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Monday, April 1, 2013

Illinois Senior (and disabled) Home Services, No Funding for Over 2 Weeks; April 1, 2013 - not a sad April Fools joke, but very REAL

as shared by Access Living


TAKE ACTION: Senior Home Services, No Money for Over 2 Weeks
Community Care Program on Day 17 Without Funds

As of March 15, the Illinois Community Care Program has been operating without funds for budget year 2013, which ends on June 30. The Community Care Program (CCP) serves around 79,000 seniors with in-home services per MONTH. Around 25,000 home care workers are employed through CCP. It is our understanding that one home service agency in Chicago has announced it will close because of this crisis, and two more in Central Illinois have also announced they will close.

The Illinois General Assembly has tasked State Representative Sara Feigenholtz of Chicago with leading a committee to resolve the CCP funding crisis. CCP needs a total of $173 million to make it through June 30. This is a huge challenge. Your two personal legislators, plus Representative Feigenholtz, need to know how important home services are to you and people you know. They need to be able to tell their colleagues how many emails they have gotten from concerned citizens. Please take action through this alert to email them today. It is a snap! Please also share this with people you know to urge them to take action too.

This is not just a "senior" issue. This is a disability issue because a person only gets home services if they have functional limitations that require that they get in-home services. Having functional limitations that prevent you from doing essential activities of daily living is one way to define disability.

If you are reading this by email, just click on the "Take Action" link at the top of this message to fill out the form and hit "send." It will go to your State Senator and Representative, as well as Representative Feigenholtz. If you are reading this message on our website, just scroll down for the form. THANK YOU and TAKE ACTION TODAY! Save the Community Care Program!
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To Take Action, visit Access Living to send a message to your State Legislators and State Representative Sara Feigenholtz at: http://accessliving.capwiz.com/accessliving/issues/?style=D&

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