March 2020
This month we welcomed a couple of new members to our regional group. All are welcome to check out our meeting. The next one is March 25th from 6-8PM at 261 N Main St Middleton. Please note, this is one week later than usual. Thank you to Therese LaPorte, Sandra Jones and Anne Fracht for attending the February 6th meeting of MA21 at Arcmass in Waltham. The group focused on self-direction and looked at a new guide for planning your budget. Donna Jay presented to the NE Arc Self-Advocacy group in Danvers about the Marriage Penalty and how to advocate for change on this issue. Therese LaPorte shared her experiences and the importance of self-advocacy at a Transition Forum at Lesley University on a panel of self-advocates. It was a great discussion with students, teachers and self-advocates about increasing disability pride, understanding and self-determination. Presenter, Stel Gragoudas said, “Being self-determined doesn’t mean doing every task independently. I am self-determined and I need help to get dressed each day.” In other news, we are overjoyed to know that the FDA finally banned the use of electric-shock therapy! Thank you to our Regional Chairperson, Derek, for making this issue a priority in our region.
GATOR (Guardianship and the transfer of rights) news: Kamisha, Derek and Cynthia are working hard searching for information for students about Transfer of Rights. MASS Researchers learned about how to do a literature search with Cady Landa of ICI on February 7th along with Marie D’Aoust, Gail Delgado and Bridget Crowley. Kamisha also joined the first advisory board meeting for this project with transition experts from around the country. The full GATOR Team meets by video conference every other week.
The MA SDM Task Force met on February 8th and reviewed SDM Agreement forms from different States. Kim Plaut and Austin Carr prepared three interviews and recorded them with the help of the Institute for Community Inclusion on February 21st. Our task force hopes to turn these videos into webinars to help more self-advocates learn about supported decision making as an important alternative to guardianship! MA SDM Task Force members took part in meetings about the Supported Decision Making Bill, which is moving along. Members attending the Arcmass/MDDC Legislative reception advocated for support on this bill. The task force meets again at Harvard on March 14th from 11:30-3PM.