Aurora mom one step closer to President-elect

Aurora mom one step closer to President-elect
Originally published on YourHub.com
A community produced by the Denver Newspaper Agency
Contributed by: DARLA STUART on 1/6/2009

Aurora, CO - Renee Beauregard parent of an adult child with special needs is one step closer to proposing change to President-elect Obama. Through www.change.org she has asked that his administration prioritize fully funding Home and Community Based Services (HCBS) supporting children and adults with developmental disabilities.

From November 24 through December 31, 2008, Change.org accepted more than 7,783 submissions for ideas and over 288,694 votes from people across America. Beauregard's idea was one of the three most popular health ideas presented, and, thus qualified for the second and final round voting which runs from January 5 - January 15.

"Fully funding HCBS programs," Beauregard says, "would not only end decades-long waiting lists for people with developmental disabilities, it would also create small businesses and jobs because more service providers would be needed." Further, Beauregard proposes HCBS programs be available at the time of need, be portable across and within states, and promote self-determination for individuals with disabilities, their families and/or legal guardians.

"HCBS programs help children and adults with developmental disabilities live with their family and/or in their community as opposed to being institutionalized," says Darla Stuart executive director of The Arc of Aurora, "Amendment 51, which failed at the 2008 Colorado ballot, would have provided additional funding for such services for the more than 12,000 Coloradoans waiting upwards of ten years for HCBS." Nationally, it is estimated that more than 300,000 children and adults wait.

"Some of the other ideas have many more votes than ours," says Beauregard, "so every person and every organization interested in ending waiting lists and creating portability of HCBS for children and adults with developmental disabilities needs to vote by going to http://www.change.org/." Beauregard is already joined by NOEWAIT.net and The Arc in promoting this idea.

If selected as one the final ten ideas prioritized nationally on January 15, Change.org will launch a national campaign behind Beauregard's idea to mobilize the collective energy of the millions of members of Change.org, MySpace, and partner organizations to ensure that it gets the full consideration of the Obama Administration and Members of Congress.

Ideas for Change in America is a project of Change.org, an online community and media network for social issues, in partnership with more than three dozen leading organizations, including MySpace, techPresident, the Sunlight Foundation, Netroots Nation, Declare Yourself, Student PIRGs, Voto Latino, HeadCount, and Change Congress.