Michigan
Disability Rights Coalition (MDRC)
Annual Letter
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2007
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Annual Letter December 2007
Dear Friend:
We need your “feistiness and noncompliance” and your financial support!
Please support Michigan Disability Rights Coalition so that your fight continues to be our fight.
Corrie Bair, our friend and colleague who died in 2005 had a vision she called “Corrie’s World” where the physical and attitudinal barriers faced by people with disabilities were gone. Corrie also coined our call to arms: Feisty and Noncompliant! She had a vision of promoting the disability pride and power behind these words. She saw feistiness as a healthy response to systems that limit choice, hold low expectations, and discriminate. She promoted noncompliance as the lasting legacy of our disability advocacy heroes who demanded access to education, employment, and living outside of institutions. We are asking you to keep this momentum going. Join us in Feistiness and Noncompliance!
As a member and supporter of the disability rights community you know the difference between talk and action. You know that the work we do together is instrumental in building a movement that is strong enough to continue to effect change. You are already taking action.
You advocate.
Perhaps you or a friend were among the hundreds of people with disabilities
and allies who were “Feisty & Noncompliant” and
wrote, emailed, met with, or telephoned your senators and representatives and
the
Governor in support of the MI Choice Medicaid Waiver Pro gram. Your efforts
were successful in securing the first increase to the MI Choice budget since
2001. Because of you, many more seniors and people with disabilities
will be able to choose to receive services in their own home instead of nursing
facilities. We need your support to continue important advocacy efforts
in reforming Michigan’s long term care system.
You collaborate.
You participate in grassroots groups, testify at committees and write letters to legislators ensuring that there is “Nothing about us without us!” People with disabilities, seniors, allies, legislators, and MDRC staff are forming strategic partnerships to guarantee affordable, accessible, integrated, safe housing. This year, in collaboration with our partners at Disability Networks, the Developmental Disabilities Council, UCP of Michigan, Arcs, the State of Michigan, and others, we were able to get people with disabilities to the table as decisions were being made on funding allocations for affordable housing. Because of this organized collaboration, changes in policy were made around the state to increase access to housing for people with disabilities as they transition out of nursing homes. Because of organized collaboration to attend Michigan Statewide Housing Development Authority hearings, people with disabilities will have access to additional affordable, accessible supported housing units.
You educate.
MDRC partnered with dozens of organizations across the state to educate people
with disabilities and allies about the benefits of assistive technology (AT). Because
of these efforts, more than 7,000 people learned about technology that will
help them, or the people they serve, get jobs, go to school, and live in the
community.
MDRC also partnered with Superior Alliance for Independent Living (SAIL) The
Disability
Network (TDN) and Capital Area Center for Independent Living (CACIL) to bring
The Road To Freedom Bus to Michigan. The Road To Freedom is a yearlong, 50-State
bus tour and photographic exhibit chronicling the history of the grassroots
movement leading to passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). At
the four Michigan stops in Lansing, Flint, Marquette, and at the Mackinac Bridge,
people learned about our history and our victories.
You care.
As 2007 draws to a close and you consider the charitable contributions you want to make, please consider how much more you can do to help by sending a tax-deductible year-end gift to Michigan Disability Rights Coalition.
Your gift is essential to continue our advocacy work.
Help us pull together the power of this feisty and noncompliant community so that the voices of ALL people with disabilities and seniors are heard and included.
“Nothing about us without us!” “With liberty and access for all!”
These words symbolize our work at MDRC. When you support our efforts through financial gifts and by donating your time, you are actively living out these core beliefs as they guide our work together. A large majority of our staff and board are people with disabilities. The groups we support around the state are run by people with disabilities. When you give to MDRC, the funds are used to support people with disabilities as they educate legislators, bureaucrats, and the general public about the issues that impact all our lives. Your support assures that people with disabilities are strategically at the table.
I think about all that has been accomplished this year:
- The increase in funding for the MI Choice program,
- The plans to increase supportive, affordable, accessible housing for people with disabilities,
- The hundreds of people who developed leadership skills,
- The thousands of people who learned about Assistive Technology by attending conferences, trainings, and demonstrations we sponsored.
I also think about the increasing complexity of our world and how we must continue to face that complexity with even greater resolve.
We know there is still a great deal of work to be done.
For example, much more needs to be done to increase affordable, accessible, integrated housing for people with disabilities emerging from institutional settings; more up-and-coming leaders need access to the information and support they need to become the leaders we need them to be; and far too many people are still unaware of the independence-building and lifesaving benefits of assistive technology.
We need your help and your support! Please send the biggest check you can. Your donation to MDRC proves to our funders that you believe in the work we do. Your donation provides a source of funding that can be used for lobbying and educating legislators because, as you know, our other sources of support cannot be used in that way. Your donation puts people with disabilities strategically at the table!
Please support MDRC today. Keep the momentum going. You make a difference, both for the financial support you give and the moral support it represents.
Your Feisty and Noncompliant Friend,
Norm DeLisle
Executive Director
P.S. Please send $50, $100 or more before the end of the year to reap the
tax benefits. If you like, you can give online through Network
for Good by clicking o
n
the Donate Now button 
.
P.P.S. Consider ordering a “Feisty and Noncompliant” t-shirt or button o r hoodie using the enclosed order form. Show your Feisty & Noncompliant Spirit with pride!
