NYAIL Newsletter, February 2022

NYAIL News 2022, Issue 2:

Budget Advocacy Day, OAPWD, LTCOP Webinar, Disability Day of Mourning.

Budget Advocacy Day - Monday

NYAIL will be holding our annual Budget Advocacy Day virtually on Monday, February 14th with an opening event from 10 to 11 a.m. Free registration is required. CART and ASL will be provided. The event will kickoff advocacy around several issues important to the disability community. Fair Pay for Home Care remains a top concern and will be a big part of this year's event. Contact your local independent living center if you're interested in participating in advocacy efforts.

Documents outlining NYAIL's Disability Priority Agenda budget priorities and legislative priorities are available on our website. You can always find additional advocacy priorities and informational materials on our website.

The event will be held with the Consumer Directed Personal Assistance Association of New York State (CDPAANYS) and New York Caring Majority.

Office of the Chief Disability Officer

Advocates were waiting very patiently late into Friday evening as the deadline loomed for the Governor to sign the bill reinstating the Office of the Advocate for People with Disabilities. We're happy to say that the Governor did sign the bill with minor changes, including the name of the office. Advocacy from the disability community was an important part of the effort. We're thankful to the bill sponsors Senator Skoufis and Assemblyman Steck. We're also grateful to Governor Hochul for signing the bill. There is no announcement yet on who will be selected and when the office will be staffed. We will be sharing information as it becomes available. You can read more on our website.

New York's Most Integrated Setting Coordinating Council (MISCC) is scheduled to meet on March 2nd at 1 p.m. Visit their website for more information. The MISCC is responsible for ensuring that New Yorkers of all ages with physical, intellectual, developmental, and mental disabilities receive care and services in the most integrated settings appropriate to their individual needs.

NYAIL 2022 Webinar Series

Long Term Care Ombudsmen Program

NYAIL's 2022 Webinar Series continues this February with the generous support of Waymo. Join us on February 23rd from 1 to 2:30 p.m. for our webinar on the Long Term Care Ombudsmen Program and Resident Rights. Free advance registration is required for each of our Zoom webinars. There will be ASL and CART for this webinar.

Recordings and presentation materials are added to the Training and Education section of our website under 2022 Webinar Series. A recording of January's webinar "An Introduction to DisDATA" is now available on our website.

This webinar will be presented by:

Lindsay Heckler, Supervising Attorney at the Center for Elder Law & Justice

Claudette Royal, Director of Long Term Care Advocacy - State Ombudsman at the New York State Office for the Aging

Full speaker biographies are available on the registration page.

Thank you to our NYAIL 2022 Webinar Series sponsor Waymo!

Waymo is an autonomous driving technology company with a mission to make it safe and easy for people and things to get where they’re going. We believe that fully autonomous technology holds the promise to improve road safety and offer new mobility options to millions of people. This is why we're designing the Waymo Driver, our autonomous technology, to give people a new kind of freedom – to go where they want, when they want, while making the frustrations and concerns with driving a thing of the past.

Disability Day of Mourning

Since 2012, the Autism Self Advocacy Network has organized the Disability Day of Mourning (DDOM) annually on March 1st.

This year, Not Dead Yet, Aging NY, and NYAIL are hosting a virtual DDOM event for New York on March 1st at 3:30 pm. The event will have speakers and the reading of names of those lost to filicide, people with disabilities that have been murdered by those entrusted with their care.

Melvyn R. Tanzman, retired executive director of Westchester Disabled on the Move and Lisa Tarricone, executive director of Taconic Resources for Independence had their commentary in opposition to assisted suicide published last month, "Aid in Dying Act offers too few protections for the disabled"

The New York Association on Independent Living administers several statewide and regional programs in collaboration with its member ILCs, all of which are focused on helping people with disabilities live independently in the community.

Learn more about NYAIL programs by visiting: ilny.us/programs