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…

Mental health, substance use and disability advocates testified at a legislative budget hearing on Tuesday about what they say is a lack of funding in the governor’s executive budget for the mental hygiene workforce. Gov. Kathy Hochul’s proposed budget includes a 1.2% cost-of-living adjustment for providers — an increase that advocates say is not enough…Read More…

We are seriously concerned that Gov. Kathy Hochul did not include a direct support professional wage enhancement or a full cost-of-living adjustment in her 2024-2025 executive budget for not-for-profit agencies, such as Aspire of WNY, People Inc., Community Services for Every 1, ARC of WNY, SASI and others who serve about 85% of people with…Read More…

To the Editor: To New York state legislators and Gov. Kathy Hochul, I am the sister and legal guardian of a sibling with an intellectual or developmental disability (I/DD). She resides in Onondaga County in New York state and receives services from the Arc of Onondaga. I live in Virginia, and have been her long-distance…Read More…