Let's all do our part to help protect the funding and availability of services for people with intellectual/developmental disabilities including paying our valued staff the living wage they deserve!

How to Help

Protect Medicaid Services - Protect Disability Services!

Medicaid is the cornerstone of disability services across the United States, providing critical funding that ensures individuals with disabilities receive the support they need to thrive. In states like New York, Medicaid has offered life-changing programs for people with disabilities and their families.

While Medicaid programs are managed at the state level, they rely heavily on federal funding. Congress matches state spending based on an established formula, and New York State, in particular, has one of the most effective Medicaid programs in the nation for people living with disabilities. However, proposed changes—such as capping federal contributions or shifting to block grants—could have devastating consequences, drastically reducing funding and access to vital services.

For disability service providers like Venture Together and others across the country, these potential cuts are alarming. Now, more than ever, our voices matter. Contact your federal representatives with the resources below to share how Medicaid has impacted your life or the lives of those you care about. 

Together, we can ensure that individuals with disabilities continue to have access to the services they are entitled to—services that empower them to live full and meaningful lives. 

Ask your Assemblymembers & Senators to Reach out to Governor Hochul!

It’s the time of year when Governor Kathy Hochul and the team at the Division of Budget are compiling the Executive Budget proposal for the State’s next fiscal year and time for our advocacy to ensure that our budget requests be included in the Executive Budget proposal.

Members of the Senate and Assembly can be very helpful with this advocacy. Your outreach to your Senators and Assemblymembers is essential.  Please take the time to reach out and ask them to send this letter to Governor Kathy Hochul.

The letter contains the New York Disability Advocates budget requests:

  • A 7.8% Increase in Provider Rates
  • Empaneling a Blue-Ribbon Commission on wage disparities to recommend future actions to increase direct care staffs’ salaries
  • Capital Funding to improve energy efficiency in our day and residential programs to help providers comply with the Governor’s climate goals

To find your members of the Senate and Assembly, go to Assembly Member Search | New York State Assembly and Find My Senator | NYSenate.gov

Please ask your Senator and Assemblymember to provide you with a copy of the letter that they send to Governor Hochul and ask them to also forward copies to  wini@iacny.org  This will be helpful to NYDA when tracking outreach to the State Legislature.  

Learn More about our NYS Budget Asks

What does NY's I/DD Community need in 2025?

Read Mike Avaro’s piece in Lohud on what the I/DD community needs from Governor Kathy Hochul in her upcoming executive budget.

Mike Alvaro is the president of New York Disability Advocates, a statewide coalition of 330 non-profit disability service providers providing vital services and support to more than 130,000 New Yorkers with I/DD, and the president and CEO of Cerebral Palsy Associations of New York State.

Click here to read the full op-ed: