News & Events

WIHD Staff Testify At Public Hearing

MITCHELL LEVITZ

A Response to OMRDD's Five Year Comprehensive Plan

March 7, 2005
Kingston, New York

My name is Mitchell Levitz and I live in Cortlandt Manor, New York. I am a Consumer Specialist at the Westchester Institute for Human Development, a University Center on Disabilities. I also work with the Self-Advocacy Association of New York State.

I am here today in support of OMRDD’s Five Year Plan. I think that it is a good thing that OMRDD will continue collaborating with other organizations and especially with people with developmental disabilities and our families. Teamwork is necessary. This is a plan that offers more choices and individualized supports for us to be able to have the kind of full and active lives that we want.

I am going to talk about some of the projects that I have been involved with: the Self-Advocacy Speakers Bureau, the Self-Determination Project, the Real Choices Grant, and Health Promotion.

The Speakers Bureau should be supported and expanded because it employs individuals with disabilities like me to talk to community groups and schools. We share our own personal experiences and suggest ways to include more people with disabilities in neighborhood activities and community life. This should result in greater community participation.

Self-Determination is a good way for us to have more control of our own lives and to have many choices about the kinds of services and supports we would like. I think that OMRDD should reach out to recent high school graduates and their families to help them understand what opportunities the Self-Determination project offers and encourage them to participate. But the system needs to be made easier so that more young people and more agencies will want to be part of the pilot.

I have been working with OMRDD and the Self-Advocacy Association on the Real Choices grant project that helps people with disabilities make informed choices about where they want to live and if they want to move out of large residential settings. This project trains self-advocates to be mentors and share their personal experiences living in the community. If someone decides to move into a smaller or different living arrangement, the project team helps the individual in the planning and in making the move. I hope that this pilot program gets to be expanded all over our state.

I believe that the plan should include more training programs that help people with developmental disabilities learn how to better manage our own health care. More needs to be done to help us have healthy lifestyles.

I would like to conclude by saying that OMRDD is on the right track in getting advice and ideas by employing people with disabilities as consultants, as staff of the DDSO’s and in the Central Office. Other organizations should follow their example in recruiting and supporting us to be professional leaders in the field of disabilities. Thank you for this opportunity to speak today.

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