Disability Leaders Look to General Assembly with Optimism As leaders of intellectual disability and autism (ID/A) services, we have been raising our voices about the unsustainable staffing/direct support professional (DSP) crisis in our community.
Advocates for people with disabilities are pushing for additional millions in the Commonwealth's budget in the next fiscal year to raise wages and shore up staffing for home and community-based services.
As their peers without disabilities graduate high school and embark on college journeys, students in these programs are able to follow a similar path.
KDKATV Wholey's in the Strip District is raising money and rewarding one winner with a gift card if they can guess the number of fish in the live tank.
Sixth-grader Holden Frye returned to his elementary school, Hoover Elementary, to read his new book "The Spot" to students during an assembly. It's the highlight of the school's celebration of inclusion.
The award, given annually by the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh and Jewish Residential Services, celebrates volunteers who promote the inclusion of people with disabilities in the fabric of Jewish life through advocacy or direct service to those individuals and their families.
Southwestern Pennsylvania-based Achieva, a disability advocacy and service organization, has announced its affiliation of The Arc Erie County with The Arc of Greater Pittsburgh, a member of the Achieva Family of Organizations.
Families of people with disabilities are pleading with Gov. Tom Wolf and the legislature to help. They are asking them to work together to raise the wages of the DSPs.
Pennsylvania is facing a dire shortage of direct support professionals who help people with intellectual and developmental disabilities bathe, get dressed, eat, exercise, socialize, and perform many other fundamental tasks.
The state's plan for the money focuses on increasing access to home and community-based services and staffing for those services. Addressing staff recruitment and retention is key, said Nancy Murray, president of the Arc of Greater Pittsburgh and senior vice president at Achieva.
Latrobe Bulletin (Editorial by Nancy Murray, President, The Arc of Greater Pittsburgh)
WESA FM (Nancy Murray, president of The Arc of Greater Pittsburgh and senior vice president at Achieva is quoted)
Public Source (Lu Randall, executive director, Autism Connection of PA is quoted)