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Advocacy Unlimited Newsletter - March/April 2007     

Welcome to our first official legislative update of the year! We are extremely pleased to announce that we had very good turnout this legislative session, from advocates, supporters and even some current students. We would like to take this opportunity to sincerely thank all those who came to public hearings, testified, or read testimony. Without your hard work and patience through (often extremely long) public hearings, AU would not be able to do legislative advocacy. Everyone who helped out will receive recognition at the next advocate's Bimonthly meeting.

Throughout this Legislative Session, AU advocates and supporters made approximately one hundred and twenty-one appearances and testified seventy-two times at twelve different hearings. We have testified in response to seven different bills and the budgets of the Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services, the Department of Social Services and the Department of Children and Families. Also, we facilitated the first case of someone testifying at the capital while confined in the Whiting Forensic Division of Connecticut Valley Hospital. Thirteen advocates within Whiting Forensic wrote testimony about House Bill 1068, a bill that directly affected their property rights (special thanks to Robert Kalman for intensive organizing). We arranged for their testimony to be read by advocates outside the hospital, the first time something like this had ever been attempted.

We will not know the results of many of our actions until the end of session. However, we can happily report that we successfully reached compromise language about House Bill 6391 with the Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services. The following are the bills AU addressed, along with AU's stance on those bills:

You can look up the text and history of these bills at http://www.cga.ct.gov (enter the bill number in the "Number" field at the top of the page and click Go). Also, if you call AU at (860) 667-0460 and ask for Nick Butler, he would be happy to elaborate on any of the bills and the reasoning behind AU's position.

Reading Suggestions…

Ragged Edge: The Disability Rag has been the voice for the politicized disability community. See www.raggededgemagazine.com (opens in a new browser window)

The Mouth: Mixes news, humor and attitude. The Mouth covers the struggles for disability identity and freedom. See www.mouthmag.com (opens in a new browser window)