ARRM News and Public Relations

Vote for Arc Minnesota!

The Arc Minnesota has been honored as a finalist for Minnesota Council of Nonprofits’ Nonprofit Mission Award for Advocacy. Each year one organization is chosen to be recognized for its effective and unique roles of nonprofit organizations. The award recipient has:

• Implemented an effective advocacy strategy;
• Demonstrated success in its advocacy efforts; and
• A significant impact on the organization's constituency

Please support The Arc's work by voting for the agency by August 5th.

You may have received an email on the 19^th about the awards and encouraging you to place your vote. In that email you received a MCN Membership ID which you will need to vote. If you did not receive this email with your ID please contact the MCN office at: 651-642-1904 or info@minnesotanonprofits.org.  To vote please go to:  http://www.minnesotanonprofits.org/mission-excellence-awards/2011-advocacy-mission-award-finalists#Arc_Minnesota.

Thank you so much for supporting The Arc's work and helping the organization carry outout its mission to protect the human rights of individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities.

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Some losses, many wins this session

During the 2011 Legislative Session, ARRM’s disability advocates were a constant force to be reckoned with at the State Capitol and in legislators’ home districts. You turned up by the hundreds for ARRM’s Day at the Capitol, flooded legislators’ mailboxes with personal letters, attended the MN-CCD’s Tuesday at the Capitol in record numbers, and conducted numerous site visits throughout the state.

Despite this frenetic activity, we experienced some grassroots losses this session. When the dust settled after the special session, disability advocates were hoping to fare better and are rightly disappointed with many of the provisions in the final health and human services bill – whether they are intentional rate cuts or last-minute mistakes. (Rest assured, ARRM is diligently working to undo any provisions related to de-licensing group homes.)

Even so, it’s important to point out that we made tremendous progress toward achieving our grassroots objectives. Increasing our “people power” is ARRM's number one grassroots goal, and your far-reaching advocacy work is a testament to our collective power. We believe that cuts to disability providers would have been much worse had there been no or little grassroots activity, and we're truly proud our grassroots wins this session, which are nothing short of amazing:

• Barb and Sara visited 18 member agencies to provide free grassroots advocacy training, and have more visits planned in the fall.

• In total, ARRM members met with 166 of the 201 state legislators, and 53 of the 61 new freshman legislators. Thanks to your efforts, most state legislators now have a disability contact in their district and a clear picture who their vote affects.

• Over 1,000 people registered for ARRM’s 2011 Day at the Capitol February 8th, making it the biggest turnout in ARRM history! We met with 152 legislators and had a motivating rally featuring the Organic Cowboys, Health and Human Services Commissioner Lucinda Jesson, and House Finance Chair Jim Abeler, to name a few. An image of deeply engaged self-advocates, family members, and staff is forever burned into the memories of the policy-makers who attended our rally.

• Besides filling the halls of the Capitol for ARRM’s Day at the Capitol, members met with legislators nearly 50 other times at the capitol during session. During these meeting, you shared your ideas and stories with legislators in a more personal, intimate setting.

• Members also reached out to legislators via 20 town hall meetings and personal letters. We launched the Pen Your Priorities campaign in March, and self-advocates, staff and family members sent hundreds of letters to lawmakers, illustrating what potential cuts would mean for Minnesota's most vulnerable citizens.

• You used ARRM’s social media tools to stay up-to-date: We have over 600 Facebook fans, over 350 Twitter followers and 400 + blog subscribers.

• And finally, members held over 60 site visits this session. ARRM has long said that site visits are the most effective way to show your legislator the work you do. We heard encouraging stories of legislators scheduled to visit for a half hour, but staying nearly two hours. These visits make the greatest impact, so keep inviting legislators out to your homes!

The grassroots education and engagement phase is happening now, when legislators are in their home districts, so we encourage you to invite all lawmakers to your summer events.

Also, please remember to keep checking ARRM’s grassroots calendar for events that are taking place in your community. And save the date for ARRM’s 2012 Day at the Capitol, which kicks off with a rally in the Capitol Rotunda on March 1^st, 2012, from 10:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m.

--Sara Grafstrom, Field Coordinator, and Barb Brynstad, Communications Director

Member news: Disabilities group makes dream come true for Vikings fan

A person served by Hammer was profiled on KARE-11 Wednesday evening. Learn more about Deb Eaton, who says she is the Vikings' biggest fan.

News release: Health and Human Services Bill Deplorable for People with Disabilities

SOUTH SAINT PAUL, Minn. – The way the health and human services bill treats people with disabilities is “deplorable,” according to the CEO of ARRM, an organization of disability providers.

ARRM CEO Bruce Nelson said, “We anticipated some provider rate cuts and they were deeper than expected. But, even worse, is brand new policy that no one ever saw before that treats Minnesotans with disabilities like cattle and will result in disability providers going out of business.”

The new policy says that once someone leaves a four-person group home, the home loses its license for that bed.  Nelson said that means the home will have to maintain the same staffing with only 75 percent of its funding. “Many providers are already working on a slim margin, and will have to close and lay off caregivers. Where would those other three people go if all other providers are in the same bind with no new beds?” he asked. “It’s like herding people like cattle into the unknown.”

The bill also calls for a ten percent cut to 3,600 “low need” people with disabilities in foster care group homes. If a group home has just a couple of these low need people, providers may not be able to maintain services to them, and they would have to move. That puts everyone in the group home in jeopardy.

“It saddens me what will happen to many people and that this might not have happened if the public had been allowed to even talk with legislators and commissioners in the locked Capitol building during their negotiations,” Nelson added.

While ARRM believes the disability system must be reformed, the association was hoping to work cooperatively instead of being coerced.  “This does nothing to reform regulations,” Nelson said.

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Range Center receives Red Cross 'Community Partner Award'

The Northland Chapter of the American Red Cross presented Range Center, Inc. of Chisholm with the “Community Partner Award” at their annual meeting June 28, 2011. 

Range Center provides vocational and residential services to adolescents and adults with developmental disabilities in Buhl, Chisholm and Hibbing. Dawn Lamping, Education Coordinator, and Brenda Fagan, Director of Human Resources, received the award on behalf of Range Center, Inc. 

Through a comprehensive training program, Range Center has approximately 160 staff certified in CPR/First Aid at any given time.  Range Center has partnered with the Northland Chapter of the American Red Cross for the past 15 years to certify staff in adult CPR and First Aid in order to maintain the highest level of staff training possible. 

As an extension of their partnership, the Red Cross also uses Range Center’s swimming pool and training facilities to provide instructional services to the general public.

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Duluth News Tribune publishes ARRM's response to negative group home news

ARRM's letter to the editor was published in the Duluth News Tribune July 10, 2011.

The News Tribune’s June 28 “Our View” editorial, “Let solutions, information counter paranoia, ignorance” invited readers to weigh in on the local conversation about adult foster care homes. As CEO at the state association (“ARRM”) that represents most “group homes” (called corporate foster care) for people with disabilities, I know the vast majority of our members in St. Louis County go above and beyond what’s required by law to keep residents with disabilities, their staff and their neighborhoods safe.

Minnesota Department of Human Services Commissioner Lucinda Jesson said in the June 17 News Tribune that the state needs to have good oversight to make sure people in group homes are safe, healthy and not creating unsafe environments for others. We at ARRM heartily agree. And we think corporate foster care providers that serve people with developmental disabilities already are highly regulated, provide appropriate oversight and have clear accountability.

In addition, counties do have control over the people placed in their programs. For any person with autism, a brain injury or a developmental disability to receive services in any given county there needs to be agreement between counties; no single entity can just assign people. The whole idea of some conspiracy to place difficult individuals in St. Louis County is fundamentally wrong and has no basis in fact.

The most important point I’d like to make is that people with disabilities should not have fewer opportunities to live in certain neighborhoods than others simply because of a disability. Indeed, the Fair Housing Act prohibits discrimination in housing on the basis of race, color, religion, national origin, sex, familial status and, as of 1988, disability.

We encourage people to avoid a collective rush to judgment that would stigmatize all Minnesotans with disabilities as a result of a few regrettable incidents that took place in the past year. As St. Louis County Commissioner Chris Dahlberg pointed out in a commentary in the June 28 News Tribune, 95 percent of adult foster care placements are fine. Research shows that neighborhoods with group homes often see a rise in property values and are just as safe as neighborhoods without group homes.

More importantly, if it weren’t for adult foster care services, many vulnerable people would be in more expensive settings such as hospitals. Or, worse, they’d be homeless or end up in jail because of their mental illness. The bottom line is that corporate foster care provides a core service that helps our state’s most vulnerable citizens, enriches communities and uses taxpayer money effectively and efficiently.

Bruce Nelson is the chief executive officer of ARRM, an association of Minnesota providers that support people with disabilities in their own homes and in foster care homes. The association is based in South St. Paul.

Patch news: How the shutdown impacts people with disabilities

Shutdown Impacts City's 'Most Vulnerable Adults'

Minnetonka Patch story about how an OP client who lives independently could become among the hardest hit by the state government shutdown.

Minnesota Shutdown Could Hit Job-Seekers, Families of Disabled

Article in the Oakdale Patch about how Washington County families of people with disabilities could lose a $248 monthly grant, and programs providing mentoring and basic life skills could be cut if there isn’t a state budget agreement reached within 30 days.

Minnesota Budget More than Politics and Numbers for Adults with Disabilities

Story in the Oakdale Patch about how budget cuts and the shutdown hurt a foster care provider.

Golden Valley Nonprofits Say Shutdown Will Hurt the Vulnerable

Golden Valley Patch piece about how nonprofit leaders are bracing for the blow a shutdown will strike.