The Arc of Illinois
June 26, 2009
Leaders in The Arc:
Yesterday late afternoon I was able to attend a solemn vigil at Seguin Services in Cicero . About 100 advocates gathered to pray together to save our services. Clergy, people with disabilities, families and advocates were very powerful. They will be there until the end of the fiscal year on Tuesday, June 30th. The vigil is held twice a day at 10:00 a.m. and 4:00 p.m. daily. Join them if you can.
Further down the road in Brookfield , Community Support Services is also holding a vigil from 4:00 p.m. until 10:00 p.m. I joined with their team to take the message of "Save our Services" to the streets. I appreciate their advocacy and actions!
Wednesday night in downtown Rockford , over 1,500 people turned out for a massive Human Services Rally!
In Peoria , Charlotte Cronin and other Human Service Advocates met with the Editorial Board of the Peoria Star Journal! Check out all of the letters to the editorial in the PSJ. Well done Charlotte and advocates in Peoria !
This morning I head to Park Lawn for a Legislative Forum which begins at 11:00 a.m. The Forum is co-hosted by Park Lawn and the Good Shepherd Center .
You are making a difference! Keep up our advocacy for human services in Illinois !
Tony Paulauski
The Arc of Illinois
815-464-1832
Forum: State lawmakers, please raise my income taxes
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Posted Jun 24, 2009 @ 10:30 PM
Last week I watched as a crowd gathered at the Bureau County Courthouse. Disabled citizens in wheelchairs, young mothers with their children in tow and staffers at various public service concerns expressed their fear at what's happening in Springfield . I thought, "I'm sure our leaders won't let this happen."
This past winter I watched as our former governor closed state parks. While Gov. Blagojevich tried to pressure campaign contributors, he was quick to send state employees into the streets. The Legislature intervened. Good for them.
My wife has had the privilege of working for the Illinois Department of Human Services for the past 24 years. She is a caring and professional person. She goes to work early, comes home late, skips her breaks and is often reduced to tears as she and her fellow workers try to manage unmanageable caseloads with a fraction of the staff the office once employed. She is aware of the financial difficulties affecting the state and she bears with it as best she can.
This country narrowly avoided a financial meltdown this past fall, yet Illinois ' unemployment rate is climbing and has just reached 10.1 percent. It hardly seems like a good time to be sending thousands of state workers into the unemployment lines over the ideological mantra of "no new taxes." I understand, however, that legislators can't be concerned about a few state employees when they have the well-being of the entire state on their minds.
Then I picked up the Journal Star and read the article on the front page entitled, " Illinois won't pay to bury the indigent." The only thought that entered my mind was, "Have we no shame?"
I pose this question to my legislators and ask them to pose it to their colleagues who have apparently decided that one can never go too far when it comes to getting one's way.
If the Legislature is engaged in a dreadful game of scaring the electorate into begging for a tax increase, then please stop. I'm not scared, I'm just ashamed. And I am willing to take a tax increase if the Illinois Legislature will just let me get through breakfast without being faced with the reality that I live in a state that won't bury its indigent dead.
How low can we go?
Paul Scoma
Princeton
Forum: Disgraceful budget
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Posted Jun 24, 2009 @ 10:30 PM
We are concerned about the proposed cuts to services in the state of Illinois under the "doomsday" budget expected to take effect July 1.
While many of our daughter's services are likely to be cut or eliminated, we are most concerned for the adult disabled individuals and families who have children with far more dire situations than ours. Many developmentally delayed adults will be put out on the street simply because there are no living or able relatives to care for them.
Don't think it will happen? It happened in the 1960s and would be a horrible disgrace if we let it happen again. Short-term, I don't know what the answer is other than we as parents would like to see funding continue for existing services. If that means raising taxes, we want assurances that monies will not be diverted to pork projects unrelated to maintaining current programs for the state's disabled.
Long-term, we as parents would like to see the entire system revamped to cut the spending waste and provide better service for the developmentally disabled. Today our state ranks at the bottom of the heap in funding for the disabled.
Shannan & John Werckle
Peoria
Forum: Tell legislators they must prevent drastic cuts
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Posted Jun 24, 2009 @ 10:30 PM
The true measure of a community is its capacity to care for all of its members. Our collective response to the current economic crisis will define us for years to come. Shall we allow those most vulnerable to fall unaided, or will we act decisively to provide hope and a helping hand?
As our state addresses this economic crisis, the population of vulnerable individuals and families in the Peoria area and across the state is increasing at an alarming rate. We believe the challenge is surmountable through thoughtful decision-making by our state leaders to ensure that critical services for low-income residents are not compromised. Balancing a budget in economic times like we are facing today is a necessary task. However, this can and must be accomplished without the drastic reductions in health and social services that has been proposed.
Heart of Illinois United Way believes that our health and human-service system is at risk. Further reducing or eliminating programs providing health and economic security will result in a failing safety net for our children, individuals and all families at risk of hunger, homelessness and violence. Despite our commitment to fulfilling human-service needs in our communities, United Way and its partners cannot possibly fill the gap that the current Illinois budget threatens to create.
Heart of Illinois United Way urges the development of a state budget that provides funding sufficient for families to maintain stability and for children to be safe and healthy. That will ensure that all reports of abuse to children and fragile adults are investigated; that women and children fleeing domestic violence can access a safe haven; that the developmentally disabled are protected; that homeless individuals and families, including veterans, will have shelter; and that people without food are able to receive a meal. Preserving these services today will help to prevent long-term costs of both a human and economic nature tomorrow.
We urge all central Illinois residents to get engaged by contacting the governor and state legislators. Ask them to approve a budget plan that preserves these fundamental health and human services. Together, we can make Illinois the place it should be - a place in which children are cared for, families are self-sufficient, and neighborhoods are safe and vibrant.
Michael Stephan
President, Heart of Illinois United Way
Forum: State budget needs to look out for the needy and disabled
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We all know that times are tough and money is short. Illinois lawmakers have once again failed to put a budget together that will meet the needs of the state's citizens. People with disabilities, along with the elderly, poor, children, and those with mental-health needs are the major losers in this ridiculous political showdown.
Everyone has their own theory about the reasons for this disaster, and there's probably plenty of blame to go around. The problems with the Illinois budget are not new. We struggle with the same issues year after year, the lack of revenue and the assurance that what is there will be used thoughtfully. Our legislators are intelligent men and women. They need to forget the political strategies and game-playing and do the jobs to which they were entrusted by their constituents.
People with disabilities and the service providers who support them cannot afford funding cuts! The system is severely underfunded already, as more than 17,000 people with disabilities in Illinois wait to be selected to receive funding for services.
We cannot cut our way out of this budget predicament. New revenue has to be part of the solution, and our lawmakers need to sit down and get to work. No cuts to disability services are acceptable!
Deb Fornoff
Washington
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Forum: Budget fight shouldn't affect the children who need our help
Posted Jun 23, 2009 @ 10:30 PM
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We are best known as Major League Baseball players for the Chicago White Sox, but for the past three seasons we have been pleased to partner with Children's Home & Aid through the "Bring Me Home Campaign" to raise awareness and support for the needs of foster children and families.
Last season, we met Dewanza, 15, and Elijah, 14, sister and brother, who experienced multiple foster homes before being adopted as teenagers. Although we have experienced the joy of seeing foster children united with loving, permanent families, we have also learned that about 14,000 foster children in Illinois face extremely difficult odds.
In an effort to close the state's $9.2 billion budget gap, the General Assembly recently passed a "doomsday budget" that proposes devastating cuts to the state's infrastructure of services for children and families. Many of the deepest cuts directly target programs designed to protect children. Today, one in six children is at risk for abuse or neglect. If these cuts are made, more at-risk children will suffer.
As the Department of Children and Family Services is faced with cuts of more than $461 million, the pending outcome for children in foster care is dismal. Children's Home & Aid has received notice that if these cuts go through, caseloads will more than triple - to a staggering ratio of 1 caseworker per 50 foster children.
Foster parents will suffer a 50 percent reduction in state reimbursement. Many foster parents will no longer be able to care for the abused and neglected children they've taken into their homes.
These cuts are shortsighted because many programs for children and families have a proven track record of preventing much more expensive problems down the road. Studies demonstrate that every dollar invested in human service programs saves taxpayers $6 to $8 in future costs on everything from special education and health care to prison and welfare.
Now is the time for all of us to step up to the plate and do our part for the common good. As we reach out to the leadership of the General Assembly and the governor, we ask them to work together to craft a feasible budget plan. The one option that should not be on the table is cutting vital services for children and families.
Jim Thome
Chicago, formerly of Peoria
Paul Konerko
Chicago
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Forum: Speak up for Illinois children
Posted Jun 23, 2009 @ 10:30 PM
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The Illinois School for the Deaf, Illinois School for the Visually Impaired, autism programs, family assistance programs, developmental centers, home-based services, foster care, etc., must be saved from any state of Illinois budget cuts!
We cannot sit back and do nothing while these services get eliminated! Do what you must, but help these people who cannot help themselves! Many of these people cannot speak or write for themselves and we must speak and write for them. Please write a letter, make a phone call or send an e-mail to your representative, senator, etc., as soon as possible!
Karen Olehy
Mother of a child with special needs
East Peoria
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Forum: Endangered state programs do my son a world of good
Posted Jun 23, 2009 @ 10:30 PM
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The Illinois General Assembly has passed a state budget that includes massive cuts for human service agencies. Let me tell you what that means for me.
I am the mother of 25-year-old Ryan, who has cerebral palsy and scoliosis, is mentally challenged, deaf and non-verbal. He is six feet tall and weighs approximately 170 pounds. My husband and I are the sole caregivers for our son.
The only away time we have is when Ryan goes to Respite Care. The staff members there are trained to handle children so that we may have free time when the need arises - funerals, weddings, doctors appointments, etc. These cuts will impact that respite care, as well as medical care, as well as PARC home services.
When Ryan graduated from Manual High School in 2005, I had worked through red tape for two years to get him into a day program. At home he is on the living room floor. At day program he is in his wheelchair doing work with computers, getting structured daily living lessons. He is with peers like himself.
If this state budget is implemented, what will happen to parents who already have a very hard time because we are taking care of a son or daughter who is not able to care for themselves? How will we continue to work outside the home if our children are home? Who will pay my bills when I have to quit my job to stay home with my son?
Illinoisans need to come to their senses. Maybe you are blessed to have healthy children. Well, I am blessed to have a handicapped son that God gave me. But as parents we have to work to keep food on our table and a roof over our heads. We have to work to give our son the life he deserves. He didn't ask to be born with disabilities.
I am outraged by this state budget. We cannot possibly address our children's needs 24 hours a day, seven days a week without help. Please go visit PARC. See for yourself the good it does for our people. My son gets up with a smile on his face. He looks forward to going to PARC every day.
Please don't let the state budget take this away from us. Please!
Brenda Gray
Peoria
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