Our Voices Matter…
I am here to tell you as parents to individuals with disabilities, our voices, our stories and our children matter!
These are scary times right now for us with the budget crisis in Kansas and what is being proposed in DC with regards to Medicaid and the Federal budget, and we do have a right to be concerned.
As I have been attending more and more functions and meeting families across the state of Kansas, I have heard one thing ring out over and over. “What difference does it make; politicians don’t care about us and our children?” While I have had the same feelings, I also know that if we don’t do it for ourselves, who will? Do we really want state agencies, service providers, and lobbyist telling our stories? Should we trust them to tell our stories correctly? The answer is unequivocally NO!
We know our children, our stories, and our challenges better than anyone so we need to be the ones sharing. It’s hard to know where to start and what to share, but all of your experiences (the bad and good) have to be shared. Just start with one small experience and let it grow from there, you will be amazed with what you come up with once you take that first step. I get it, we make calls and write emails and feel like they fall on deaf ears or come back with a condescending tone or a boiler plate response, I experience the same thing, but don’t’ stop, we can NOT give up, that’s what they want us to do.
We also have to be visible; I know this is a hard one for many reasons: location, time, child care. But when you can be at public meetings/hearings do so, divide and conquer if you have to, one parent stay home while the other goes. If you are a single parent team up with another single parent and trade off going to meetings. They don’t want us to show up because they can go back and say they tried to listen but no one showed up.
There is more power in numbers. We need to come together, when we do; we learn more together and we are stronger together. Please, Please I urge you to step up and be heard; make it proud, loud, and often. The more they hear from us the more our concerns and challenges become front and center and they realize it affects many more voters in their districts and they can’t ignore the few anymore!
Family members are also very important in sharing stories about their loved ones, ask them to reach out to their legislatures as well, no matter the state they live in, it matters.
Towards the end of June/early July I will be putting a meeting together for family members only in the Overland Park area to talk about what we know and what we don’t know. If you would like to get more information closer to the date, please email me at [email protected] If you do not live in the Overland Park area and would like to learn how to come together in your area reach out to me and I will do what I can to assist you.