communications and development director at Washington County mental health services here in the popular barrier area and I'm here at the state house for disability awareness day today and I'm here because this is such an important day for some of the folks that we serve through Washington County mental health through our CDS program it's so important to get more awareness about the folks that we serve and the needs they have and making sure that they are being seen as people who are doing great things in their own lives taking advocacy stands to ensure that they continue to get the support that they need for themselves and the people who help them to live better and meaningful lives knowing that Trump is cutting lots of services why is it really important for Washington County services for people with disabilities especially in this event today I think I would go directly to what Senator Leahy's representative said is that the six most important words in politics and maybe in general in society is you have a story to tell so the importance of having people with disabilities whether they be physical, intellectual etc. tell their stories so that people in the greater community understand that this is important work and that people are living it shouldn't just be one day it shouldn't it should be every day people need to be aware of this every day but through a day like today more awareness is built and more power to tell their stories and by doing that people understand that the votes to allocate more funding and to maintain and increase funding to these types of services are critical to maintaining the progress we've made not only here in Vermont but across the United States of America in supporting people with various disabilities Do you have people with disabilities and if so how do you deal with services for them programs like this I do have people in my family my niece who lives in California has a developmental disability and her mom is very involved with making sure she gets the support she needs and it takes a lot of advocacy and the good news is is that my niece is living a full happy life because of the support she gets