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ACTION ALERT

April 14, 2009

Raising Special Kids Joins Call for Health, Welfare Funding
Budget Cuts to DES and DHS Threaten Public-Private Partnership

Members of Raising Special Kids’ Board of Directors joined more than 450 community leaders from cities and towns across Arizona in calling for the restoration of funding for human services. Volunteer board members for 60 different nonprofit organizations throughout the state jointly sent a letter to Governor Brewer and all 90 state legislators urging them to restore funding to the Department of Economic Security and the Department of Health Services to preserve the public-private partnership for critical human services.

With signatures from Bisbee to Kingman, from Sierra Vista to Flagstaff, from Surprise to Mesa, the letter describes how the impacts of state budget cuts reverberate far beyond the state employees and programs immediately affected. The letter points out that the community leaders have made significant investments of time and money in nurturing the privatized social services infrastructure that this state needs. “If the state continues to abandon this investment and withdraw as a partner, we can no longer bring these private dollars to the table. Our entire social services infrastructure will unravel.

” The letter asks the legislature and the Governor to work together on a broader budget plan that protects our fiscal stability and our future. The leaders predict that the consequences of continued budget cuts in human services “will destabilize our work force and our neighborhoods and cause serious harm to business and our economy.” Read the letter at this link: LetterToLegislators04-14-09.pdf

CALL TO ACTION
Share your story, make a difference

You can help advocate for supporting human services for children with disabilities and special health needs in Arizona. Raising Special Kids is collecting stories of families who have lost coverage for Children’s Rehabilitative Services (CRS), or have lost services provided by the Division of Developmental Disabilities (DDD) or Arizona Early Intervention Program (AzEIP) due to recent budget cuts. We would like to hear your story.

Please contact us at 602-242-4366, Toll Free 1-800-237-3007 or info@raisingspecialkids.org

To contact your legislators directly check out http://www.azleg.gov/. For additional advocacy tips and support visit http://www.pafcoalition.org/