Efforts Underway to Establish Coalition of CA Developmentally Disabled Community Service Providers
Jim Lantry, Creative Legislative Solutions' founder and principal, is establishing a state-wide coalition to address the way in which the State of California funds services for the developmentally disabled.
Online, January 26, 2011 (Newswire.com) - "The budget that governor Brown has released presents us with both challenges and opportunities. For too long, we have watched as funding for community services for the developmentally disabled have been cut time and time again with no serious attention to the way those services are funded," Lantry explains.
After meeting with several organizations to discuss the potentially catastrophic budget cuts currently included in Brown's budget, and with his intimate knowledge of the goings-on in Sacramento, Lantry feels that the climate is right for systemic changes which both in the short and longer term are likely to improve how community services are funded. "It is incumbent on us to work with Sacramento to ensure than any systemic changes are made in a way which will truly benefit the developmentally disabled community and the organizations that serve them."
Creative Legislative Solutions is limiting the coalition to 20 organizations from across California to ensure that they received the focused, undiluted representation they can only get from a tailored lobbying effort. Members of the developmentally disabled service provider community are invited to participate in a conference call the firm has scheduled for Tuesday, February 1st at 10:00am.
"We will discuss the specifics of building the coalition and moving forward with constructive change. We will talk about the organizations' own ideas for funding reform and coalition building and we will present our action plan. At the root of it we are anxious to affect real changes to the way in which the State of California funds essential programs for the developmentally disabled."
Lantry has been an active advocate for the developmentally disabled for nearly two decades and has developed a reputation for his work on their behalf at the State Capitol. His successful advocacy efforts were instrumental in the passage of legislation reforming supported group employment for the developmentally disabled as well as several other key pieces of legislation impacting the developmentally disabled community.
