Taking Action

Taking Action!

Chip's PDF Letter
Available in your email as an attachment

Video of zoom letter writing session.
Chip's Letter TEXT in Word
COPY out the center text that is meant for the Governor and add your own introduction and closing
Contact the GOVERNOR's OFFICE Find your State Legislators
SPANISH translation of Chip's Letter TEXT in Word
Be sure to check capitalization of months - Spanish doesn't capitalize months. 

Brain Storm 

Opening
  • I voted for you and so far so good, but this really matters... 
  • Use I statements
Body
  • The work we do has made it possible for people with disabilities to be out of institutions and engage and participate in our communities as PRODUCTIVE and CONTRIBUTING members of our society. They work at jobs, they volunteer, they go to school, earn income and participate in the marketplace. Increasingly independent, they are Californians who contribute and participate in civic life in every way.
  • This would wipe out a lot of progress that individuals with disabilities have fought and worked to achieve 
There is a RIPPLE EFFECT that has to be considered--(used a bulleted list of all the effects you can imagine) 
  • The people with disabilities become more dependent
  • Their families may have to stop working to care for them for more hours of the day
  • The staff who serve them will be unemployed
  • They human cost in depression and stress exactly at the time when the pandemic is exerting incredible stressors on these vulnerable people is incalculable
  • When a person with a developmental disability is deprived of support for working and independent living everyone around them also loses, multiplying the social ills that these services are already solving
  • Direct service workers do a very specific kind of work that is customized to the clients' needs which enables their independence and makes their contributions possible
  • The resources for these services are not EXTRA or a favor we do. They are essential to the quality of life of important, CONTRIBUTING California citizens, their families and communities.
  • By cutting funding for these programs you may be saving a few dollars in the short term but you are deferring much greater costs into the future and that damage will be much harder to repair in the long run.
  • People with disabilities are Californians and they are your  constituents
  • Tell stories of success
  • Share how you FEEL about these cuts. 

Closing
  • Remind them of their constituents, that they are there to represent us
  • Remind them that they want to be on the right side of history
  • Tell them you'll be asking others to contact them about this issue.
Sentiments
Be sincere and tell them how you really fee. 
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