7pm - 9pm
Thursday, May 23
The Salvation Army
310 Vesta Rd, London
(near Highbury Ave N and Huron St)

If you are a person with a developmental disability or are a family member, friend or supporter, this town hall event is an opportunity to meet with MPPs and share your concerns, needs and ask questions about the supports you receive.

In particular, if you are a PassportONE or Special Services at Home (SSAH) recipient, this event is for you. Families have been reporting growing apprehensions regarding these services. Passport was recently migrated to a new system which runs through Family Service Toronto, and the backlog caused by the change has left some families waiting for months to be reimbursed for services that they had to pay out of pocket, sometimes in amounts in the thousands of dollars. Other families report having to submit their expenses repeatedly, often taking hours of time and added cost. This has also affected agencies administering passport funds on behalf of individuals, leaving them struggling to make ends meet.

Even more worrisome is that some families receiving SSAH have shared that their services have been cut suddenly in the past month in significant amounts, sometimes from thousands of dollars per year to only hundreds. While others have not had their funding affected at this time, it is a clear demonstration that no one's funding, whether SSAH or PassportONE, is safe from cuts.

In light of these growing concerns, families are seeking more opportunities to be able to address their worries and needs with their representatives in Provincial Parliament. With over a billion dollars being cut from the Ministry of Children, Community and Social Services in the coming years, it is essential that we are able to share the experience of caregivers and individuals with developmental disabilities with our MPPs and discuss how we can ensure that the needed supports continue to be reliably available.

There is no better way to protect your services and demonstrate their value than to actively communicate your needs directly to your MPPs. This is why we have invited local MPPs to join us on May 23, 2019 at 310 Vesta Rd to interact with their constituents regarding these matters.