Community FORCE

Every student deserves to learn with their peers. Oregon public schools returned to in person learning last spring. However, across the state, hundreds of students with disabilities have yet to access full time school with their siblings and classmates.
Please take a moment to let your legislators know this matters and urge them to move it forward. It MUST be scheduled for a work session on Monday!

ADVOCACY ALERT! Urgent Action Needed to Protect Educational Rights of Children with Disabilities in Oregon! Please send ONE EMAIL to urge key state legislators to move Senate Bill 1578A forward! Details featured in the GO! Bulletin: https://conta.cc/3sUreeL

Visit codsn.org for on going support, thank you.

The life-altering effects of COVID-19 have been tougher on people with intellectual and developmental disabilities than just about anyone else and they need more support, experts warn.

COVID-19 Disproportionately Impacting Those With Developmental Disabilities

Happy Labor Day! Your tireless work inspires our work too! - Vanessa

Attention Baker County District 5j Families!

If you received this letter FILL IT OUT! This is important to the special education departments budget and could really help in providing health-related services to our kids!!

Disappointing news. This directly impacts COMMUNITY FORCE. But nevertheless we remain available. Please continue to reach out to us for any resources.

Stay healthy and unwavering.

-Vanessa

An Important Budget Update on Family Networks

Dear Advocates,

Family peer support is vital, and changes lives.

The Oregon Consortium of Family Networks began as an idea 9 years ago. The idea was simple: provide some infrastructure and support to networks of families, and they would go on to change local communities for the better. The idea was a huge success and has grown to a network of more than 12,000 families across Oregon.

Sadly, the Coronavirus pandemic has meant very hard financial times for Oregonians as well as Oregon's state budget. As a result, the state funding that supported these networks of families was cut and will end in just a few months. The Council will continue to support these organizations as they pursue other sources of funding. In the meantime, please join us in looking within our communities and relying on each other to ensure this work continues.

We're in this together, and when our communities come together, we make amazing things happen. Our community fought hard to preserve this funding, and our fight for this work is not over. I'm eager to see what we do next.

Sincerely,

Beth Kessler
Interim Director
Oregon Council on Developmental Disabilities