Members Rally for Fair Funding & Economic Justice

With the state and national economies in crises and budget cuts looming for FY10, Providers’ Council members from all over the state staged and participated in demonstrations at the State House and beyond throughout the month of February.

In early February, hundreds of people with disabilities and their families joined Arc of Massachusetts at a rally at the State House.  Participants urged the legislature to restore the $85 million in cuts to the Department of Mental Retardation and other disability agencies that have been proposed in the governor’s FY10 budget.

On February 25th, the Dunbar Community Center in Springfield hosted a similar rally to halt cuts to the state’s family support and autism programs.  Providers’ Council members Martin Luther King, Jr. Community Center, The Association for Community Living, Multicultural Community Services of the Pioneer Valley and Lutheran Social Services joined the rally, hoping to preserve services to more than 3,000 area families who rely on state funding to support to their relatives with developmental disabilities.

The very next day, Mass Home Care and member agencies (including the Boston Center for Independent Living, Home Care Alliance of Massachusetts, and the Massachusetts Council for Home Care Aide Services) literally brought beans to Beantown in an effort to remind lawmakers that their budget cuts "are not about 'bean counting.'" Pictured above, Jim Cunningham from Chelsea / Revere / Winthrop Elder Services attends the event.

Later that same day, Council member City Life/Vida Urbana joined the Massachusetts Alliance Against Predatory Lending outside of Bank of America in Copley Square to demand, among other items, that the bank stop all post-eviction foreclosures and rewrite existing mortgages at fixed rates.

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