Strengthening Our Voices

ACTION ALERT

ARCH Disability Law Centre has developed an important advocacy package; Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3, which deserves our support. Could you please distribute this as widely as possible to everyone you know who may be on the waiting list for Passport or SSAH, or has had their funding cut, or believes that these vital resources are underfunded. FAO has worked with ARCH to prepare this campaign and we are counting on our members, friends and colleagues to send in their stories and lobby the government with as much strength as we can muster.

Thanks,
Barbara McCormack
President

There has been growing desperation among families who are waitlisted for SSAH and/or Passport support. FAO received the statistics we requested for the last fiscal year; 7160 waitlisted for SSAH - 3220 more than last year (although only new applicants were counted last year), 3959 waitlisted for Passport - an increase of 450. The attached letter from Assistant Deputy Minister Alex Bezzina provides more details.

An invitation to participate in the Developmental Services Day on June 1st at Queens Park came from the opposition critics, Conservative party MPPs Christine Elliot and Sylvia Jones. The attached letters (1 2) from the Toronto Family Network describe very well the disappointment many of us felt at the lack of attention given to our issues in question period.

Toronto Star reporter Helen Henderson also highlighted the plight of families, challenged by the lack of resources, in her article published on June 19th.

Current Issues

We continue to promote the inclusion of broader categories of support available through direct funding. While revisions were still being considered by the Policy Branch, a Proposal to revise the First Regulation - submitted by Special Services At Home Provincial Coalition and FAO. LGIC Regulation Change Proposal SSAHPC and FAO, March 2010. Another letter was sent on June 7th to Christine Hughes, MCSS Manager, Policy Development and Coordination detailing the "home living supports" in our request, for consideration by their department.

We will continue our discussions about the fair implementation of direct funding at an early Fall meeting of the Partnership Table and will pursue this vigorously.

FAO received a letter with the phase in dates of the new Act.