Help Save Lanterman Act Services for People with Disabilities

April 8, 2010

Hi Everyone,

For those of you who are based in California, we all have felt some sort of

something from the changes to the Lanterman Act. Many of us have had our

services cut far too early due to the changes. The ARC is trying to prevent

more services from being cut so please take a moment to sign your name and pass

this along to help our kiddos. Also please repost to any other forums, on

facebook, twitter, myspace...you get the idea.

Thank you!

Help Save Lanterman Act Services for People with Disabilities

Take Action!

Please take 60 seconds to seconds to send one email today

Dear Friends,

Thanks to California's Lanterman Act, people with intellectual and developmental

disabilities and their family members or other advocates are part of the

planning team that decides what supports and services they will receive.

But in the chaos caused by last year's budget cuts and accompanying Lanterman

Act changes, some staff members at regional centers have simply cut people off

services without even talking to the people most affected. In fairness to these

overworked staff members, some of the Lanterman Act changes that Governor

Schwarzenegger and the Legislature adopted last year are confusing and could be

misinterpreted to allow service cutoffs without meetings of the planning teams.

Here's our chance to make sure that stops!

Please send an email by Monday, April 12 to the Assembly Human Services

Committee asking them to pass Assembly Bill 2702, authored by Assembly Member

Wesley Chesbro and sponsored by The Arc of California. Our bill makes it crystal

clear that the planning team process hasn't changed -- the people most affected

by the decisions are still key to the decision-making.

I usually don't ask you to send prewritten emails like this, because calls and

letters carry much more weight. But prewritten emails can have an impact when

there are enough of them, so this time we're going for numbers. We've grown The

Arc's Action E-List a lot in the last year, and I think we can generate enough

emails to make a difference. Please don't prove me wrong!

Thank you for your advocacy.

Greg

PS. After you send the email yourself, please forward this Action Alert to

everybody you know who might be willing to take a minute to help. Like I said,

this time we're going for numbers.

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