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I’m a 35 year old male with fetal alcohol spectrum disorder.
I need help with like processing and prioritizing things. People with disabilities have dreams too.
No parent ever envisions having a child with a disability. But they never give up on that child’s ability to dream.
All of us are simply one accident one incident one relationship away from a disability.
The mission of The Arc of Minnesota is to promote and protect the human rights of people with intellectual and developmental disabilities and support their full inclusion in the community throughout their lifetimes.
My oldest, David, has multiple disabilities.
Before the Arc movement began, people lived in institutions where the care was often very substandard.
Arc was started by parents who wanted their children to be able to participate in school and in the community and to be raised at home, like their other children.
I might speak well, I might live well. But I live well and I speak well because I have support and I have services.
I have seen in David’s lifetime services really diminish.
Minnesotans with disabilities also gathered at the State Capitol to ask lawmakers not to cut services they use.
These cuts will be unworkable, they will backfire, and they will put us in a worse position.
Advocacy has always been at the core of the work we do in Minnesota.
During the Session, I spent Tuesdays and Thursdays at the Capitol, so I was down there twice a week.
I like to bring David so people can see him and really get a visual when I am talking about him,
We are going to have to work with policymakers to really look at how we can deliver services and supports that people with disabilities rely on in a way that is most effective for the dollars that we spend.
What they are spending their money on is worth every penny.
It’s just one less person on the street, ne less person being harmed, one less person homeless.
And it’s one more person getting a job, one more person living successfully in the community.
They are the lifeline to people with disabilities. We would be lost without them.
Society is changing, together we are all stronger and our voice is louder.
We should never and will never give up the right to be heard.