An anonymous $550 million gift to Western Michigan University will help fund tuition-free education and low-cost housing

This is not specifically relevant to news about developmental disabilities, but it is the sort of thing everyone should know about and pass on to friends who might benefit from this.The dog at left is the late Lucy Barker, not to be confused with our current dog, Polly Barker.

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An anonymous $550 million gift to Western Michigan University in Kalamazoo, Michigan, will help fund “tuition-free education, low-cost housing, a new innovative Living Learning Community and internship stipends for students attending the Kalamazoo school”, according to an article in the Detroit Free Press by David Jesse, 12/9/21. “It is the largest single gift ever given to any public university in the nation.”

According to the article, the University will launch several programs to help students:

• “The first, the new Bronco Promise will provide a tuition-free WMU education for up to five years for first-year students who come from Michigan families earning an adjusted gross income of $50,000 or less who have net assets under $50,000, the school said in a news release. University officials plan to hand out the scholarships to 340 students in the 2022-23 academic year and a projected 600 students each year after.
• “Western will also create a program to give up to $6,000 in housing and dining scholarships to 110 incoming students for their first year. That will cover about half of living expenses for a year, the school said. It will also create a new Living Learning Community for the students. They will live together in double occupancy rooms in a section of one of Western's residence halls. 
• “Students who attend Kalamazoo Public Schools or have a Detroit or Grand Rapids address will get preference for the need-based scholarships, but all Michigan residents are eligible to apply. Applications are due Feb. 15, and decisions will be released in March.
• “Western is also creating a program that will subsidize up to $3,600 in wages for up to 100 students each year with competitive, need-based stipends. The internships will be for students working with private and nonprofit organizations, the university said.”
• “The school will also give 800 upper-level students each year a need-based award up to $1,000 that can be applied to tuition and fees to help students complete their degrees.”

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From Wikipedia: “Western Michigan University (WMU) is a public research university in Kalamazoo, Michigan. It was established in 1903 by Dwight B. Waldo. Its enrollment, as of the Fall 2019 semester, was 21,470... It is classified among 'R2: Doctoral Universities – High research activity'...

Abelone Kelley December 10, 2021 0

Thinking differently about COVID outbreaks with widespread vaccination and a better understanding of the virus

In an article in the San Francisco Chronicle,  "We need to start thinking differently about COVID outbreaks, says UCSF's Monica Gandhi", 11/11/21, Gandhi is critical of recent decisions that she believes are too restrictive, now that there are areas of the country with high rates of vaccination and evidence that some venues are not conducive to spread of the COVID virus. 

Monica Gandhi is an infectious diseases specialist and professor of medicine at the University of California San Francisco. I heard her on a podcast about a month ago speaking about the COVID pandemic with more nuance and less hysteria than what you hear from most non-experts and political commentators.  Many commentators flail around spouting numbers and terms that most people do not understand (including the speakers themselves) and irresponsibly interpret their misunderstandings to further one skewed political belief or another. I imagine some of Gandhi's thinking is controversial among fellow infectious disease experts, but that is as it should be. Discussion about uncertainties among experts about a contagious disease is what leads to better understanding and better evidence-based public policy decisions.

Her article is well-sourced for anyone wanting to learn more and to follow her reasoning.

My own interest in this is in keeping my sons, who have multiple disabilities, and other residents of their group home from contracting COVID. None of them need or deserve the consequences of sloppy thinking and excessive risk-taking that could lead to the preventable transmission of the virus. The so-called "Dignity of Risk" where many disability advocates see risk as a virtue, does not apply in this situation. 

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Excerpts from "We need to start thinking differently about COVID outbreaks, says UCSF's Monica Gandhi" by Monica Gandhi, 11/11/21

Gandhi takes issue with the recent cancellation of the University of California/USC football game after 44 students and staff tested positive for COVID despite a 99% vaccination rate: 

"...the cancellation of a highly anticipated game like this one due to COVID-19 has led to online speculation — fueled by scary headlines — about the dwindling efficacy of vaccination and a return to the conditions that led to last year’s deadly winter surge..."

High vaccination rates means that some restrictions can be lifted:

 "But, in truth, clusters of mostly asymptomatic cases among the vaccinated, like what we’re seeing at Cal, are neither cause for concern, nor unexpected with a virus that will become endemic. They are an emerging part of our new normal. And we need to start recognizing — and more importantly — speaking about them as such."

..."Prior to the availability of the vaccines, we employed a variety of techniques to control the virus...But things have changed. In areas of high vaccination, mass asymptomatic testing no longer needs to done for those who are vaccinated, according to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines. Even testing for coronavirus exposure should be confined to individuals who were in close contact of a symptomatic person."

Vaccines reduce transmission:

"...A study of symptomatic delta variant breakthroughs from Singapore showed that the viral load by a value on the PCR test (cycle threshold, a test that should not be used to make clinical decisions) may start as high, but quickly comes down in the vaccinated (compared to the unvaccinated). This makes sense, since the immune response in the vaccinated can take a moment to kick in and fight the virus..."

"It’s essential to remember that we only need to take emergency medical or public health measures if there are clinical implications in play...if vaccines reduce the chance of being infected (vaccinated people are 13 times less likely to be infected than unvaccinated) an asymptomatic vaccinated person should not be tested without a direct exposure from someone who is ill."

Different metrics should be used in determining restrictions:

"[Using asymptomatic case counts] public health officials in the Bay Area (except for Marin County) appear to be using this metric to determine the necessity of restrictions such as masks, instead of a more appropriate index like COVID hospitalizations...Young people have been restricted during the pandemic in the United States...to protect others. We owe it to them to return their lives to normal, especially when that was the promise of public health officials in the context of vaccine mandates at many colleges and universities. Football (an outside activity) was shown to be safe and lead to no transmissions in a study from last year, prior to vaccinations and in areas of high community transmission. It is too late for this Cal-USC football game, but we need to think of outbreaks differently from now on in the context of the vaccines and live our lives accordingly." 

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See the original article for complete references. 

Abelone Kelley November 15, 2021 0

Another attempt to further privatize the Michigan Community Mental Health system

This is from the Community Mental Health Association of Michigan (CMHAM). From the Website - "The Community Mental Health Association of Michigan (CMHA) is the state association representing the state’s public Community Mental Health (CMH) centers, the public Prepaid Inpatient Health Plans (PIHP) public health plans formed and governed by the CMH centers and the providers within the CMH and PIHP provider networks." Michigan CMH agencies serve people with developmental disabilities, as well as individuals with mental illness and other disabilities.

Despite the flaws in the Michigan CMH system, and there are many, I agree with this statement - "This approach is nothing more than a [Medicaid] health plan money grab, these bills will not improve care for Michigan’s most vulnerable citizens, it will eliminate local decision making and only put more money into the pockets of insurance companies – this is BAD public policy." These are the same policies that the legislature, with the help of private Medicaid Health Plans, has been trying to impose on Michigan for at least the last 10 years.

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As you may know, [the CMHAM has been sending out alerts about the proposed legislation for months] the Senate Government Operations Committee has held three hearings on Senator Shirkey’s 2-bill integration package (9/14, 9/21 & 9/28). We believe as soon as Sen. Shirkey has the votes to move these bills in the Senate, he will vote them out of committee.

In recent media interviews, Sen. Shirkey has described his integration proposal as his top priority for his remaining time in the Michigan Senate. Given the fact that he chairs the committee and being Senate Majority Leader, he holds a tremendous amount of power and control over the day to day business in the Michigan Senate, we believe it is very likely these bills will move out of committee in the next couple of weeks.

Senate Bills 597 & 598 much like the 298 process from a couple years ago, would shift the Medicaid financing and managed care functions from the public PIHP system to private Medicaid Health Plans. We once again have significant concerns with this type of proposal and will be launching a series of action alerts to combat this harmful public policy initiative. This action alert will focus on local control & local decision making.

Make no mistake, SBs 597 & 598 eliminate local control and local decision making by the CMH and give it to for-profit insurance companies who are only accountable to non-elected bureaucrats in Lansing via contracts. Additionally, the bills will gut the local CMH system by allowing health plans to contract around CMHs and inserts specialty integrated plan (SIP) language into SB 598 which would allow health plans to remove CMHs from their local safety net role as community convener and collaborator.

REQUEST FOR ACTION: We are asking you to reach out to your legislators (House & Senate) and the Governor and URGE them to reject these bills when they come before them for a vote. We need to get as many Senators to oppose SBs 597 & 598 as possible. This approach is nothing more than a health plan money grab, these bills will not improve care for Michigan’s most vulnerable citizens, it will eliminate local decision making and only put more money into the pockets of insurance companies – this is BAD public policy.

**Please feel free to customize your response as you see fit**

We also need you to ask that the members of your Board of Directors, your staff, and your community partners make those same contacts – SIMPLY FORWARD THIS EMAIL TO THEM. This will not be the last action alert we send out on this topic, but it is critical that lawmakers hear from us – there has been tremendous turnover in the Michigan Legislature since 2016 (when 298 first appeared) this will be the first time many lawmakers are hearing about this issue.

Thank you in advance for your support and tireless advocacy on this important topic.

 
Click the link below to log in and send your message:
https://www.votervoice.net/BroadcastLinks/P5oQ02bJjoQ9w3Me_-yxiQ

Abelone Kelley October 27, 2021 0

The Future of Michigan Politics: Proposed Redistricting Maps from the Independent Commission

The Detroit Free Press, in an article by Clara Hendrickson and Todd Spangler, "Michigan's draft redistricting maps approved, will be taken to the public next", 10/12/21, reports on proposed maps by the new Independent Redistricting Commission establishing Congressional and State House and Senate districts based on the 2020 census.

It's complicated but important to the state's political future. So far, the commission is offering three sets of maps for public comment later this month to untangle "the gerrymandered boundaries put in place by a Republican state legislature and governor a decade ago, when new lines were drawn after the last Census."

The proposed maps, compared to the current districting maps, are less lopsided in favoring Republicans overall . They give a slight edge to Democrats in Congressional races and a slight edge to Republicans in state house and senate races. It will shake-up the status quo in many areas of the state, including in the Ann Arbor area which is heavily Democratic and in heavily Republican Southwest Michigan. 

The methods used in drawing the maps are in part based on voting patterns over the last ten years, but this is not the only consideration.

"Some of the proposed maps drawn by the commission would skew Republican, according to the commission's measures. But no plan matches the GOP advantage for the current districts drawn by Republicans in 2011, according to those measures.  

 

"The commission has been repeatedly urged to attempt to get its fairness scores as close to zero partisan bias as possible. 

"The commission's general counsel has told the group that it is not required to draw maps that would score zero on measures of partisan fairness. 'A lot of the very passionate public comment was for everything to be equal. That is not what your constitutional language is,' Julianne Pastula, the commission's general counsel, said."

 

Public hearing schedule

The commission will hold five public hearings across the state to solicit input on its maps. The hearings will be held from 1-3:30 p.m. and 5-8 p.m. with the commission conducting its business until 2:30 p.m. before kicking off the hearing. The public hearings will take place on the following dates:

• Weds., Oct. 20: Detroit, TCF Center
• Thurs., Oct. 21: Lansing, Lansing Center
• Fri., Oct. 22: Grand Rapids, location to be determined
• Mon., Oct. 25: Gaylord, Treetops Resort
• Tues., Oct. 26: Flint, Dort Financial Center

Members of the public can also submit written public comments and draft maps via www.michigan-mapping.org or comment on the commission's draft maps available at www.michigan.gov/micrc. 

The final maps of Congressional and State House and Senate Districts will be issued by December 30, 2021.

Abelone Kelley October 12, 2021 0

Abdulrazak Gurnah Wins the Nobel Prize for Literature

Novelist Abdulrazak Gurnah has been awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature, the first black African to win the prize for almost two decades.  

He was born in Zanzibar (Tanzania) but he migrated as a teenager to the UK, escaping from ethnic persecution and eventually became a professor of Post-colonial Literatures at the University of Kent in Canterbury. His novels talk about the experience of colonialism, refugees, migration and individual dignity. In this three minute interview NPR's culture reporter Neda Ulabyis talks about his life and works. You will come across interesting words like: shortlisted, fate, to flee, civil unrest, scholarly work, to be batted around, to track, marquee names, overdue, sprawling, to reconcile cultural chasms with their dreams, a clip, linen, a chubby face, uprooted [people].

Below, you can also watch a 6 minute BBC interview to Mr. Gurnah himself after he learnt he had won the Nobel Prize, which can be heard with subtitles. Both recordings are suitable for C1 students and above.

You can also listen to a lecture by Professor Gurnah about Indian Ocean Journeys on this link (15:07).

Abelone Kelley October 10, 2021 0

ACT Now for Severe Autism Campaign from Together For Choice

  

 Organizations supporting Act Now for Severe Autism: Voice Of Reason (VOR), National Council on Severe Autism (NCSA), ICF Advocates for Choice, Together For Choice (TFC), Autism Science Foundation (ASF), EASI Foundation, The Council of Autism Service Providers (CASP), RCPA

 

Group Warns of Escalating Health and Safety Crisis in I/DD Community

Releases Video to Increase Awareness

Calls to End One-Size-Fits-All Policy Solutions

[This video is extremely hard to watch, but it is real. I have known many families who have gone through this special kind of Hell. Not only do they face a daily struggle to keep their child safe from self-inflicted injuries, but they do it with minimal outside help and sometimes no sleep or any other form of relief. They are shamed and blamed by some disability rights organizations for somehow causing their child's disabilities. Rather than recognizing how extreme and different children and adults with severe autism can be from others with forms of autism that are not as debilitating, the neurodiversity movement  treats them as an embarrassment. People with severe autism belie the claim by some disability rights advocates that severe autism does not exist and that no special consideration is warranted.]

More from Together For Choice:

Together for Choice Joins with RCPA, Parents to Launch ACT Now for Severe Autism Campaign

Harrisburg, Pennsylvania – Together for Choice, a national advocacy organization formed to protect and advance the rights of individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities (I/DD), today announced the ACT NOW for Severe Autism Campaign with a consortium of partners, including the Rehabilitation and Community Providers Association (RCPA), concerned parents and other advocates. The campaign seeks to shine light on the growing health and safety crisis involving individuals with severe autism and change policies that deprive them of the services they need.

“For too long, individuals with severe autism have remained in the shadows and all too-often forgotten in policy discussions,” said Ashley Kim Weiss, National Coordinator of Together for Choice. “Most of the attention and resources have been devoted to integrating high functioning members of the I/DD community into society, which we agree is important. Equally important, however, are the most vulnerable individuals with severe disabilities who can never fully integrate and are in desperate need of customized care and support to live healthy and productive lives.

The group promoted a video, which first debuted at the RCPA Conference held in Pennsylvania last week. A parent of a severely autistic child self-financed and produced the video to combat the increasing claims of the highly vocal and publicly visible advocates of the neurodiversity community, that severe autism does not exist. Or worse yet, that the needs of those individuals with severe autism are no different than the needs of any other individual diagnosed with autism.

“While the video is at times uncomfortable to watch, it is critical that the public see the realities that these individuals and families face on a daily basis,” said Richard S. Edley, President and CEO of RCPA. “We need more resources and more flexible policy solutions to address this growing crisis. One-size-fits-all solutions must end. We must recognize that one-size does not fit everyone. People will always be left out – and sadly, it is often the most vulnerable who are forgotten."

The group also launched a website at http://actnowforsevereautism.com/ which houses the video and contains a petition to end these policies as well as more information about how the public can get involved and advocate for change in policies that discriminate against individuals with severe autism and their families.

About Together for Choice

Together for Choice (TFC) is a non-profit organization with a mission to unite to protect and advance the rights of individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities (I/DD) to live, work and thrive in a community or setting of their choice. Please visit www.togetherforchoice.org for more information.

About the Rehabilitation and Community Providers Association:

With well over 350 members, the majority of who serve over 1 million Pennsylvanians annually, Rehabilitation and Community Providers Association (RCPA) is among the largest and most diverse state health and human services trade associations in the nation. RCPA advocates for those in need, works to advance effective state and federal public policies, serves as a forum for the exchange of information and experience, and provides professional support to members. RCPA provider members offer mental health, drug and alcohol, intellectual and developmental disabilities, children’s, brain injury, medical rehabilitation, and physical disabilities and aging services, through all settings and levels of care. Visit www.paproviders.org for more information.

Contact for TFC:

Ashley Kim Weiss, National Coordinator

ashley@togetherforchoice.org

Contact for RCPA:

Richard S. Edley, PhD, President and CEO Rehabilitation and Community Providers Association (RCPA)

redley@paproviders.org

Abelone Kelley October 06, 2021 0

Call to dismantle barriers to developing autism friendly affordable housing

When more than three or four people with disabilities live together, either out of friendship or to share resources with people with common interests and needs, some disability rights advocates condemn the practice and compare it to life in institutions of more than fifty years ago. Whether it is a group home or a larger intentional community or a publicly or privately operated facility, they are all bad according to these advocates.

Touring a 21-unit disability housing complex in Gilroy, CA, Jill Escher describes how congregate housing for people with autism and other development disabilities are needed to tackle the problem of serving and housing people with severe disabilities. 

Encouraging these projects is better than attempting to sabotage them in the name of disability rights. 

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I visited a 21-unit disability housing complex and it was nothing remotely like an "institution"

A disability housing advocate calls for the dismantling of bureaucratic obstacles preventing the development of autism-friendly affordable housing.

by Jill Escher
8/31/21 

One of the most ludicrous and damaging battles waged by so-called “disability rights” activists is their deranged crusade to de-fund congregate-style residential facilities, which they routinely likened to “institutions” of old that once housed 1000’s of residents. It is of course nonsense, but this line of absurdist reasoning has already had a damaging chilling effect on needed developments aimed at the intensive needs of the autistic and developmentally disabled. Any development with more than a handful of disabled residents can become the target of immediate witch-hunt-like suspicion, and as a consequence, many projects die before they can get off paper.

This insane self-sabotage came to mind as I recently toured a lovely 20 year-old housing development in Gilroy, California, located some 30 miles south of the Silicon Valley area. Villa Esperanza was built in the late 1990s when it was still totally cool, and indeed noble!, to say, “We are creating housing for the developmentally disabled.” This was before groups like the Autistic Self Advocacy Network and others routinely hurled poisonous accusations at such developments calling them “isolating” and “institutional.”

The primary goal of Villa Esperanza, created by a nonprofit housing developer, was the provision of affordable housing for adult developmentally disabled individuals and their families. It received a construction loan (Section 811) from HUD and smaller loans as well. Other local nonprofits were involved in the planning, and now the administration. For the past two decades it has provided 21 units of desperately needed housing at affordable rates. The person with DD pays a portion of the rent (perhaps about $300, representing 1/3 of their SSI income), while the balance is paid by the county Housing Authority with HUD funds. Some tenants live independently, some with roommates, some with professional supports chosen by the client. Most tenants access the community on a regular basis and attend supported employment or day programs. The mini-campus also features a community room for social gatherings. 

As I toured the grounds I could only think, “Given the skyrocketing rates of autism, why are there not Villa Esperanzas everywhere? Why isn’t this model — a public-private partnership providing affordable, subsidized units to DD adults in a safe, serene setting — a go-to norm for our population?” ...

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Read More at the Blog for the National Council on Severe Autism (NCSA)

Abelone Kelley October 04, 2021 0