ELM CITY SCHEDULES AN OPEN HOUSE FOR ALL FAMILY, FRIENDS, BOARD AND STAFF OF ELM CITY

• A open house for Elm City was held on April 15, 2002. Approximately 40 family and consumers, Board members and staff attended. The purpose of the open house is to explain the financial impact of the budget proposals on Elm City operations.  Information on how to contact legislative representatives was provided. Sample letters like the ones listed below were provided. A weekly letter will be sent to all families, Board members, and staff to keep them up on developments..

Dear Parents, Family, Staff, Board, and Friends of Elm City Center

If you have been following the news reports you know that the State of Illinois is falling almost $1.4 billion dollars short of meeting its expenses. The news reports clearly indicate that the state’s economy is its worse shape in the many years. The proposed state budget for FY 2003, which starts July 1, 2002, has a wide range of spending cuts and human services across Illinois are facing very significant funding issues. There are already numerous organizations (large and small) talking about closing their operations because they will not be able to pay their expenses.

At Elm City we are facing program cuts and cash flow issues that could extend to over $600,000. Funding for our Social Center has been eliminated and a change from a grant-funding base to purchase of service base can affect many people we have served for years. While we are a financially strong organization, these types of funding changes could have a major impact on our operations and ability to provide services to your family member.

We need your help to get our message to the legislature about the affect of these cuts. Elm City is not doing this alone. We are working with our trade association, IARF (Illinois Association of Rehabilitation Facilities) to coordinate our efforts with literally hundreds of organizations like Elm City.

What can we do?

• On April 15, 2002 Elm City will host an open house at our main campus on West Walnut in Jacksonville. Starting time is 7:00 pm and it will last until 8:30. We strongly encourage you to attend. We will go into detail about these cuts and how they may affect your family member at Elm City. Please call us at 217-245-9504 if you plan on attending.

• Write letters or meet with our legislative representatives. We will have sample letters available at the open house. These letters will also be available on the Elm City web page at www.elmcity.org. Feel free to down load them and use them. The legislative reps need to hear from you as a family member about how these cuts will impact you. They were being told by DHS that the budget will be balanced and everyone will be taken care of. At a recent Senate Appropriations hearing it was clear that the Senators on the committee had been briefed about the devastating impact that the proposed budget changes will have. The senators were asking the DHS representative very pointed questions about program closings and limiting services. They were demonstrating little faith in the positive answers they were hearing.

You need to specifically ask the legislative reps to support increasing the Medicaid match from 50% to 55%. Every 1% equals $84 million dollars Illinois can receive back from Medicaid services. Illinois is currently one of the lowest paid states in the country.