This is the opening plenary from the NCIL 2021 Annual conference, as given by then-NCIL ED, @reymamccoyhyten.bsky.social. In it, she clearly articulates the systemic gaps that both #IndependentLiving and #BigDisCo grapple with and offers solutions:
Plenary begins at 11:07.
Anyone with a vested interest in disability rights, criminal justice, labor exploitation, systemic racism, the preschool to prison pipeline, and/or “at-risk” youth should, at least, have a passing curiosity about “wellness farms”, about which RFK Jr proudly stated: “Wellness farms are my ‘Peace Corps’… they are going to be my major program.”
The prospect of developing a community-based wellness farm system as a Home and Community Based "alternative" for children should be incredibly alarming to advocates who for years have pushed for de-institutionalization and control over decision-making for disabled people. Unless, of course, #FreeOurPeople doesn’t apply to these people.
Read- and share!- this week's blog, "The HCBS provision #BigDisCo isn’t talking about, or, did the federal government just create a funding stream for the newest stop on the preschool to prison pipeline while nobody was looking?":
www.loiscurtis.org/post/the-hcb...
If #BigDisCo actually cared about transgender people, then #BigDisCo would have loudly and publicly fought for transgender people the minute Texas v Becerra was filed in September of 2024. It didn't. It's as simple as that. Meanwhile, transgender people continue to be left with the exhausting but necessary task of not only reading hateful rhetoric articulated by those who wish them harm but also reading between the lines of the performative rhetoric articulated by those who wish to use the plight of transgender people to appear "progressive" while they, too, cause harm.
This week's blog has got a bunch of hit dogs hollerin' in the #BigDisCo:
www.loiscurtis.org/post/bigdisc...
The LCC Anyway 5k, more on #BigDisCo 's trans excluding fight to protect 504, and is your "inclusive" space making you SICK? Check out this week's newsletter for more:
www.loiscurtis.org/so/d4PQbHAWC...
CW: White Tearjerker Alert
We focus on the status update on TX vs Kennedy (formerly TX vs Becerra) that was recently released by DREDF and other #BigDisCo orgs, as well as breach the subject of the ineffectual letter writing campaign approach to systems advocacy that #BigDisCo persists in employing
#BigDisCo 's push for inclusion within DEI was particularly apparent during the Biden years when engaging in DEI rendered applicants for federal funding more attractive. This wasn’t done to acknowledge the shocking levels of inequity that personal care attendants (PCAs) and other direct support professionals (DSPs), workers that are, more often than not, melanated, female, and, increasingly, immigrants, that are pervasive throughout the disability services sector. This also wasn’t done in solidarity with melanated people with disabilities to acknowledge and address the barriers to access to services and supports that lead to a disproportionate number of Black and brown disabled people being cut off from Home and Community Based Services (HCBS) and, thus, vulnerable to institutionalization, incarceration, homelessness, and death. No, #BigDisCo engaged in systems advocacy pertaining to DEI to get an “A”- for “accessibility”- being added to the acronym.
In fact, #BigDisCo ‘s history has always been fraught with exclusion and inequity when it comes to melanated people: despite the fact that the bottom rung of the disability services workforce is primarily comprised of racially marginalized people (Black people, who comprise 12% of the US population, are 40% of the PCA/DSP workforce), that is typically where racial diversity ends. A 2024 article published by the National Institute on Health (NIH) notes that: (t)hirty years of deinstitutionalization and the development of community living options would not have been possible without DSPs. Although life for people with IDD improved greatly, working conditions, wages/benefits, demands, stress/burnout, and trauma experienced by DSPs have worsened. Turnover and vacancy rates threaten the availability of community supports for too many people with IDD. DSPs from diverse racial, ethnic, linguistic, and cultural backgrounds face significant workplace disparities. Meanwhile, #BigDisCo has done nothing to address and remedy the barriers to accessing disability services and supports: that particular manifestation of “accessibility” was not a priority when it pushed for the addition of the “A” to DEI during the Biden years.
Expect #BigDisCo to simultaneously return to advocating for accessibility via avenues outside of DEIA AND affirm to not engage in DEI activities...
They can’t jeopardize their funding, after all.
More here:
www.loiscurtis.org/post/dei-but...
DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES Office of the Secretary Washington, DC 20201 Office of Grants Office of the Assistant Secretary for Financial Resources Room 511D- Hubert Humphrey Building 200 Independence Ave, SW Washington, DC 20201 ACTION TRANSMITTAL- INTERNAL Transmittal No: OG AT 2025-02 Issuance Date: April 16, 2025 TO: HHS Grants and Cooperative Agreements Awarding Agencies FROM: Dale Bell Deputy Assistant Secretary Office of Grants (OG) Office of the Assistant Secretary for Financial Resources (ASFR) US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Digitally signed by CHAD CLIFFORD S- Date 04-16-2025 17:17:24 -04’00’ SUBJECT: Department of Health and Human Services Grant Policy Statement (GPS) Update APPLICABILITY: HHS awarding agencies making discretionary and non-discretionary grant or cooperative agreement awards (collectively grants) EFFECTIVE DATE: Effective immediately. PURPOSE AND BACKGROUND: The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) maintains the HHS Grants Policy Statement (GPS), which is incorporated as a standard term and condition of award on all HHS financial assistance awards via the Notice of Award (NoA). The GPS provides information on HHS agencies that make awards, the award process, and where to find and apply for awards, as well as legal and regulatory rules that apply to awards. This Action Transmittal notifies HHS agencies of an update to the HHS GPS and identifies a prospectively for new awards, not retroactively. Internal Only
OFFICE OF GRANTS ACTION TRANSMITTAL US DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES ACTION: With this action transmittal, HHS agencies are notified that the HHS GPS has been updated effective April 16, 2025 to include the below term of award in the section titled “Civil Rights Assurance” (pages 18-19). Agencies are instructed to apply the following condition to all new awards effective immediately: Recipients must comply with all applicable Federal anti-discrimination laws material to the government’s payment decisions for purposes of 31 USC § 372(b)(4). (a) DEI means “diversity, equity, and inclusion.” (b) DEIA means “diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility.” (c) Discriminatory equity ideology has the meaning set forth in Section 2(b) of the Executive Order 14190 of January 29, 2025. (d) Discriminatory prohibited boycott means refusing to deal, cutting commercial relations, or otherwise limiting commercial relations specifically with Israeli companies or with companies doing business in or with Israel or authorized by, licensed by, or organized under the laws of Israel to do business. (e) Federal anti-discrimination laws means Federal civil rights law that protect individual Americans from discrimination on the basis of race, color, sex, religion, and national origin. (2) Grant award certification. (a) By accepting the grant award, recipients are certifying that: (i) They do not, and will not during the term of this financial assistance award, operate any programs that advance or promote DEI, DEIA, or discriminatory equity ideology in violation of Federal anti- discrimination laws; and (ii) The do not engage in, and will not during the term of this award engage in, a discriminatory prohibited boycott. (3) HHS reserves the right to terminate financial assistance awards and claw back all funds if the recipients, during the term of this award, operate any program in violation of Federal anti-discriminatory laws or engages in prohibited boycott. Internal Only
According to this leaked memo, HHS grantees that engage in DEI *AND* DEIA activities will be defunded of federal funding.
Effective immediately.
What say ye, #BigDisCo ? Y'all spent the Biden years fighting to get that "A" tacked when DEI was lucrative, so...
