L'Arche GWDC

March 20, 2025

Dear Community,

As L’Arche Greater Washington, D.C., we are committed to sharing the gifts of people with intellectual disabilities and working together toward a more human society. Our mission requires that we, as a community, actively and urgently support the rights of people with intellectual disabilities to live full lives, receive affordable and quality care, and widely share their unique gifts and talents. We are all people committed to a mission of justice and care for each other, we need to stand together to protect the rights of our core members, and all people with intellectual disabilities in the United States, to live and receive services in their own homes with quality support.

In recent weeks, $880 billion of cuts to essential programs, such as Medicaid and Medicare, were approved. The DC budget was only saved at the last minute by the Senate. These budget cuts, if enacted, would impact our core members and many Americans with intellectual disabilities across the United States: Medicaid directly funds community-based services for people with intellectual disabilities, allowing them to receive services in the community instead of in more restrictive environments like hospitals and institutions.

Medicaid dollars pay our assistants, and many caregivers around the U.S., for providing essential care so that people with intellectual disabilities can receive their medications, enjoy activities in the community, visit friends and family, and go to doctor’s appointments, all while living in the homes and communities they choose.

We want to emphasize that this Medicaid funding, already, is not sufficient to fully create the quality of life that L’Arche believes all people with intellectual disabilities are entitled to as human beings with unique and sacred value – The current Medicaid reimbursement rates already do not allow L’Arche to pay our assistants a living wage without additional fundraising. Further cuts to Medicaid impact the wages L’Arche GWDC and other providers of disability services can pay our caregivers, making high-quality disability support harder to sustain. Substantial cuts to the Medicaid budget will directly impact the people with intellectual disabilities who we are deeply committed to empowering and championing, as our mission directs.

We are asking you, as a member of our community, to please reach out to your Senators and Representatives to ask them to reject Medicaid cuts and protect services for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities. We invite you to join our advocacy efforts and those of L’Arche across the US by using the Advocacy Toolkits created by our partners at ANCOR and The Arc of the United States to contact your local representatives today: The Arc of the United States – https://action.thearc.org/EM1941O

As this situation unfolds, we will continue to update you and call upon you to act- thank you for your support and care.

Sincerely,
Alice Felker, Director of Human Services & Advocacy
Luke Smith, Community Leader | Executive Director