Advocacy
Join our advocacy efforts to ensure that Minnesota includes and values people of ALL abilities
Your VOICE Matters!
Simply reading this means you are interested in helping us transform the lives of people with varying abilities, and that is the first step to advocacy. Thank you! By speaking out in support of people impacted by disabilities, together we can break down the walls society has put up, and live in more inclusive and understanding communities and neighborhoods. By taking part in our mission via volunteering, donations, and gala sponsorship or attendance, or through working with us as employees, board members, or committee members, you are modeling positive interactions with a community often overlooked or dismissed. Each and every conversation or interaction with someone who lives with a disability, with any level of impairment, normalizes the disabled instead of othering them.
True authentic connections make advocacy EASY.
Advocacy can be as simple as volunteering with Living Well Disability Services, then telling everyone about the positive experience you had. Or speaking up for disabled people who are being mocked or bullied by children, or even adults, who may never have had the opportunity to connect with someone different from themselves. Advocacy is direct when you give your time, treasure, and talents. But soft advocacy, in the form of organic conversations you have with your neighbors, coworkers and people you meet just out and about, are equally important to moving the needle towards full acceptance.
Join us in telling the world about the incredible people we serve. Help us share the stores of the workers dedicated to their care. Together we can work to ensure that discrimination no longer has a place in the communities and circles we spend our time in.
Contact or Visit Your Legislators
Visit with Legislators and share your stories of why support for disability services matter! Check out this video of Don making change by advocating for himself and the people he lives with at a Living Well Home. To schedule a meeting, please contact:
Rod Carlson at rod.carlson@livingwell.org
Contact legislators and encourage them to support life-saving funding and services for people impacted by disabilities.
Support The Best Life Alliance
The Best Life Alliance is a statewide coalition of more than 130 organizations, people with disabilities, families and supporters advocating for Home and Community-Based Services (HCBS). Accessing these critical services empowers people with disabilities to live, work and thrive in their communities.
Minnesota’s effective HCBS Services allow people with intellectual and physical disabilities to receive services tailored to meet their needs – whether that means help getting to work or complex 24/7 medical care. These essential services foster skill development, provide job coaching and medical care, ensure health and safety, and much more. They allow people with disabilities to contribute to their communities and stay as active and independent as possible.
Founded in 2014, this coalition was previously known as The 5% Campaign, which successfully advocated for a rate increase to curb high staff turnover and improve the quality of care for people receiving services after years of budget cuts and freezes.
This coalition continues to work to ensure that services for people with disabilities remain available, stable and sustainable. We can all empower people with disabilities to live their best life. Join our email list today to receive updates about this important work!
If you have a story to share to support The Best Life Alliance, please email Laurie.Eggers@livingwell.org
Take Action
Changing public policy, and perceptions surrounding disability awareness, are two of the most effective ways to help people living with disabilities. The best thing you can do to make change is to add your voice to the conversation and be heard supporting and advocating on behalf of people living with intellectual, physical and developmental disabilities.
Your voice is powerful, and even more so when combined with others. Our collective voices matter.
Quick Links:
- Follow us and help us spread the word:
Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn - Contact Your Legislators
- Become a Best Live Alliance Volunteer
Contact
Please contact Beth Tollefson