Description: brown medium length hair, brown earrings, grey jacket, white woman with blue background Good afternoon MSAD community, I’m Stephanie Clark, MSAD President. MSAD would like to update the community on MSAD’s position with the Massachusetts Commission for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing budget for FY ’24. Commissioner Sotonwa shared MCDHH’s proposed FY ’24 operating budget which is 9.9 million dollars. This is 16% more than MCDHH’s FY ’23 Appropriations Act. Which means 1.4 million dollars more to MCDHH’s budget. Examples of additional new services is the following: • More funding for Interpreter training in legal settings • Develop training for interpreters and CART to provide linguistically and culturally competent services with more diversity • After Hours Emergency services • Hire more Children Specialist case managers • Hire more staff for Communication Access Training and Technology There is more, you can access Commissioner Sotonwa’s testimony last Tuesday, March 21st at the Joint Committee on Ways and Means hearing at Fitchburg, Mass. Go to this website and go to 2:22 – 2:52 https://malegislature.gov/Events/Hearings/Detail/4463 for more details about the budget. MSAD is in support of MCDHH’s new budget plan for FY ’24 however MSAD is concerned that Deaf Senior Citizens are missing from this plan. MCDHH currently has Adult Case Management services however there is a need for specialized Case Management services and other services for Deaf, Hard of Hearing, DeafBlind, Late-Deafened, and DeafBlind Senior Citizens here in Massachusetts. There are many issues that need to be addressed to ensure that our Deaf Senior Citizens are getting services from qualified professionals who are fluent in ASL and culturally competent to provide direct services. Many Deaf Senior Citizens are living isolated and/or not have the right support. Under the leadership of MSAD Board member, Eveleen Cunningham, there is a group of Deaf Senior Citizens who have been meeting and discussing an action plan for Deaf Senior Citizens services statewide. This group will meet next week to advise MSAD as to what the next steps are i.e., send a letter to the Joint Committee on Ways and Means to increase the budget for MCDHH to ensure that there is a plan for Deaf Senior Citizens in FY ’24 or work with the Elder Affairs directly to develop a plan. Once MSAD gets recommendations from our Deaf Senior Citizens community members, we will write a formal letter to support MCDHH’s budget with additional recommendations for a budget increase to address and meet our community’s Deaf Seniors’ needs. If you would like more information or be involved, please contact Eveleen Cunningham at Eveleen64@gmail.com Thank you