Vanguard Landing, a choice or same pattern of segregation in Virginia?

I spoke a city council meeting 10.8.13

As a person with a disability and was once employed Moms in Motion, a waiver facilitator that assist many Virginians with disabilities live in their community, I'm confused and angry over the the expense and the intent the City has shown for Vanguard Landing.

While I realize people deserve home care options, I believe seclusion and segregation is never the answer. Those two factors are dangerous. If you were to look at the history of people with disabilities, you will find, again and again, a pattern of segregation and abuse. I'm not only referring to physical abuse but corruption of the internal care system that will surely happen in the future.

Why are we continuing to make the same mistakes of the past? Why do the founders of Vanguard Landing think this is best option, when the US Department of Justice came into Virginia and said the (secluded) Training Centers had to be closed immediately? Isn't that a heads up that these type of places are dangerous?

The answer to caring for people with disabilities can be found by studying Disability History.

I invite everybody listening right now to my Disability History presentation on October 21st at 6:30 in Norfolk at Hope House hosted by The Arc of South Hampton Roads. If you study Disability History you will see segregation leads to abuse. Stop profiteering from caring of people with disabilities. There are current practices being used now to care for people with disabilities in their homes. It cost less to serve an individual in their home. Viruses such as COVID-19 kills at an increased rate in segregated settings such as Vanguard Landing.

I believe in small group homes sprinkled throughout our community.

I believe in strengthening home care support so anybody with a disability can live at home.

I believe everybody should live in their community, near or with their loved ones.

Segregation is not the answer. It never was and never will be.

 

Segregation is not the answer. It never was and never will be. Do not fund Vanguard Landing.

Please look at the Facebook page that I and another advocate made:
https://www.facebook.com/advocatesagainstvanguard


A conversation on my Facebook

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Released March 9, 2014
New York Times Documentary: The Men of Atalissa

Produced by Kassie Bracken, John Woo and Dan Barry, "The Men of Atalissa" is the evocative, haunting story of a few dozen men with intellectual disability who lived in an old schoolhouse on top of a hill. For more than three decades, they were an integral part of an Iowa farming community, worshipping at the local churches, dancing at the local bars, working at a nearby turkey-processing plant; they were affectionately known as "the boys." But none of their neighbors knew of the day-to-day abuse the men endured in that schoolhouse on the hill.

The Iowa community had no idea of the abuse going on inside the bunkhouse.
“I’ve been in the building back when it was nice.”
“Never heard them complain.”

Video  |   Article   |    A conversation on my Facebook

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Why current perceptions and policy on disability are horrible for the economy

You don't see it in the press much. When cable news network argue about the budget, it's never mentioned. Yet it plays a huge role in our nations economy….. the disability unemployment rate. I believe perceptions about disability play a huge factor in the disability unemployment rate. I realize there's many other facets to Disability Economics other than employment. This blog entry is just the tip of the iceberg.

Bottom line: When it is financially smarter to sit at home rather than work, something is terribly wrong.

There are many ways to change perceptions about disability. A few are: Ask your school to do something for Disability Awareness Month which is October. Molding kids perceptions would be a huge step forward. Read up on disability history. It's out there and (and until recently) it's not too hard to find, though still it's not in most school books. Advocate for Inclusion..... for students with disabilities to be in your child's classroom. I believe when kids are taught together no doubt the disability employment rate will improve.

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Published around the time of ADA's 20th anniversary

It's All About the Money by Bruce Blower

"Little more than two decades ago, once the U.S. Congress realized that it cost taxpayers almost as much as this entire nation’s defense budget to keep disabled persons at home on entitlements, out of the workforce passage of the ADA federal law became a sure bet. Congress had also then seen a Harris poll stating overwhelmingly that disabled people wanted to work."

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People with disabilities DO NOT COUNT.

The US national unemployment rate does not factor in people with disabilities.

What Is the REAL National U.S. Unemployment Rate – Why the Numbers Can Be Misleading

by Kalen Smith

"What’s most surprising is that the existence of this last group is completely ignored by the unemployment rate."

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A reverse twist on medical insurance

September 11, 2011

By Monica Yant Kinney, Inquirer Columnist

philly.com

"I want to work. I'm meant to work . . . but I'm being held hostage by a system that does not want to see me succeed," Curran tells anyone who will listen - a group that so far includes two state legislators, scores of state welfare officials, and a half-dozen advocates equally baffled by his dilemma.

Here is a young man eager to get off Social Security disability and become a productive tax-, rent-, and copaying member of society. And the government's trying to stop him?

This will be a waste of taxpayer money if he doesn't work," gripes Sen. Daylin Leach (D., Montgomery), who intervened for his constituent. Leach called the catch-22 "one of those boneheaded government policies" in dire need of a fix."

Long story short, when this young man switches over to his job's insurance the home care services won't be as good as it is on state services AND there's a wait list his name will be on the bottom of, meanwhile no home care for him. When he earns too much money (by being employed) he'll lose the state run home care.

Sounds like perpetual poverty to me and tax payers are footing the bill.

Why can't this young man continue to have the same level of care no matter what insurance plan he's on?

In my case....

What type of careers would pay a decent wage for home care, the price of a powerchair, the price of home modifications, and the everyday bills? I'm no Smarty McSmart, I doubt I could swing it. If I took out a loan to pay an aide to go to college, I'd have that and college loans to pay back. That's only saying if I could get hired in the first place.

And this infuriates me!

Some political groups say,

"The hand outs have to stop! Screw the freeloaders!"

It's offensive in the context of people with disabilities! Some can work and want to work.

Where is the American Dream for people with disabilities?

So you're telling me, in a capitalistic nation people with disabilities are limited to how much money they can earn. WTF?!

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Imparato speaks on future of disability policy at University of Pittsburgh

www.aapd.com

November 4, 2010

"Though its drafters and champions envisioned the ADA as a road to independent living, equal opportunity, and self-sufficiency, we are a long way from achieving those goals. Twenty years later, we spend 440 billion dollars per year on federal programs designed in the 50s, 60s and 70s to warehouse—not empower—people with disabilities.

Today—20 YEARS LATER—our country still requires 18-year-olds with disabilities to prove to the government that they cannot work in order to get income supports and the corollary acute and long-term care coverage provided by Medicaid. That’s right, 20 years after the ADA, our public policy continues to force young adults with disabilities to retire.

Every time we do this --every time a young person ends her bid for success before it starts—a piece of our civil rights mission fails. Independent living, equal opportunity, and hope for economic self-sufficiency die. We spend 440 billion dollars per year on giving up.

We spent a lot of money implementing that law, but because we didn't deal with the definition of disability the program was flawed from the get-go.

If you spend years proving to the government that you can't work, and they turn around and give you a ticket and say, here, take this ticket and go get a job, most people are going to mistrust that and assume that the government is testing them to see whether they are really disabled. So because of the definition, you have a program that undermines itself.

Until we deal with the baseline flaw in the definition of disability all this other stuff that we do around work incentives is window dressing.”

The Philly.com and AAPD articles can be read in their entirety HERE

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Read the April 2012 Report by The National Disability Rights Network: Beyond Segregated and Exploited - Update on the Employment of People with Disabilities HERE

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Did you know if you live in the USA you can be penalized for saving money? If you're a person with a disability this can happen to you. Currently person with a disability can loose Medicaid if they save too much. In a capitalistic country, people with disabilities can't earn and save like most American citizens. Go figure. 
To put it into perspective, does everybody pay for a power chair and home care assistants? No! 
So why is the freedom to save money being denied for people with disabilities?

The ABLE Act is working to change this. Ask your delegate to support it. Read more about it HERE


You can not have more than $2000 in your bank account on the last day of each month. All paychecks, SSA payments are considered income, even when put into an ABLE Account.

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Tax deductions, etc for hiring…..

Some of this money is a YEARLY payoff. Businesses are fools for not taking advantage. 
Our government can not fix the disability unemployment problem. (and I don't expect them to) The government can throw all the money it wants into this Hire People With Disabilities thing, not a damn thing will change though until attitudes change.

http://www.dol.gov/odep/topics/TaxIncentivesForEmployers.htm

http://AskJAN.org/media/tax.html


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The ABLE Act passed in Congress!

On December 3, 2014 the bill passed the often-fractious House of Representatives, 404 to 17. 

On December 16, 2014 the bill passed the Senate as part of a bigger tax package by the only slightly less impressive margin of 76 to 16.


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At the Annual Meeting of the National Council on Independent Living in July 2014, a delegation of approximately 700 individuals with disabilities passed a resolution urging NCIL to push for a redefinition of disability as it relates to the Social Security Act.

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Honesty and the Disabled Community

Meanness, tolerance, honesty and the reality show era.

I’ve been watching Britain’s Top Missing Model. It is a search for a fashion model with a disability. When my mom’s in the room, she can’t believe how mean they are to the women. My first response was this is a competition, the Disabled Community wants to be treated real. But as I watched week after week my stance was this was reality TV. Reality TV is mean across the board. These girls had to have known that, yet they signed up anyways.

I think TV got mean thanks to Seinfeld. I remember watching back then and being shocked. Now I’m so accustomed to it, I deny it when my mother points it out to me.

As far as the reality TV craze goes, I’ve only watched the first season of Survivor. I might watch bits and pieces of a reality show, but I’m never intrigued enough to watch the whole season. Maybe subconsciously all that meanness turns me off?

I have however really gotten into The Biggest Loser. I was surprised to find myself watching it every week. So I started thinking about why I liked it. I was far from being overweight, I knew nobody on the show. What was it? My guy Brian, a big Survivor fan pointed it out to me.
You like that show because they aren’t mean to each other.

I’ll be damn, he was right. The gym coaches may sound mean, but it’s because they want to see that person become healthy. When it comes down to voting people off, it seems people genuinely don’t want them to leave.

These reality shows pride themselves on being honest. Contestants will run their mouth off behind somebody’s back, or even more often, in their face.
Oh I’m just being honest!
Sure it makes for good TV but at this rate after years and years of reality shows, the behavior probably is sinking into all of us by now.

With no boundaries set, are people becoming meaner to one another?
I’m not saying this TVs fault. But how did we get from being kind to our neighbors to this?
Mom blames the Baby Boomer generation. They wanted freedom, no rules, don’t let the man tell you what to do. etc., so they raised their kids like that too.

So now present day: My disability advocacy group is trying to get disability rights and awareness taught in schools.

A few people I’ve come across on chat boards make it seem teaching tolerance is the same as teaching religion in schools.
I can teach my kid that at home.
Well obviously you’re not. Bullying has grown out of control. Teachers don’t want to step in. They're most likely scared of the kids getting physical. Or think think it's not their problem, they're there to teach.
The buck stops where? I want to know.

Where have the boundaries gone? Is there a correct way to treat a person anymore?
There is a difference between being honest and being mean isn’t there?

The disabled community wants to be treated fairly. This means being honest. People are afraid to be honest towards people with disabilities. One reason it makes it so hard to be honest towards people with disabilities, is the abled-bodied population knows NOTHING about the Disabled Community. This has to end if the disabled community wants to reach the goal of equality.
(although, I expect to be given my rights, with no understanding of my disability)

Spoiler alert...
Ex. In Britain’s Top Missing Model the girl that got voted of this week was displaying a bit too much sexual flirtation with one of the male judges. She had a brain injury. I’ve been in rehabs and have noticed that these people tend to have sexually inappropriate behavior. I’m no expert, so I couldn’t explain why that is but it’s definitely a characteristic.
Did the judge take this into consideration? No, because he did not know enough about her disability.
The girls are in the show BECAUSE of their disabilities, but when it’s time to vote it could be because of their disability that they get thrown off. (it’s interesting to me)

The judge was only being honest. That behavior isn’t professional, she couldn’t act like that if she was a real model. But it seemed to me her disability caused that behavior.
She was told plenty times to stop being so flirtatious during the series. She was warned. So I think the judge made the right decision.
A fight broke out between both male judges. The other thought he was being too hard on her. I felt he was only being honest.

It’s a strange phenomenon. How all of us can tackle the problem, I’m not sure.

Where how does the Disabled Community fit in, in today’s world of brutal honesty and low tolerance?
And
Why are the Disabled Community continually held to the same standards as the abled-bodied population, when we are different? Is there room for 'different' in Society?


UPDATE: 12/7/10
BBCamerica just finished airing the series. The girl that won was given the chance to be picked by a major modeling agency. During the decision to take her on, two things stuck out to me. (Her disability was that she was missing part of her arm) I heard a comment like; if she was abled-bodied and came off the street asking us to represent her I don’t think we would.
They ended up signing her.
Now why did they? According to that comment I thought for sure they wouldn’t pick her up.
I heard another comment; we’ll give her a chance.
Why don’t more employers have that attitude? Or was it because they were on TV and didn’t want to look bad?