BC Community Living Action Group launches report,
recommendations to address growing concerns:
Premier Clark urged to listen, put families first again
MOMS will join other family and community living organizations tomorrow at a media event to launch a major report and recommendations urging BC's new Premier, Christy Clark, to honour promises to listen and to start putting families first again.
The report was the result of broad community discussions, including two very successful public forums hosted in Victoria and Vancouver last fall. The forums were organized by a network of community living groups following a rise in serious complaints about service reductions, forced relocations, denial of services and meaning choices, and the exclusion of adults and their families from crucial life decisions.
The report and the broader campaign underlying it reflect an unprecedented consensus among all the major partner groups in community living -- contracted agencies, families, self-advocates and employee groups -- and reflect both the breadth and the seriousness of the concerns. The report focusses on solutions that emerged from the community dialogue that was launched last fall.
The concerns stem from budget cuts and a service redesign project that is seeking to eliminate costlier support and residential options in community living, after the Provincial government ordered CLBC to find $22 million in savings despite growing waitlists, rising costs and added demands from a growing and aging adult population.
Please visit the website of our community partnership, the BC Community Living Action Group, to view the report, recommendations and other information about this initiative: http://communitylivingaction.org/
Please join us!
We urge families to support our campaign by calling on BC's new Premier, Christy Clark, to honour her promises to start listening and to put families first again.
On May 19, 2004, Ms. Clark, who was then BC's Deputy Premier and Minister for Child & Family Development, introduced Bil 45, the legislation that created Community Living BC. In doing so, she promised that "This legislation gives British Columbians with developmental disabilities and their families better options and more opportunities in their communities. They'll be able to look forward to a safer, healthier and better quality of life. (http://www.leg.bc.ca/hansard/37th5th/h40519p.htm - page 11234)
Those promises have been directly contradicted by the events of the past 18 months, with an erosion of services and choices, the exclusion of families and adults with developmental disabilities from critical decisions, and growing concerns about safety, quality of life and the lack of independent oversight, monitoring and public reporting in this vulnerable sector.
Ms Clark, who returned to political life in February when she was elected by her party to succeed retired Premier Gordon Campbell, will be running in a byelection in Vancouver Point Grey on May 11.
Contact Premier Christy Clark: Premier@gov.bc.ca
Premier Clark will be running against civil rights activist David Eby in the Point Grey byelection: Contact David Eby: http://davideby.bcndp.ca/contact
While this is very short notice, we also invite families and adults to join us for the media event launching our report and campaign:
WHEN: WEDS, April 27, 2011 at 10 am
WHERE: 624 West 8th Avenue, Vancouver (close to City Hall just west of Cambie near
Broadway)
- Wheelchair accessible
- By car: Street parking, parking under Whole Foods
- By transit: 99 B-Line, Cambie Stop or Broadway stop on the Canada Line.
Dawn & Cyndi, MOMS
recommendations to address growing concerns:
Premier Clark urged to listen, put families first again
MOMS will join other family and community living organizations tomorrow at a media event to launch a major report and recommendations urging BC's new Premier, Christy Clark, to honour promises to listen and to start putting families first again.
The report was the result of broad community discussions, including two very successful public forums hosted in Victoria and Vancouver last fall. The forums were organized by a network of community living groups following a rise in serious complaints about service reductions, forced relocations, denial of services and meaning choices, and the exclusion of adults and their families from crucial life decisions.
The report and the broader campaign underlying it reflect an unprecedented consensus among all the major partner groups in community living -- contracted agencies, families, self-advocates and employee groups -- and reflect both the breadth and the seriousness of the concerns. The report focusses on solutions that emerged from the community dialogue that was launched last fall.
The concerns stem from budget cuts and a service redesign project that is seeking to eliminate costlier support and residential options in community living, after the Provincial government ordered CLBC to find $22 million in savings despite growing waitlists, rising costs and added demands from a growing and aging adult population.
Please visit the website of our community partnership, the BC Community Living Action Group, to view the report, recommendations and other information about this initiative: http://communitylivingaction.org/
Please join us!
We urge families to support our campaign by calling on BC's new Premier, Christy Clark, to honour her promises to start listening and to put families first again.
On May 19, 2004, Ms. Clark, who was then BC's Deputy Premier and Minister for Child & Family Development, introduced Bil 45, the legislation that created Community Living BC. In doing so, she promised that "This legislation gives British Columbians with developmental disabilities and their families better options and more opportunities in their communities. They'll be able to look forward to a safer, healthier and better quality of life. (http://www.leg.bc.ca/hansard/37th5th/h40519p.htm - page 11234)
Those promises have been directly contradicted by the events of the past 18 months, with an erosion of services and choices, the exclusion of families and adults with developmental disabilities from critical decisions, and growing concerns about safety, quality of life and the lack of independent oversight, monitoring and public reporting in this vulnerable sector.
Ms Clark, who returned to political life in February when she was elected by her party to succeed retired Premier Gordon Campbell, will be running in a byelection in Vancouver Point Grey on May 11.
Contact Premier Christy Clark: Premier@gov.bc.ca
Premier Clark will be running against civil rights activist David Eby in the Point Grey byelection: Contact David Eby: http://davideby.bcndp.ca/contact
While this is very short notice, we also invite families and adults to join us for the media event launching our report and campaign:
WHEN: WEDS, April 27, 2011 at 10 am
WHERE: 624 West 8th Avenue, Vancouver (close to City Hall just west of Cambie near
Broadway)
- Wheelchair accessible
- By car: Street parking, parking under Whole Foods
- By transit: 99 B-Line, Cambie Stop or Broadway stop on the Canada Line.
Dawn & Cyndi, MOMS
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