Advocacy
To support CP Nassau advocacy efforts, CP State has created an updated resource package, including shareable information sheets and talking points. If you have not done so already, please be sure to schedule your virtual appointments with Senators and Assemblymembers as soon as possible to take full advantage of the budget negotiation timeline. This is an important time to advocate prior to the release of one-house budget bills, which are typically released the second week of March.
Click here to find your representative.
CP State is a non-profit organization that advocates for the rights and needs of individuals with cerebral palsy in the state of New York. Our advocacy efforts focus on improving access to healthcare, education, and other essential services for individuals with cerebral palsy and their families.
Click to read.
Click to read.
Our campaign focuses on the following key areas:
- An 8.5% Cost-of-Living Adjustment
- A Direct Support Wage Enhancement of $4,000 per eligible employee
- Address Health Inequity for People with Disabilities
We invite you to join our advocacy campaign and help make a difference in the lives of individuals with cerebral palsy in New York.
THANK YOU FOR YOUR HELP and SUPPORT!
Help New Yorkers With Disabilities!
The absence of funding for people with disabilities in Governor Hochul’s Executive Budget is alarming!
Join us in urging both houses of the NY Legislature to include an 8.5% COLA as well as a Direct Support Wage Enhancement of $4,000!
Keep The Special Education Promise!
All children with disabilities who attend our schools should have the same funding as their public school peers.
Each of these children deserve a Teacher, a Teaching Assistant and an Educational Assistant who are paid fairly!
Support Health Equity for people with Disabilities!
NYS’s failure to recognize and fully support specialty care for individuals with disabilities has created a separate and unequal health care system! Immediate steps to rectify this situation is to increase the clinic rate by 30% to cover the losses in the specialty clinics!
“New York State recognizes the role that these dedicated workers play in the lives of people with I/DD and has already made the decision to invest in DSP salaries, but only DSPs employed by the State, with a 13% wage increase in FY 2023 and an additional $50 million increase announced for FY 2024, which will increase wages by $4,000 upstate and $6,000 downstate. This latest increase for state workers mirrors the DSWE that NYDA proposed but leaves out 85% of the workforce.”
Seawright issues letter demanding 8.5% COLA and Wage Enhancement
Assemblymember Rebecca A. Seawright, Chair of the People with Disabilities Committee, issued a letter to Speaker Carl Heastie on February 13 calling for the inclusion of an 8.5% Cost of Living Adjustment and the creation of a Direct Support Wage Enhancement (“DSWE”) in the Assembly Majority’s One-House Budget.
The letter was co-signed by more than 30 legislators. If your representative signed on to this letter, please contact them and thank them!
If they didn’t, contact them and urge them to write their own letter to the Speaker in support.
GUESS WHAT!
There is a media toolkit available.
One of the most effective ways to make your voice heard is by using social media to share your story and advocate for change. That’s why the New York Disability Advocates has prepared a social media toolkit that contains example posts, downloadable graphics, talking points and other helpful tips to help advocates and supporters like you take action online.
When you post, don’t forget to tag your local Senate and Assembly members and the New York Disability Advocates (@nydisabilityadv). To identify your elected officials and find their social handles, click here and enter your zip code.