I have sent this letter out to my state reps and senator, to my US Rep and US Senators, too.\u00a0 Feel free to adapt it to your child’s specific situation and send it to your government officials.\u00a0 Just google them; they’re all online now.\u00a0 Elected officials need specific, personal stories to make their case.\u00a0 They want to hear from constituents.\u00a0 Our emails and phone calls are their currency.\u00a0 I have heard this time and again from the senators and reps I know here in Massachusetts — and I know a lot of them.\u00a0 You should know yours, too.<\/p>\n
All I’m asking is that you, my readers, keep housing for developmentally disabled adults on the front burner of our government’s priorities.\u00a0 This is how you do it.\u00a0 One email at a time.<\/p>\n
Hello Senator____
\nLet me introduce myself.\u00a0 I am the mother of three sons, the oldest of whom, Nat, is 20 and has fairly severe autism.\u00a0 I have written two books about autism and many other pieces because it is just such an encompassing factor in my life. I love my sons, and Nat is a wonderful young man.<\/p>\n
Now I am piecing together information so that I can secure Nat a safe and fulfilling homelife as an adult.\u00a0 I am writing you with this issue in mind.<\/p>\n
Nat currently lives at _____ and attends school there.\u00a0 He comes home on the weekends.\u00a0 Having him move out at 18 to live at his school nearly broke my heart but we had to do it, because of his aggressive behavior.\u00a0 My 12 year old son Ben was terrified of him.\u00a0 Anyway, Nat has improved SO much due to the round-the-clock efforts of the ___ staff.\u00a0 He now holds 5 part-time jobs (two of which are at Papa Gino’s) and he still attends school.\u00a0 He helps me when he’s home on the weekends, with food shopping, laundry, and housecleaning.\u00a0 He is just a wonderful young man.\u00a0 But he will never be fully independent.<\/p>\n
I have spent most of this week meeting with all kinds of people about post-22 housing for Nat.\u00a0 I have so far met with the Housing Authority president; with the Housing Advisory Committee head ___; with Combined Jewish Philanthropies, and one or two others active in Massachusetts affordable housing.<\/p>\n
I also visited the ____Adult Residence housed in ___a few months back, which felt a lot like where Nat is living now __.\u00a0 We love the level of care and attention Nat gets in the ___ residences.\u00a0 I am thinking about the feasibility of perhaps through Project-Based Section 8’s and Massachusetts Residential funding for Nat, (not that Nat has gotten anything yet, because that can’t be known until he is 22) beginning a home for young men like Nat.<\/p>\n
I want you to see what it is like for parents like me — and just imagine what it is like for parents who don’t have my energy and time (I work my own hours as a writer)!!<\/p>\n
I am not panicking, but I am — shall we say — highly motivated and energized about his future!\u00a0 I am asking you to do what you can to use your incredible energy and sharpness for the developmentally disabled populations, particularly the complex needs of the booming autistic population aging out of the public education system.\u00a0 It feels pretty dire to most of us!<\/p>\n
Let me know how I can help you in all of this advocacy.\u00a0 I believe in you and in all of your excellent work in Congress.\u00a0 I want to be able to continue that faith as Nat becomes an adult.<\/p>\n
Thanks for listening,
\nSusan Senator
\nAddress
\nwww.susansenator.com<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I have sent this letter out to my state reps and senator, to my US Rep and US Senators, too.\u00a0 Feel free to adapt it to your child’s specific situation and send it to your government officials.\u00a0 Just google them; they’re all online now.\u00a0 Elected officials need specific, personal stories to make their case.\u00a0 They […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1571","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pSTth-pl","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/susansenator.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1571","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/susansenator.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/susansenator.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/susansenator.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/susansenator.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1571"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/susansenator.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1571\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1573,"href":"https:\/\/susansenator.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1571\/revisions\/1573"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/susansenator.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1571"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/susansenator.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1571"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/susansenator.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1571"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}