60th Anniversary of Arc of Baltimore

October 21, 2009

 

Good evening and thank you for extending the invitation to join all of you for such a happy celebration. And as I understand it, tonight’s event is just the beginning of a year-long celebration – a celebration that will include a Celebrity Golf Tournament, a forum on disability policies, and a handful of other activities.

So as you begin that celebration, let me extend my congratulations on 60 phenomenal years. For sixty years, you have made your mission a reality. You have fought “to ensure that people with developmental disabilities have maximum opportunities to actively participate in all aspects of community life and to offer programs and services that support them in doing so.”

And that mission isn’t very different from the mission Governor O’Malley and I have articulated.
Ours is a mission to expand opportunity to all Marylanders – especially the most vulnerable among us. And it’s a mission that has grown from our belief in the dignity of every individual, by the belief that there is no such thing as a spare Marylander, and by our understanding that what we choose to do in the short time we are here matters.

It’s because of these beliefs that we made the decision to close the Rosewood Center – moving residents from an institutional to a community setting – a move that has given residents far greater independence than they ever had at Rosewood. And I want to personally thank the Arc for providing support and resources for 129 of those former Rosewood residents.

And these beliefs are why we support programs like Project SEARCH – a national model for providing individuals with disabilities exciting and innovative work, as well as career development programs.

I applaud all of you who are part of this program and all of you who have helped make it possible: Arc of Baltimore, University of Maryland Baltimore and Baltimore County Public Schools.

And I’d like to take a moment to announce a new $150,000 two-year grant expansion for this project.

Since we took office three years ago, Governor O’Malley and I have lent our support to a number of initiatives that expand opportunities for Marylanders with disabilities. We increased funding for the Maryland Infants and Toddlers Programs by $4.6 million – bringing our total funding to $10.4 million.

We signed the Fitness and Athletics Equity Act for Students with Disabilities – requiring that all Maryland public schools allow students with disabilities to try out for sports teams and offer adaptive physical education.

We’ve dedicated more than $2 million to our Division of Rehabilitation Services so that when students with disabilities graduate from high school, they will have the access to the employment services they need.

We’re working with advocates and lawmakers to ensure that Marylanders with disabilities never have to choose between work and healthcare. So we support the Maryland Employed Individuals with Disabilities Program which extends Medicaid health benefits to working Marylanders with disabilities. This program saw a 93 percent increase in enrollment from 2007 to 2008.

And in July, Governor O’Malley signed an Executive Order proclaiming October as Disability History and Awareness Month across Maryland.

I’d like to take a minute to recognize the Maryland Department of Disabilities, the Maryland State Department of Education and the Maryland Higher Education Commission for leading our efforts to create greater awareness and support for people with disabilities during October.

We’re proud of the support we’ve been able to provide and we’re proud of the shared challenges we’ve tackled together. But still, we know that we can do more. We know that there is progress that can still be made.

These difficult economic times are making it harder and harder for us to make greater progress. But that doesn’t make our commitment any less important; it doesn’t mean we can put our efforts on hold. During this national recession, it is more important today than ever that we protect the progress we’ve made.

Since we took office, Governor O’Malley and I have cut state spending by more than $4.3 billion and our current budget is today literally smaller than the budget from three years ago. We’ve eliminated 3,200 state positions. We’ve had to make the difficult decision to furlough state employees. And we had to reduce local aid by more than $200 million.

When we sat down to make these cuts, we did it with an eye to protect our greatest priorities. We’ve protected full funding for public education and invested record dollars in school construction. We’ve made college and community college more affordable.

We’ve protected investments in training and vocational programs for working families and other individuals in our state. And we were able to protect the Developmental Disabilities Administration from cuts during some of the five rounds of budget cuts to date.

Still, I understand that cuts to the disability community have been difficult and painful. But please understand that the cuts we’ve made have not been easy. I can attest personally to the anguish Governor O’Malley felt during each and every one of our budget meetings when Secretary Foster told us we needed to cut funding for program after program.

But perhaps fittingly, these difficult times have shown us what’s best about our dynamic communities. We have seen families and organizations do more with less and the value of partnership has skyrocketed. And those partnerships are on display tonight.

I’d like to personally salute The Arc of Baltimore and the Baltimore Business Journal for their shared leadership, and I’d like to be the first to commend each of the Employer of Distinction honorees for making a commitment to this dynamic community.

Again, I thank you for inviting me to be a part of this historic celebration. On behalf of Governor O’Malley and all Marylanders, I wish you the best of luck during this anniversary year and look forward to watching you celebrate another 60 years of success.

Thank you very much.

 

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