In This Issue: Leadership Training Jon's Corner Conference Announcement Kile's Corner

May2023 As we wrap up the month of May SUFU staff are beginning to work on the 2023 conference. We hope you mark your calendar and plan to join us in September as we celebrate 30 years of SUFU! May has been a busy month and we hope this newsletter captures some of what SUFU has been doing.

Leadership Training Begins Our Leadership training began this month in Houlton! Thank you to Stacy Giberson for the pictures and captions. We know these self-advocates are gaining valuable leadership skills!

All leadership participants worked together to come up with leadership training ground rules to kick off Session 1.

In the above photos Stephanie looks on as teams work together to build the prettiest and tallest tower out of a limited amount of supplies. Stephanie completed leadership training in 2022 and has gone on to be a co-leader of this group. In the right photo Jozie finds the perfect piece after searching all of the tactile choices.

Above Left, Lisa, Mike and Terri are going for tall in their tower. Above Right, David is looking confident with his teams progress.

Above, Georgia wonders if it will stand up to the end!

Above Left, David, Georgia and Rena are proud of their creation. Above Right, Monique points out how much time is left.

Above Left, working on team names. Above Right, teams are stepping on numbers in order and attempt to have the fastest time.

Jon's Corner Hi I’ve been going to the Lifespan Waiver Work Group. It’s very interesting and there is a lot to learn and understand about it. I have been taking notes for SUFU for this group. I have been hearing what other people have to say on the Lifespan Waiver.   The Lifespan Waiver is a lot of information to take in and many people are bringing a lot of good ideas to the table to help. I like the idea that they are going to start at the age of 14 years old so people with disabilities can think about what choices they want when they graduate high school.  For those that already receive services they will have the option to switch to the Lifespan Waiver in the future.  I don’t know if I should go on the Lifespan Waiver or stay where I am right now.  This is a choice I will have to make in the future.   This will be a hard choice for everybody with disabilities because it’s going to be something new for people.  We don’t always like change.  There is much to learn about the Lifespan Waiver, and we can all be looking for more details in the future.

2023 SUFU Annual Conference  Mark Your Calendar! The 2023 SUFU Annual Conference is coming. September 19th and 20th in Waterville, ME. We will be celebrating 30 years of SUFU! Mark your calendars to come celebrate with us!

Kile's Corner Hello to all my fantastic self-advocates out there. Here is another Kile’s corner for the Month of May 2023. May was a busy month. On May 1st, a few self-advocates, SUFU advisor Laurie, SUFU advisor Stacy, and SUFU executive director Monique, and I went to the State House to testify on a bill, LD 1666. This bill will help us people with disabilities, under the state law, to receive more money from our Social Security benefit and it will eliminate the marriage penalty.  This bill is important to me, my wife, and other self-advocates, and if this bill gets passed, a married couple with disabilities will be able to get the same amount of income from Maine Social Security as individuals. It doesn't really help with federal Social Security benefits, but it's one great step forward.  To move ahead we need to make sure that people continue making their voices heard at the federal level to make this pass. Why? I have learned that people that don't have a disability and have a seat of power really listen and hear what people with disabilities have to say about their concerns.  Many self-advocates wrote testimonies on LD 1666 and many more Self-advocates should participate and tell their stories by doing more testimonies just like this one. After we all testified on this bill the next week it went through to a work session in Health and Human Services Committee, and it was passed unanimously! The chair of the House and human service committee Michele Meyer said that nobody should be penalized for getting married and she is 100% right. Why should people get penalized for getting married? A law that hasn’t been changed in almost 50 years. I wish I could go back to DC and tell them to listen to the people who follow in our shoes take the barriers that we have and try to break through, it's not right, it's not fair, we are adults that make our own decisions. Social Security benefits that we get are not a privilege, it's our lifeline. They help us pay our bills, pay our rent, get our food, and get the things that we need to survive. People that don't have disabilities can work a lot more hours than people with disabilities, we think differently, we do things differently. For me, this is one of the greatest bills that the State of Maine has written. I look forward to seeing this move from the Appropriations Committee, the House, and Senate to Governor Mills’ desk to sign.

Stephanie and Kile waiting to testify on May 1st in Augusta.

What's on the blog? Our Blog is a space where Self-Advocates share their stories. We invite you to check them out here. If you are a self-advocate that would like to submit an entry for our blog please reach out to Laurie Coldwell or Jon McGovern.

Finally We invite you to check out our website . Read our most recent blog post and subscribe to future blogs. You can also find the list of our chapter meetings, or follow us on Facebook. If you are a SUFU member we want you to join our members only Facebook Group. To do that please email Laurie Coldwell or Jon McGovern. We don't want you to miss anything.

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Have an Idea for Something to be in The Connector? Contact: Laurie Coldwell Program Manager (207) 956-1004 / Ext. 1 lcoldwell@sufumaine.org

SUFU CONNECTOR Speaking Up For Us of Maine 207-956-1004 www.sufumaine.org