[oklahoma-l] Washington State blindness organizations stop effortto consolidate services

Sat Mar 13 20:59:24 GMT 2010

Joe will you please send me all documents that you have on this.  
rm1947 at swbell.net

  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Joe Fallin 
  To: 'ACB Oklahoma' 
  Sent: Saturday, March 13, 2010 2:24 PM
  Subject: [oklahoma-l] Washington State blindness organizations stop effortto consolidate services

  ;  ;  ;  ;  ;  Below is an e-mail from our National Association of rehabilitation councils for services to the blind. This is just another in a series of attempts to destroy specialized services. Remember this took place in a very progressive state, so it can  happen anywhere. I can't attach documents on this list, but I have their supporting documents which I'll send to anyone who wishes.  We should save them for the next time this is tried in Oklahoma.

  Joe Fallin

  Blindness Services SRC and Boards Networking Group, As you know, Washington State services have been at risk recently.  Consumers and others who care (including the individuals, the State Rehab Council and staff) got involved.  Their actions made a huge difference in the future of services to blind people in Washington State.  

  Below is a report from Cindy Van Winkle on the happenings there.  She has also shared letters, testimony, and other documents with us.  We have found this sort of thing to be crucial for others, each time such threats emerge.

  Many thanks to Cindy Van Winkle for sending all these materials to us!

  Dr. Pearl Van Zandt

  Executive Director

  Nebraska Commission for the Blind and Visually Impaired

  Our Mission:

  Empowering Blind Individuals, Promoting Opportunities, and Building Belief in the Blind.

  -----Original Message-----

  From: Cindy Van Winkle [mailto:cindy.vw at msn.com]

  Sent: Wednesday, February 24, 2010 4:18 AM

  To: Van Zandt, Pearl

  Subject: Re: Touching Base

  Hi Pearl.

  I'm sorry for not getting back to you sooner. It has definitely been a busy time.

  Many hours went into saving our State Agency, but they were hours well spent as we come out this year victorious.

  Here's what we did.

  In December, the SRC passed a motion to have me as Chair write to the Governor requesting a meeting with her to discuss the possible relocation of Department of Services for the Blind (DSB) to Department of Social and Health Services (DSHS). Our legislative committee was also instructed to work with the 2 consumer groups to try and keep us all unified and working together.

  I wrote the letter and was contacted within a week or so with a meeting date to meet with 3 policy analysts from the Office of Financial Management working on behalf of the Governor.

  See attachment "SRC letter to governor 2009".

  We Drafted a fact sheet about our agency, its services & the relationship between DSB and the blind community. This was written with assistance from representatives of the SRC, NFBW and WCB.

  I then as Chair of the SRC contacted every blindness organization serving the blind in our state & requested their signing on as an endorser to the fact sheet. We were able to include 20 organizations as endorsers.

  Please see the attachments "Relocation of Department of Services for the Blind will save no dollars and "seeking the support"" which were both used in this effort.

  I then created a distribution list in my personal email address book, and continually updated this group of supporters as things unfolded.

  The week before the legislative session began, I, along with the Presidents of both consumer groups, met with the 3 representatives from OFM. We were basically told, change was going to happen and we better embrace it. Not much room was given for discussion, although they did let us share are concerns. But we knew our words were falling on deaf ears.

  Please note the attachment "talking points  for Governor meeting 2010" which is what I used to base my comments at this meeting on. I absolutely did not read from this verbatim. We also left the fact sheet with them.

  A week into the legislative session, before we even had bill numbers, I sent out a letter to every representative and senator individually; this meant 147 emails, addressing each personally to that legislator.

  Attached is the letter "Legislator letter DSB" which I sent to each of them, including the fact sheet as an attachment.

  Once we had a bill number and learned of a public hearing, we worked to get word out, again working in tandem with both consumer groups to get as many blind people there as we could. We had about 40 people present at an 8:00am hearing. I was the first of 13 or so people testifying.

  The attachment "DSB testimony" is what I submitted in writing and gaged my oral testimony on.

  That night after the public hearing on HB2953 was heard by the House Health and Human Services Appropriations Committee, the Chair of that committee wrote to one of his constituents to share the following:

  "After listening to the stirring testimony today at the public hearing, my colleagues and I will propose NOT to transfer Dept. of Services for the Blind to DSHS.

   The bill died in the House and was never asigned in the Senate.

  Then just a week ago we were made aware that a bill to abolish some Sate Boards and Commissions made it through the Senate & was being voted on in the House with an amendment that included suspending for 2 years certain State Boards and Commissions. Our State Rehabilitation Council was listed in that amendment. I immediately contacted one of my Representatives serving on the House State Government and Tribal Affairs Committee who would be voting on that bill the next day, via voice-mail and email. I even phoned her first thing the next morning and spoke with her Aide who promised to fill her in on their way to the meeting. Consiquently, the amendment including our SRC was removed and it is believed the bill will go through without us as part of it.

  Attached is the "email letter on Boards and Commissions bill ".

  None of this touches on the other things we've continued to work on, a bill to abolish our State School for the Blind and place it under the Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction which died, huge budget cuts which have caused us to currently lose 6 staff from an already lean staff at our State Library for the Blind and a threatened budget cut to our Older Blind program. We are still very much working on the budget concerns.

  Finally, I made the tough decision to postpone our March 6 SRC meeting to April 3 to allow as to appropriately respond to the ptotential budget cuts the agency will be facing, allowing is to truly partner with DSB in the decisions they may need to make.

  Please feel free to use whatever I've provided you to assist others, and to pass along my contact information if it's believed I can be of any help to any other state going through a similar situation.

  Respectfully,

  Cindy Van Winkle

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