New York State’s final $237 billion budget fails to meet the needs of New Yorkers with disabilities, their families, the workforce that supports them and the nonprofit provider agencies. Awareness days and months serve as important reminders of the challenges facing people with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD) and their families. Yet, these efforts, combined with the voices of…Read More…

A call for a Cost-Of-Living-Adjustment for nonprofit providers and a Direct Support Wage Enhancement to give direct care workers a much-needed bump in pay. My son Jonathan is 38-years-old and living with autism. He resides in a group home and attends a day habilitation program. Like many others living with a disability, Jonathan’s life is…Read More…

ROCHESTER, N.Y. — Direct support professionals are individuals who provide people with disabilities help with their everyday needs. According to the state’s Office for People with Developmental Disabilities, there’s more than 100,000 across New York state. They’re an essential part of how Betsy Irish lives her everyday life. “She requires assistance with every activity of life, dressing,…Read More…

Direct Support Professionals and non-profit provider agencies are the backbone of our state’s care service sector with over 85% of the responsibility for supporting people with intellectual and developmental disabilities.  The forecast is bleak with no relief in sight with the hemorrhaging of staff costing providers $100.5M annually.  We must fund a comprehensive 3.2% Cost…Read More…

One of the key ways to gauge the integrity of any democratic government is the ability to represent and protect its most vulnerable constituents. Policies and actions that meet these criteria serve as a litmus test of the values and priorities we all strive for. This year, our elected officials in both the Senate and…Read More…

We are confronted with a dire need to invest resources to address an employment crisis. With the New York State budget deadline fast approaching, the support and well-being of individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities (I/DD) is at risk. Often overlooked, 11% of New Yorkers are living with an intellectual or developmental disability. Each person…Read More…

More than 130,000 New Yorkers are living with intellectual and developmental disabilities (I/DD) and 85% of them are served by nonprofit providers. Over the last decade, the nonprofit I/DD community has experienced a dramatic shortfall in staffing, high turnover rates, and rising costs of operations that are no longer met by Medicaid funding. This gap…Read More…

The Arc provides residential services as well as educational and social day programs for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities. Leaders of the state and local chapters of The Arc told News 12 their staffing and funding systems are “on the verge of imploding” and are urging action by state officials in this year’s state…Read More…

STONY POINT − More than 1,200 showed up to “Rally in the Valley” Friday, calling on Gov. Kathy Hochul to include a fair wage in her 2025 budget for the workers who aid 140,000 vulnerable New Yorkers with intellectual and developmental disabilities. The rally took place at Kirkbride Hall, one of the few revamped buildings that…Read More…

About half of New York’s direct support professionals who work with individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities experience housing or food insecurity, a new report shows. The report, released this morning and shared first with Crain’s, was commissioned by New York Disability Advocates, a statewide coalition representing more than 300 nonprofit providers and surveyed about 4,500…Read More…