What we want - our vision, mission and goals
Today, we want New York State to make good on the Olmstead Decision and New York State’s 2013 promise.
Mission
Protect the constitutional right of people with disabilities to live in the community in the manner of their choosing, and to choose the services they receive.
Goal
We seek to protect and improve the system of individual Self-Directed budgets in New York State, as one of the primary pathways to achieving integrated lives, based on freedom of choice.
Our Objectives
People with IDD and their families must be able to continue to choose the services they need to, in the words of the OPWDD mission statement, “live richer lives … experience personal health and growth and live in the home of their choice and fully participate in their communities”. We work toward:
Making Self-Direction easily available to anyone who chooses it.
Asserting the constitutionally protected rights of people with developmental disabilities to choose where and with whom they live, choose their services, choose their goals.
Putting an end to all policies that prevent the free exercise of choice.
Trends in Self Direction
Self-direction’s success can be seen in the data. Starting from fewer than eight thousand participants in 2017, the self-direction program now has grown to over 28 thousand. Meanwhile, more than 100 thousand people use traditional services, but that number has been slowly declining.
It is our estimate that having 28 thousand people in SD saves more than a half-billion from the Medicaid budget, and about $260 million from the State budget. However, a false narrative has emerged that Self-Direction is an expensive program. The reality: Self-Direction is now one person out of five, and we spend only one dollar out of ten. The system has responded as if the growth of Self-Direction is a problem to be solved, with new ‘shadow’ policies that aim to make Self-Direction less attractive. In contrast, we believe the growth of self-direction should be celebrated.
