OPPOSE 10,000 people with disabilities being cut off from Illinois Home Services program - Online Petition!

wanted to share, and request we ALL support this Action from Access Living (center for independent living) in Chicago

Dear Access Living friends and allies, Yesterday afternoon, we asked you to take action to urge our State Representatives to sign onto House Resolution (HR) 344. At least 100 of you contacted your local State Representatives---way to go! Today, I want to ask you to take it up ONE MORE NOTCH! We have a new link that will allow you to send ONE email to MANY key State Representatives. The new action alert is at this link. Even if you sent a message already about HR 344, I urge you to use this new link because it will go out to every member of the House Human Services Committee and the House Human Services-Appropriations Committee who has not yet signed onto HR 344. Doing this action alert is sure to help us draw more attention to the danger of the DON change for the Home Services Program and the Community Care Program. Let’s go Illinois! I also copied below my signature the email that I sent yesterday, so you can read more about the facts. The link in that email will allow you to contact your local State Representative if you have not yet done so. We CAN make a difference! From yesterday: Dear Access Living friends and allies, We are kicking up our home services advocacy a notch! Thanks to our friend State Representative Robyn Gabel, a resolution has been filed with the Illinois House of Representatives to OPPOSE the Determination of Need (DON) score change from 29 to 37. As most of you know by now, this change would result in 10,000 people with disabilities being cut off from the Home Services program, and at least 20,000 seniors being cut off from the Community Care Program. This change was part of the Governor’s budget proposal and we MUST stop it! You can help! House Resolution (HR) 344 can be read at this link. HR 344 states that the House will urge the Governor and state agencies to withdraw the plan to change the DON from 29 to 37. We need to get as many Representatives to help sign onto HR 344 as possible, to create pressure to stop the change. Plus, this is a great education tool to help get our legislators to talk about the DON and why the change is a bad idea. The really cruel part of the DON change proposal is that so many people with disabilities and seniors are not told what their DON score is, when they are evaluated for home services. People know their hours, but not their DON score. People have to be savvy enough to ask for it. Most people at risk don’t even know that they could be cut off from home services. If you know someone who uses the Home Services Program or the Community Care Program, urge them to ask their care coordinator to tell them what their DON score is. Everyone has a right to know! Empower people to fight back against this attack on their independence. Home services are a matter of life and death---not to mention they also employ thousands of workers who make sure people with disabilities and seniors have the support we need. We can’t let our workers down. To ask your State Representative to sign onto HR 344 as a sponsor, please use this fast and easy link to contact them. The more emails they get, the more the pressure builds up! Please help take action ASAP! Please share this email with your colleagues, friends and families. Let’s go Illinois! Amber Smock Director of Advocacy, Access Living