Official Start Date for the 2017 Legislative Session is January 3rd
Your voice is needed – the time to re-engage and re-activate our grassroots is right now!
The start to the 2017 session is only a month away! ARRM will again partner with the Best Life Alliance to continue its work in bringing attention to the workforce crisis for the disability community and ask the legislature for increased funding to better compensate Direct Support Professionals.
Your voice is needed – the time to re-engage and re-activate our grassroots is right now! Contact your legislators before session starts and ask them to support the Best Life Alliance and increased wages for Direct Support Professionals in 2017! To find your district, click here. Then refer to the 2016 Election Directory to find your 2017 House Representative and Senator along with contact information.
The Ask
Every Legislator: The Best Life Alliance and ARRM have sent a letter to every legislator that was elected to office. Help us follow up with them by reaching out with this message:
“You should have received the attached letter from the Best Life Alliance and ARRM congratulating you on your recent election to office and highlighting the importance of community-based services for people with disabilities in your district and throughout Minnesota.
I hope you take the time to read these letters and think about the tens of thousands of people that are impacted by the current workforce crisis in disability services and the difference that a wage increase will mean for Home and Community-Based Services. As a constituent, I want you to know that this increase will impact me personally (Say how it will impact you here).
I urge you to stand up for disability services during your time as a legislator and become a champion on my behalf and on behalf of the thousands of other Minnesotans impacted by disability services across the state.”
Legislators who are new and have not served in the legislature before, will receive the introductory letters and will be invited for a site visit at one of our Phoenix Residence locations.
We want to make sure that all newly elected legislators are given the opportunity to tour a site prior to the start of the 2017 legislative session. Site visits are one of the greatest resources we have in educating legislators about the important work that we do every day.
The Best Life Alliance and ARRM goal is to conduct 44 site visits in the month of December; one for every new legislator that will be representing us at the Capitol, and to make sure that they understand what Home and Community-Based Services are and why it is important to fund a wage increase for Direct Support Professionals in 2017.
Contact Rachel Koenigs at srkoenigs@phoenixresidence.org or 651-294-7964 with any questions.