ADAPT is pleased to host the Community Choice Act Introduction Kick Off Event on March 24, 2009 at 2:30 PM in 430 Dirksen Senate Office Building. Mike Oxford of Kansas ADAPT will moderate the event where Senator Tom Harkin and Congressman Danny Davis will announce that they have introduced the Community Choice Act in the 111th Congress.

The Community Choice Act gives people real choice in long term care options. This legislation ends the institutional bias in the Medicaid program by giving individuals who are eligible for nursing facility services or other institutional "care" equal access to community-based services and supports, like attendant services. Disability rights activists from across the country will be participating in person and by phone in the event which celebrates the introduction of this important legislation.

Other speakers will include:

Dawn Russell, ADAPT

Andy Imparato, American Association of Persons with Disabilities (AAPD)

Marty Ford, Coalition of Citizens with Disabilities (CCD)

John Lancaster, National Council on Independent Living (NCIL)

Victor Robinson, Self Advocates Becoming Empowered (SABE)

Mitch LaPlante, University of California, San Francisco