Raul Zamarripa’s Virtual Memorial

February 17, 2022  3p.m. Mountain/ 2p.m. Pacific/  4p.m.  Central/ 5p.m. Eastern               

Desert ADAPT would like to invite you to join us as we celebrate the life and legacy of Raul Zamarripa.  As we let you all know previously, Raul passed away January 20 after contracting Covid-19.  We would like to for friends and family to come together and share many of the memories that Raul made with each of us.  He made an impact on the lives of many people and would love to honor that as we share stories of the many times we spent with him. 

Raul dedicated more than 24 years of his life to working with ADAPT to Free Our People. His dedication and passion towards fighting for the rights of people with disabilities will be greatly missed. His dedication to educate our community on issues that affect people with disabilities made him a very well-known advocate in our community and across the country. He was a fierce advocate in not only defending people with disabilities but our attendants as well. He leaves a huge void with Desert ADAPT but we are sure that he will join our other Desert ADAPT members who have gone before us and guide us from wherever they are now.  If you have any photos of Raul that you would like to share with us for his memorial, please upload them to this Google Drive folder.  Thank you.

Image 1: Raul in his power wheelchair in a tan Desert ADAPT shirt and hat with an orange flag on his chair.

Memorial virtual de Raúl Zamarripa

17 de febrero de 2022     3p.m. Montaña/ 2p.m. Pacífico/   4p.m. Centro/ 5p.m. Este

Desert ADAPT quisiera invitarlo a unirse a nosotros mientras celebramos la vida y el legado de Raúl Zamarripa. Como les informamos anteriormente, Raúl falleció el 20 de enero después de contraer Covid-19. Nos gustaría que amigos y familiares se reúnan y compartan muchos de los recuerdos que Raúl hizo con cada uno de nosotros. Hizo un impacto en la vida de muchas personas y  nos encantaría honrarlo mientras compartimos historias de los muchos momentos que pasamos con él.

Raúl dedicó más de 24 años de su vida a trabajar con ADAPT para Liberar a Nuestra Gente. Echaremos mucho de menos su dedicación y pasión por luchar por los derechos de las personas con discapacidad. Su dedicación para educar a nuestra comunidad sobre los problemas que afectan a las personas con discapacidades lo convirtió en un defensor muy conocido en nuestra comunidad y en todo el país. Fue un feroz defensor no solo de las personas con discapacidades sino también de nuestros asistentes personales. Deja un gran vacío con Desert ADAPT, pero estamos seguros de que se unirá a nuestros otros miembros de Desert ADAPT que nos han precedido y nos guiarán desde donde sea que estén ahora.  Si tiene fotos de Raúl que le gustaría compartir con nosotros para su memorial, súbalas a esta carpeta de Google Drive. Gracias.

Imagen 1: Raúl en su silla de ruedas eléctrica con una camiseta color canela Desert ADAPT y una gorra con una bandera naranja en su silla. —

Pass Build Back Better

To prepare this you will need $150 billion for Home and Community Based Services (HCBS) sprinkled with $ 150 billion for Affordable, Accessible, Integrated, Housing.  Spread these ingredients throughout the community and allow to settle in.

2. Once these funds have been infused in the community; they are ready to be used to:

• Expand HCBS in Medicaid, Medicare and the Affordable Care Act throughout to increase access, quality, and uniformity nationwide.
• Support the Recruitment and Retention of Community Attendants
• Increase payment rates in a manner that offers attendants a “living wage.”
• Expand affordable, accessible, integrated housing development and rent subsidy programs targeting low- and moderate-income people with disabilities, especially people who receive HCBS services.
• Expand access to accessible home modifications programs to enable people to leave or avoid institutional settings thus saving millions of health care dollars.
• And to ensure that your recipe is a success, make the program Money Follows the Person permanent.

This recipe will help more people be Home for The Holidays!

Supporters of attendants, consumers of attendant services and supports, friends and allies are holding a 24 hour vigil in front of the US Capitol to call attention to the critical need to fund these services better. These services as well as truly affordable, accessible housing are on the chopping block as Congress debates a compromise for the bill. Vigil participants are reading stories from folks affected by the current crisis in attendant services who could not travel to DC, sharing their own personal stories, songs and more.

The vigil is being live streamed on Facebook here: https://fb.me/e/3WaL3atkg

Thurs, Oct 7 from 6-7 pm Eastern time (5 – 6 pm central/Austin time and 4-5 pm mountain/El Paso time) there is a closing ceremony.

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.

13 Texas ADAPT activists joined hundreds of activists from around the country in Washington DC to highlight the need for the BCBJ Act to include the $400 billion for Home and Community Services and accessible affordable integrated housing .

Yesterday (10/6/21) ADAPT of Texas and other ADAPT members were arrested at the Hart Building trying to get meeting with Senators Manchin and Sinema.

Back here in Texas, our legislature is back in another special session to decide how to send federal dollars sent to the states to help in these crisis times. Of course the critical lack of attendants appears to be invisible to them. Their budget committees held one day of hearings each (with minimal notice). They seem to not believe their is a need for attendants, that attendants need to make a living wage, and that these issues impact Texans with disabilities. You can help by contacting your state Senator and state Representative click here to find out who they are and how to reach them.

People are spending the night in their wheelchairs, and getting bedsores from it. They are being forced to think about moving into nursing homes, and worse. Why? The critical shortage of attendants! One of the main causes is the piss poor wages our stingy state allows. When you can make almost twice the hourly wage flipping burgers at fast food joints, packing boxes at Amazon, and similar jobs, and when attendant wages won’t pay the rent or put food on the table, why does anyone stay in this job? More and more, they don’t.

So add your voice to the call for better wages for our attendants, so we can keep having community attendant services programs in this state. And do it today.

For a great article with quotes from folks who use attendant services at the Care Can’t Wait Rally click here

This week is disability voter registration week (which of course is really pretty much year round.) The disability voting project REV UP Texas and Register 2 Vote have made a handy tool for you!

If you aren’t registered to vote, or you need to update information for your voter registration, like if you have moved, use the QR code below or click here and it takes you to a site where you can register to vote or update your info. You will be mailed a stamped, addressed postcard with all your info filled in and you just need to sign it and stick it in the mail. Share with friends, cohorts, etc.

If you don’t think your vote counts, ask yourself why people are trying to make it harder to vote.

Want to find out more about Registering Educating yourself on the issues Voting and Using your Power? (REV UP Texas) click here.

SUBJECT:  Community Attendants Demand $15 per hour,   Health Benefits and Respect for their Essential Work

WHO:  Personal Attendant Coalition of Texas (PACT)  ADAPT of Texas * Statewide grassroots disability rights organization advocating for the integration of people with disabilities of all ages.

WHAT: A Labor Day Virtual Event highlighting the DEMANDS of Community Attendants to the Health and Human Services Commission (HHSC) and the Texas Legislature.

WHEN: Mon, Sept 6^th at 1pm central* noon mountain

WHERE: Join Zoom Meeting  https://us02web.zoom.us/j/87611487456?pwd=cTBoNnBETzRpRTRucWJyNjJxdkc1dz09

Meeting ID: 876 1148 7456       Passcode: 593343

Phone: 13462487799,,87611487456#

Facebook Live Event:     https://fb.me/e/1y0Y7iIn3

 WHY:  OUR HOMES NOT NURSING HOMES!

There is a crisis in recruiting and retaining Community Attendants.  People with disabilities and older Texans need Community Attendants to allow them to live in the community and Age in Place. 

COMMUNITY ATTENDANTS ARE ESSENTIAL WORKERS

BUT GET LITTLE RECOGNITION OR RESPECT.

The base wage rate is $8.11 with no health benefits.  The 87^th Legislature did not appropriate any money to raise the base rate.  HHSC has documented the need for Community Attendants however their latest request for federal funds did little to alleviate the crisis in recruiting and retaining Community Attendants. HHS has done nothing to protect attendants from COVID-19.

PACT/ADAPT of Texas will offer possible solutions at this event.

As cases swell dangerously here in Texas with the new D strain of COVID, ADAPT of Texas urges people with disabilities and their families and friends to get vaccinated. In you can’t get out of your home to go to a vaccination site, now the shot can come to you!

Homebound Texans can call 844-90-TEXAS (844-908-3927) and select Option 1 to request a state mobile vaccination team to come to their home.

June 22^nd is the 22nd Anniversary of the Supreme Court’s 1999 landmark Olmstead decision.

ADAPT of Texas, a statewide disability rights organization, is celebrating this anniversary which we fought so hard to see.  “Freedom, Liberation, Integration and Independence” are how ADAPT of Texas members describe the Olmstead decision.

Based on the integration requirement in the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), the Olmstead decision said that people with disabilities have the right to live in “the most integrated setting.” Just because a person needs support services does not mean the state can closet them away in nursing homes, state developmental disability (known in Texas as State Supported Living Centers) or other institutions.

Lois Clark and Elaine Wilson were two Georgia women who had sat in institutions for years waiting on wait-lists for community services. They sued saying the state was paying for them to be stuck in institutions and could therefore afford to provide them services in the community. 

Though they were from Georgia, they could well have been from Texas as thousands of Texans were, and many still are, in this same situation.

In Texas, ADAPT fought for and in part using the Olmstead decision, won a policy called Money Follows the Person which has led to thousands of Texans getting out of nursing homes, and some state supported living centers and moving back into the communities they came from. 

President George W Bush, with a push from ADAPT, took the experience in Texas and carried it forward to the national level. Though Medicaid still has an “institutional bias,” people with disabilities of all ages now have a choice to live in the community with the supports and services they need. 

We still have more work ahead as there are over 100,000 Texans waiting in the community for services and supports; however, we should celebrate the victories along the way. 

For more background on Olmstead and a link to related resources click here