Community Alliance

04/04/2024

05/21/2022

Community Alliance is a proud member of The Olmstead Coalition.

The Olmstead Coalition is pleased to partner with the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services to create stakeholder input sessions to help shape the programs they provide. Our most recent partnership resulted in a June stakeholder input session with beneficiaries of Home Help Services. And now the department would like to get the perspective of the individual caregiver of Home Help Services.

CALL TO ACTION: We would like a representative cross-section of individual caregivers of Home Help Services in the state of Michigan. The rural and northern counties have unique perspectives that often get overlooked. We want to hear from urban and rural care providers. The stakeholder session will be a virtual meeting using Zoom.

If you are an individual caregiver (you do not work for an agency) and bill the state of Michigan directly for the Home Help care you provide to any target population (I/DD, elderly, disabled, children) please private message to Community Alliance with the following information:

Your:

1) First and Last Name

2) Phone number

3) Email address

4) The number of beneficiaries you provide Home Help care to

5) The county/counties you provide Home Help care in

This is an exciting opportunity to participate at the invitation of the State of Michigan. Let's do it!

05/21/2022

Community Alliance is a proud member of the Olmstead Coalition.

The Olmstead Coalition is pleased to partner with the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services to create stakeholder input sessions to help shape the programs they provide. Our most recent partnership resulted in a June stakeholder input session with beneficiaries of Home Help Services. And now the department would like to get the perspective of the individual caregiver of Home Help Services.

CALL TO ACTION: We would like a representative cross-section of individual caregivers of Home Help Services in the state of Michigan. The rural and northern counties have unique perspectives that often get overlooked. We want to hear from urban and rural care providers. The stakeholder session will be a virtual meeting using Zoom.

If you are an individual caregiver (you do not work for an agency) and bill the state of Michigan directly for the Home Help care you provide to any target population (I/DD, elderly, disabled, children) please private message to Community Alliance with the following information:

Your:

1) First and Last Name

2) Phone number

3) Email address

4) The number of beneficiaries you provide Home Help care to

5) The county/counties you provide Home Help care in

This is an exciting opportunity to participate at the invitation of the State of Michigan. Let's do it!

04/01/2022

Our partners at Caring Across Generations have produced videos that clearly explain what Home and Community Based Services (HCBS) are and how important they are to so many.

Enjoy and share.

Older adults and people with disabilities need freedom, support to sustain independence, and most importantly dignity. With more funding for home and communi...

03/22/2022

Higher Pay for Direct Care Workers

We hear in the media: "These are uncertain and drastic times", and yet the State of Michigan is anticipating revenues of approximately $20 billion ( $15 billion from COVID relief funds, over $5 billion from state revenues).

https://www.freep.com/story/news/politics/elections/2022/01/14/michigan-revenue-inflation-surplus-pandemic/6523973001/

It's only uncertain for nonprofits that compete with for-profit companies like McDonald's who offer $15 an hour starting pay to flip a hamburger. It's only drastic times when it comes to paying direct care workers for their hard work in the developmentally disabled community.

We need to get behind this one idea: Anytime money is put into the hands of the workers they spend it! This generates TAX REVENUES of both payroll and sales tax. It's not a hard leap to appreciate the TAX REVENUES exceeding $5 billion anticipated by the great state of Michigan when you consider that COVID relief funding from the federal government was directed to the displaced workers through unemployment benefits and the essential service workers' hourly premium pay.

Investments in people are investments in TAX REVENUE. Tax revenue creates greater GENERAL FUND DOLLARS to fund programs. It's a great cycle that needs to be put in place and repeated over and over and over again as often as necessary.

Please email or call the legislature and the Governor to increase pay for direct care workers working in Medicaid-funded programs.

The state has about $5.8B in anticipated surplus state revenues and about $15B in unspent federal stimulus and infrastructure funds, officials said.

06/26/2021

This is an excellent presentation that explains the relationship between Federal and State processes that impact the lives of people with developmental disabilities.

02/09/2021

The $2/hour Premium Pay for direct care workers has been helpful to encouraging qualified caregivers to remain with Community Alliance through this pandemic! Our team deserves to be respected and this $2 an hour moves us in that direction. Of course it could be more, but we can't afford to lose even this early improvement.

Please consider lending your voice to the Legislature and tell them to protect the $2 Premium Pay for essential workers.

Thank you

As we continue the work to secure an increase in wages for Direct Care Workers, we are gaining support from the administration and lawmakers alike. This has been accomplished through educating our lawmakers and policymakers on the essential role...

09/03/2020

It is OUR responsibility as a citizen of the United States every 10 years to stand up and be counted!

The data collected by the census determine the number of seats each state has in the U.S. House of Representatives (a process called apportionment) and is also used to distribute billions in federal funds to local communities!

If you've already completed the census survey (face to face with a person at your front door, through the mail, or online) CONGRATULATIONS and well done. If not, below are deadlines for participation.

Note: Michigan is behind in households responding to the survey at 70%. Washtenaw county is at 76% response rate. Wayne county 65%!

We need to do better than this. Our Medicaid funding, housing services, school support could be negatively impacted! Send this to folks you know...

Get Out The Count!

Census 2020

We are now in the final phase of the enumeration period, which includes self-response and non-response follow-up (NRFU). The Nonprofit 2020 campaign is employing a range of traditional and innovative outreach strategies to get the most fair and accurate count possible,

It is not too late to self-respond online (2020census.gov), over the phone, or through the paper questionnaire. The online response portal and telephone lines will shut down after September 30. All paper forms, regardless of when the household received one, must be postmarked by September 30 and received by October 7.

The Census Bureau is now publishing daily, by state, NRFU completion and “total response” rates through October 1

08/14/2020

You may be over COVID, but COVID isn't over.

Follow the guidelines. Stay home if you are immunocompromised.

We are not in the clear yet.

Avoid the 3️⃣ Cs.
There are certain places where COVID-19 spreads more easily:
1️⃣ Crowded places
2️⃣ Close-contact settings
3️⃣ Confined and enclosed spaces

07/18/2020

Caretakers are invaluable to Michigan, yet we pay them like fast food workers. We need to find ways to support them.

06/24/2020

Yes.

Essential workers in Michigan that are helping on the front lines during the coronavirus pandemic may be given the opportunity to continue their educational pursuits for free, the state's governor said Wednesday.