ADAPT's Defending Our Freedom Campaign: Two Weeks, Two Victories

ADAPT's Defending Our Freedom Campaign: Two Weeks, Two Victories


For Immediate Release

February 15, 2010

For Information Contact

Jennifer McPhail 512-627-5868

Nancy Salandra 215-779-1014

http://www.adapt.org

DNC Resolution Pledges Olmstead Support; HHS OCR Agrees to Meet

ADAPT's Defending Our Freedom Campaign: Two Weeks, Two Victories

Philadelphia, PA - Two weeks into ADAPT's Defending Our Freedom
Campaign, there are already two victories. One, a resolution passed by
the Democratic National Committee (DNC), has its roots in ADAPT's
four-day and four-night protest vigil last July, held outside the DNC
headquarters in Washington, D.C. despite torrential rains and no shelter
for activists. The second victory is a meeting with staff from the U.S.
Health and Human Services Office of Civil Rights (HHS OCR) scheduled for
mid-April just prior to the spring ADAPT action in Washington.

On Thursday, February 4, ten members of ADAPT from across the nation
attended the DNC Resolution Committee meeting in Washington, D.C. The
committee unanimously passed a resolution that states, in part,
"WHEREAS, efforts must be made on the state and federal level to
eliminate institutional biases that unfairly discriminate against
Americans with disabilities in obtaining long term service and support
in programs such as Medicaid ... the DNC will encourage and support
efforts to vigorously enforce the Supreme Court's Olmstead decision."
The Olmstead decision affirmed provisions in the Americans with
Disabilities Act (ADA) that mandate people with disabilities should
receive needed services and supports in "the most integrated setting,"
typically the community.

"Some people thought our protest outside the DNC last summer was an
exercise in futility," said Jennifer McPhail, ADAPT organizer from
Austin, Texas, "especially because so many of us who use wheelchairs
slept outside each night, in pouring rain and wind, with only garbage
bags or the occasional tarp for shelter. We had provided our own
accessible porta-potty, but the DNC had it hauled away. Despite all
that, we persisted in following the process laid out by the DNC, and now
we have this historic resolution to show for all hell we went through
last July."

Members of the DNC Resolution Committee included Christine Pelosi,
daughter of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, and Lee Saunders, assistant to
AFSCME President, Gerald McEntee. AFSCME currently represents staff in
many state operated institutions, but is working to support the
Community Choice Act (CCA), legislation that would let older and
disabled individuals choose to receive needed supports and services in
their own homes instead of being forced into nursing facilities and
other institutions by the institutional bias in the nation's Medicaid
program. In addition to passing the resolution condemning the Medicaid
institutional bias, the committee also pledged to sending both the
resolution and all of ADAPT's educational materials on the CCA to every
Democratic state and federal legislator in the country.

"With the resolution from the Democrats and our upcoming meeting with
the folks from HHS Office of Civil Rights, we feel like we are gaining
ground in this battle to become free, and stay free," said Nancy
Salandra, ADAPT organizer in Philadelphia. "You would think that between
this country's Constitution, and laws like the ADA, we should already
have the right to live in our own homes and communities, but that's not
how Congress has structured the funding for the supports we are entitled
to receive. So, the resolution and the meeting are two more actions to
make sure that the law is followed and our civil rights are protected."

ADAPT's Defending Our Freedom campaign continues to gather media reports
of the harm being done to disabled and older Americans by state budget
cuts. The campaign also welcomes stories of how people in the states are
fighting back against the cuts. ADAPT is additionally encouraging people
who want out of institutional settings and the people assisting them to
file OCR complaints. ADAPT will follow up on those complaints at the
meeting with HHS OCR and the Department of Justice (DOJ), and will hold
the HHS OCR staff accountable for resolving the complaints.

Send media reports, and "fighting back" accounts and pictures to
defendingourfreedom@gmail.com.

See those reports, and accounts and pictures on
http://www.defendingourfreedom2010.blogspot.com.

File a complaint at
http://hhs.gov/ocr/civilrights/complaints/index.html
and send a copy to
DOF.complaint@gmail.com.

Sign on to support the Defending Our Freedom Campaign at
DOF.signon@gmail.com
, and see the growing list of supporters at
http://www.adapt.org/doflist.php.

Additional information on the Defending Our Freedom Campaign can be
found at www.adapt.org/adapt-campaign.html.