Archives: Monthly Update

September 2007

Contents:

1. NAC Central: New Energy and a New Opportunity to Showcase Your DSPs
2. DSPs to DC Rally – Their Message was Clear

1. NAC Central: New Energy and a New Opportunity to Showcase Your DSPs

Any good campaign understands the value of momentum. When you get it, you try to bottle it and do everything you can to keep the bottle full. September’s DSP to DC event has given ANCOR’s National Advocacy Campaign unprecedented momentum. It got providers, supporters and DSPs excited. It raised awareness about the workforce crisis on Capitol Hill. It won us new co-sponsors for the Direct Support Professionals Fairness and Security Act. It helped the NAC capture powerful new stories and images.

In short, the DSPs to DC event was an undeniable success, and everyone who participated shares in the credit. We can’t, however, bask in the glory of NAC Central: New Energy and a New Opportunity to Showcase Your DSPs a strong showing. We need to capitalize on the exposure and energy the event garnered before it subsides. That begins with maximizing the value of the DSPs to DC Rally, including:

• Following-up with all the congressional offices you met with on September 11;
• Returning your completed Hill meeting reports to ANCOR;
• Highlighting the event with an article and pictures in your newsletter (or partner/association newsletters) and/or a posting on your Web site;
• Sharing a press release on the event and photos with your local newspapers— this is particularly effective with weekly newspapers; and
• Keeping your participants engaged in advocacy efforts—encourage them to help educate and mobilize their co-workers.

ANCOR has provided template materials (congressional meeting follow- up letters, Hill meeting feedback form, template newsletter article and template press release) to all DSPs to DC Rally participants to help facilitate these key post-event activities. If you need additional copies of the templates or have any questions, please contact Daryn Demeritt, ddemeritt@field goals.net, our advocacy consultant, for assistance.

In addition to the activities you should do at the local-level, ANCOR will be following-up with targeted members of Congress while compiling the sights and sounds of the DSPs to DC event. ANCOR retained professionals to secure hundreds of photos and hours of video footage, all of which will satisfy a variety of needs in the National Advocacy Campaign’s efforts to promote the direct support workforce.

Ready for Your Close-Up?

October marks the launch of DSP TV Online, the National Advocacy Campaign’s new video contest powered by Therap Services, LLC. With Therap’s technical, creative and financial support, DSP TV Online provides a new, fun and entertaining medium for telling the workforce story.

This web-based contest is an extension of www.YouNeedToKnowMe.org and every person who submits a video will be eligible for a prize. Awards will be bestowed by category each month; grand prizes, including a trip to New Orleans, will be awarded in early 2008; and all participants will be entered into a raffle for special prizes.

Entering DSP TV Online could not be easier. Shoot a video on your video camera, your camera phone or on your web cam and upload it to www.YouNeedToKnowMe.org. Therap Services, LLC has even built a tutorial tool to guide users through the process.

DSP TV Online is open to everyone— Direct Support Professionals, people served and self-advocates, families, supporters of people with disabilities and the direct support workforce, etc.—and any entry that highlights the direct support workforce is welcome. While DSP TV Online is a fun contest, it is also about education. The contest is broken into categories that offer ideas about how to create videos that cast a spotlight on who DSPs are, what they do and why their work is so important. And all submissions will be posted on YouTube.com to help give broad exposure to our message.

Most important, these need not be Hollywood-quality productions. Anything and everything five minutes or less is welcome—just tell the story!

DSP TV Online has the basics to be successful—a good idea supported by strong infrastructure. However, without buy-in from ANCOR members, DSPs and supporters, it will fail. The National Advocacy Campaign is counting on you to help promote the contest. It is a great vehicle to help maintain the momentum we built through the DSP to DC event, so tell your managers, tell your DSPs, tell the families you support, visit www.YouNeedTo KnowMe.org, and watch for promotional materials from ANCOR.

Let’s keep things moving forward. Let’s make DSP TV Online the National Advocacy Campaigns next big success!

H.R. 1279 Co-Sponsors Update

As of this writing, 21 additional members of Congress have joined H.R. 1279, the Direct Support Professionals Fairness and Security Act, as co-sponsors! This is a direct result of NAC’s DSPs to DC effort. That brings us to a total of 95 co-sponsors! Eight more co-sponsors than we won for the bill through two years in the last Congress (86)! Please adhere to the DSPs to DC follow-up activities referenced herein to make sure we surpass 100 co-sponsors in October! Thank you for the support. ■

2. DSPs to DC Rally – Their Message was Clear

Determined. No other word truly captures the mood of the DSPs attending ANCOR’s historic DSPs to DC Rally on the West Lawn of the U.S. Capitol on September 11. In high spirits, undampend by on again, off again rain, more than 300 Direct Support Professionals from across the country applauded and cheered words of support for the Direct Support Professionals Fairness and Security Act (H.R. 1279) spoken by colleagues, selfadvocates, family members and members of Congress. The U.S. Capitol provided a spectacular setting for the Rally, buoying everyone’s morale and visually demonstrating their purpose and intent in coming to Washington, DC.

DSP Sean Delany, NY wowed the crowd with his original rap video and solo of “Open Your Eyes.”

Angela Washington won $500 in a DSP to DC drawing!

DSPs waved handmade placards asserting “ ‘Support H.R. 1279’, ‘ Security 4 All,’ ‘Pass H.R. 1279’ , ‘DSPs make a difference. Shouldn’t they also make a living?’” They provided a powerful backdrop for the Rally, which featured prominent speakers within the developmental disabilities community and members of the U.S. Almost 300 DSPs gathered to take their message to Congress. A quick boxed lunch before heading to the Rally. The march to the Hill. Rallying on the West Lawn of the U.S. Capitol. Sending a message to Congress! House of Representatives. The message from DSPs was unmistakable: Congress must support and pass H.R. 1279 and give DSPs a living wage. A DSP from Kentucky expressed his sentiments noting that before coming to Washington, he didn’t understand how the Medicaid funding affected his salary.

Some DSPs chanted ANCOR’s new National Advocacy Campaign theme, “You need to know me! I’m a DSP! as they left the grounds of the Capitol to attend meetings with their members of Congress. They were intent about their mission, to convince their representatives in the House to sign up as sponsors of the H.R. 1279 and support wage parity for DSPs. DSP Heather Starks, KY, brought her paycheck to show her Congressman. “I’m going to show him my paycheck!” I’m going to ask him, ‘Can you live on this? Can you support a family of four on this?’”

A quick boxed lunch before heading to the Rally.	Almost 300 DSPs gathered to take their message to Congress.
Daryn Demeritt, Field Goals, taught Politics 101 to willing DSP students.	Congressman Chris Shays, (R-CT) gave strong support to H.R. 1279.
	The march to the Hill.	The march to the Hill.
Rallying on the West Lawn of the U.S. Capitol.
Sending a message to Congress!
ANCOR CEO Renee Pietrangelo welcomes DSPs to Washington, DC.	Rally speakers included self-advocate Dylan Brown, TN; DSP Tess Collins, ME; DSP Duane Hicks, MN; and parent advocate Rev. Joe Carrico, KY.	Listening intently to the speakers at the Rally.
Jennifer Roberts, healthcare legislative assistant, speaks on behalf of H.R. 1279 sponsor Congressman Lee Terry (R-NB).	Parent advocate Billie McMiller, TX, addresses the crowd.	Rain didn’t dampen the spirits of Rich Carmen, Mosaic; Congressman Langevan, (D-RI); and the Rally translator.
		DSPs study their politics.
The DSP to DC Rally uniform.