Cuts to services for people with disabilities are having a devastating effect on families who are draining savings accounts and selling assets to pay for their children’s care. Adults who have lost assistance are struggling to meet even basic needs. But until state legislators find a way to raise revenues, their challenges will continue. That ...
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Families, facing pressure, call for support at capitol
With no change, trains could leave riders behind
When light rail trains begin operations on the Central Corridor or Green Line route in 2014, getting to some stations may be easier said than done. Sidewalks leading to stations are broken, narrow, overgrown with brush and trees, or are poorly lit. And that’s where there are sidewalks.
Many areas have sidewalks on only one side ...
State operated services criticized in auditor’s report
The Minnesota Department of Human Services (DHS) needs to find new ways to manage state-operated facilities and services for persons with chemical dependency, mental illness and developmental disabilities. The call for change is made in the wake of a critical report by the Minnesota Legislative Auditor’s Office.
The report details problems ranging from a rise in ...
ReelAbilities film festival puts a spotlight on people with disabilities
[caption id="attachment_16063" align="alignleft" width="275" caption="Cast members for Partnership Resources Inc.’s (PRI) recent western play are looking forward to the upcoming ReelAbilities Film Festival."][/caption]
The ReelAbilities Film Festival is coming to Minnesota this fall. The event is the largest festival in the country dedicated to promoting awareness and appreciation of the lives, stories and artistic expressions of ...
ADA Legacy Project seeks to preserve, display history
Anyone who is interested in the history of disability in Minnesota and the United States will enjoy the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) Legacy Project. Recently a link to this project and to more Minnesota disability history was posted on the Minnesota Governor’s Council on Developmental Disabilities website, at www.mncdd.org There is a growing awareness of ...
Women’s efforts aided veterans with disabilities
In the United States, the history of providing benefits for veterans with disabilities dates back to 1636, when the Pilgrims of Plymouth Colony were at war with the Pequot Indians. The Pilgrims passed legislation that stated that disabled veteran soldiers would be supported by their colony. Revolutionary War veterans with disabilities obtained a pension provided by ...
Legislative preview – New faces, new efforts mark start of 2013 legislative session
When the 2013 session of the Minnesota legislature began Jan. 8, hundreds of disability advocacy groups and self-advocates went to work. Some will be monitoring bills and painstakingly checking budgets line by line. Others will be testifying and lobbying for specific legislation.
Although there is optimism about a DFL-controlled House, Senate and governor’s office, there are ...
2012 in review – Gains, changes for Minnesota’s disability community
2012 could be considered a year of memorable gains for Minnesotans with disabilities especially at the state capitol. There were many self-advocates and state lawmakers who took steps to undo some of the damaging service cuts made during previous sessions, and had significant success. It was also a year of considerable challenges. One issue that dominated ...
Input sought on studies of Snelling Avenue, Central Corridor
Studies of two major St. Paul transit and transportation corridors need input from people with disabilities. Making 2.4 miles of Snelling more useful to all modes of transportation is the goal of a year-long multi-modal transportation study led by the Minnesota Department of Transportation (MnDOT). Work on the Snelling Avenue multi-modal study winds down in early ...
Dale Street Place provides needed housing option
In St. Paul, people coping with mental illness and chemical dependency have a newly renovated place to call home. Two years and $12.5 million later, the Redeemer Arms Apartments have become Dale Street Place Apartments.
The apartments provide stable, supportive housing for adults with mental illness or chemical dependency issues. A large crowd celebrated the building ...
Priorities include personal care attendant pay rates
When the 2013 Minnesota Legislature gavels into session Jan. 8, the Minnesota Consortium for Citizens with Disabilities (MN-CCD) will be ready with its legislative agenda. However, leaders of the state’s disability groups are all too aware that many uncertainties remain about the session. That means the agenda adopted Oct. 29 at MN-CCD’s annual meeting could ...
Rides, resources are set for Election Day
Voters with disabilities who need rides to the polls Nov. 6 will be able to access services in the Twin Cities area, thanks to the Rides to the Polls Coalition. The program’s phone lines opened for business Sept. 24. Anyone needing a ride or wishing to volunteer as a driver can call 1-855-50-RIDES or 1-800-507-4337, ...
Wages prompt call for boycott of Goodwill
Goodwill Industries International and the National Federation of the Blind (NFB) are involved in a battle over wages for workers with disabilities. The dispute has the NFB calling for a boycott of Goodwill’s stores and programs. The boycott was announced June 7. The dispute centers on a federal labor provision that dates from the 1930s. ...
Greyhound settles complaint
Greyhound Lines, Inc. will make changes in the ways it trains employees to work with passengers with disabilities in Minnesota. The agreement for improved training is in response to a Minnesota Department of Human Rights complaint filed in November 2010. Resolution of the complaint was announced May 22 at the Minnesota Disability Law Center. It typically ...
VSA Minnesota faces national funding cutbacks
VSA Minnesota, which has served Minnesotans with disabilities since 1986, is making difficult cuts. Elimination of its newsletter, arts access awards and hands-on community arts activities are a response to a loss of funding from the national VSA organization.
[caption id="attachment_14765" align="alignleft" width="275" caption="A young man enjoyed a 2010 Young Dance program funded by VSA Minnesota. ...
UCPM faces uncertain future
United Cerebral Palsy of Minnesota (UCPM) will shut down its office in St. Paul by June 30, unless a group of parent volunteers can turn the tide. The board of directors made the difficult decision April 18 to dissolve the organization. The organization may be the latest casualty of a changing financial climate for nonprofit ...
MA-EPD struggles continue, no resolution yet
Typically, Minnesotans work well beyond 65 years of age. Efforts to allow the state’s disability community to do the same continue at the state capitol. The story of Charles “Chuck” Van Heuveln and the looming threat to his lifestyle has sparked the latest push for a bill to expand the age limit for Medical Assistance ...
PCAs’ pay plight is still in play this session
About 6,600 Minnesotans who provide care to family members with disabilities will continue to be paid less than others who provide care. Unless state lawmakers have a change of heart, the attempt to have equal pay for personal care attendant (PCA) services will have to wait for either a legal appeal or the 2012 legislative ...
Kriesel to step down; Westrom seeks Senate seat
Two high-profile Minnesota legislators with disabilities are looking at changing roles. Rep. John Kriesel (R-Cottage Grove), a military veteran who worked on legislative issues important to Minnesota’s disability community, has decided to not seek a second term in the Minnesota House of Representatives. Rep. Torrey Westrom, (R-Elbow Lake), the state’s first blind state legislator, has ...
Legislation affecting Minnesotans with disabilities
Disability community advocates, who have spent many hours at the state capitol tracking the House and Senate omnibus health and human services (HHS) bills, continue to follow a number of proposals as the session moves into its final weeks. A rapidly changing landscape during the 2012 session of the Minnesota Legislature means many proposals important ...
Patient maltreatment sparks inquiry
In the wake of incidents of patient maltreatment, changes are being made at the Minnesota Security Hospital in St. Peter. Use of metal handcuffs, mesh face coverings, mesh blankets and seclusion are concerns. While the use of such restraints has troubled many disability rights advocates, the seclusions incidents are particularly disturbing. In one substantiated case, a ...
Lee Perish pioneered theater access, health care
Interpreters at performances are commonplace today, but that wasn’t always the case. People who were deaf or hearing-impaired had to watch shows without interpretation or stay home.
Going to a performance in a wheelchair was also difficult if not impossible. Spaces weren’t set aside for theatergoers. While passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) in ...
Autism study offers ideas for future services
Minnesotans with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) would benefit from full funding for programs and services, a services guidebook, and more coordination of services. Those are among many suggestions in a report released by the Autism Spectrum Disorders Task Force.
The task force was set up by the 2009 Minnesota Legislature. Its charges included studying ways to ...
Christ Child School provided early education option
Thirty-five years ago, a remarkable era of education ended on Summit Avenue in St. Paul. Christ Child School for Exceptional Children, which operated in a low-slung, brick building at the southwest corner of Summit and Cleveland avenues, closed its doors. The school was torn down in 2005 to make way for the University of St. ...
Richard Owen – He went from polio patient to pioneering physician
The recent death of Dr. Richard R. Owen reminds us of how polio treatment and the perceptions of those with polio have changed. Owen, an Eden Prairie resident, died Dec. 11 at age 83.
He was a polio survivor who founded the Post-Polio Clinic at Sister Kenny Institute in Minneapolis. He practiced in many area hospitals ...
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