Greetings,

As you may know, The Arc of New Jersey served as Steering Committee Chair for The Coalition for a DSP Living Wage. After months of advocacy and with your strong support I am thrilled to report that the final Budget document, signed by the Governor on July 4th, includes $20 million to increase wages for Direct Support Professionals! This is an outstanding victory and the product of many months of hard work, collaboration, and advocacy. The Coalition for a DSP Living Wage would like to thank everyone who participated in our action alerts, forwarded our materials, came out to our lobbying day in Trenton and shared our posts on social media. This was not an easy battle, but the developmental disability community came together and together, we were able to make a difference.

Today we celebrate, but the work is not over. This summer our Steering Committee will reconvene so advocacy plans can begin for the FY19 Budget. Direct Support Professionals need higher wages so they can continue to provide the critically-important services people with I/DD and their families rely on. That is why we will bring this battle back to lawmakers as we continue our ongoing campaign to raise wages. Thank you again to everyone who supported the Coalition’s efforts and congratulations on helping us achieve this outcome.

Keep a look out for more correspondence from the Coalition in the months to come! 

Sincerely,

Tom Baffuto

Chair of the Coalition for a DSP Living Wage