Disability Rights, Care Workers To Hold 24-Hour Vigil at the U.S. Capitol To Hold the Line on Care Funding

October 6, 2021/in Advocacy, From the Frontlines, News, Press Releases, Public Policy/by Pam Katz

As negotiations around the biggest jobs plan since the New Deal stall, care advocates from across the country will hold a 24-hour vigil outside the U.S. Capitol to urge elected leaders to hold the line on caregiving funding in the Build Back Better plan.

People with disabilities, direct care workers, older adults, and caregivers will share the steep health and financial costs that families pay as a result of poverty wages paid to care workers and long waitlists for home and community-based services (HCBS). Advocates traveling from states hard hit by COVID-19—including Tennessee, Texas and Kansas—will continuously read stories collected from thousands of impacted individuals—disproportionately people of color— across the country who aren’t able to travel to D.C. in part because they don’t have the paid leave, child care or long-term services that enable them to do so. Overwhelming majorities of people across the country want Congress to invest in long-term care and support the Build Back Better’s plan to do so.

WHAT:

A 24-hour vigil in front of the Capitol during which advocates will continuously read stories of those struggling to access home and community based services and to make enough money to care for themselves and their families. The vigil will culminate in a closing ceremony with advocates delivering boxes of printed out stories to members of Congress.

The event is co-hosted by ACLU, ADAPT, The Arc of the United States, Autistic Self Advocacy Network, AAPD, Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law, Be A Hero, Care Can’t Wait Coalition, Caring Across Generations, Little Lobbyists, Justice in Aging, National Council on Independent Living, National Domestic Workers Alliance, National Council on Aging, National Health Law Program, and SEIU.

WHEN: 

Vigil: Wed, Oct 6 at 7 pm to Thurs, Oct 7 at 7 pm

Closing Program: Thurs, Oct 7 from 6-7 pm

WHERE: 

Union Square in front of Capitol Reflecting Pool

The area is bounded by Pennsylvania Avenue, NW; First Street, NW/SW; Maryland Avenue, SW; and Third Street, SW/NW

Live Stream: https://fb.me/e/3WaL3atkg

WHO:

Closing ceremony speakers:

• Bob Casey, S. Senator representing Pennsylvania
• Maria Town, President and CEO, AAPD
• Mike Oxford, National Organizer, ADAPT
• Nicole Jorwic, Senior Executive Officer of State Advocacy and Public Policy, The Arc
• April Verrett, President of SEIU, Local 2015

Vigil speakers available for media interviews:

• Domonique Howell, a Black and disabled advocate from Philadelphia. She is an independent living specialist and co-chair of ADAPT’s housing work group.
• Latoya Maddox, a Philadelphia-based Black disabled mother who has used home and community-based services for the past 17 years
• Lydia Nunez, Ombudsman and organizer with Gulf Coast ADAPT in Texas. She is white and disabled and fights for home and community-based services for other people with disabilities and older adults.
• Josue Rodriguez, a Latino organizer with El Paso ADAPT who uses HCBS for attendant services.
• Family caregivers and care workers 

VISUALS:

People holding posters and banners featuring portraits of care workers, family caregivers, aging adults and people with disabilities. Miniature houses featuring portraits of care recipients, caregivers and care workers

BACKGROUND:

More than 800,000 people with disabilities are on waiting lists for home and community-based services (HCBS), such as in-home care, meal delivery, transportation services and respite care. The Better Care Better Jobs Act—introduced in the Senate by lead sponsor Sen. Bob Casey and in the House by lead sponsor Rep. Debbie Dingell and supported by over 480 organizations—provides a blueprint for how $400 billion investment in HCBS could support a profoundly undervalued and underpaid workforce and get hundreds of thousands of people off waitlists by helping to:

• Increase access to HCBS: expanding financial eligibility criteria for HCBS and supports for family caregivers, and adopting programs that help people navigate enrollment and eligibility.
• Make permanent “Money Follows the Person,” a federal demonstration program that helps aging individuals and people with disabilities transition back to their homes and communities from institutions by providing federal matching funds that incentivizes HCBS in states
• Support oversight and monitoring of the quality of HCBS
• Increase HCBS payment rates to promote recruitment and retention of care workers