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West Bay Needs Your Voice! Rally at the State House: Tuesday, October 11th!

West Bay's future and the care of our community members is in dire need of your help! Starting October 1st, more than 20 percent of the state's funding has been eliminated from agencies like West Bay, that are providing developmentally disabled individuals with the support and care they deserve. The cuts are a result of the budget agreement approved by the General Assembly, and they will rob local agencies of nearly $24 million in funding. These are vital resources that are needed to give some of Rhode Island's most challenged residents the proper care and opportunities they are entitled.

For years, we have dealt with more and more cuts, and now we are in jeopardy of having to shut our doors. We need you to help tell our local leaders that enough is enough!

Join us for a special rally at 4:00PM on Tuesday, October 11th at the Rhode Island State House. West Bay supporters, staff, and family members should invite their friends and relatives too. We need to show local policymakers that there are no more cuts to be made! Please make the time to join us - the future of West Bay and those we support is riding on it!

DiMarco: "There's not much more we can cut"

For the past two years, West Bay's Executive Director John DiMarco has worked around the clock to find creative ways to cut costs from the agency's operating budget. The state continues to cut funding for West Bay and others that serve Rhode Island's developmentally disabled community, but DiMarco has found a means for West Bay to make sacrifices without compromising the care and services they provide. (All this, in addition to having to rebuild West Bay's offices after last year's historic floods destroyed their main headquarters and day services facility in Warwick.)

However, as DiMarco told the Warwick Beacon last week, we are getting to a point where, "There's not much more we can cut." More emphatically, he warned that if the cuts continue, West Bay may "be out of business in 14 to 16 months." DiMarco's comments enforce the need for West Bay's supporters and families to participate in Tuesday's rally against the additional funding cuts. To see the full Warwick Beacon piece, click here.

Your Call Can Make a Difference!

Despite the imminent funding decreases, West Bay is hopeful that further cuts can be avoided through Governor Chafee's intervention and additional conversations with local legislators.  Recently, West Bay families met with several legislators to explain how the upcoming cuts would drastically impact the services West Bay provides. Many of those policymakers also visited West Bay homes to meet with members of our community. We are extremely grateful for their time, and a call from you to thank them could go a long way to ensuring that more decreases are avoided. Those legislators who visited a West Bay site include:

Rep. Michael Chippendale: 401-497-4495
Rep. Frank Ferri: 401-737-5113 
Rep. Robert Jacquard: 401-943-7799
Rep. David Bennett: 401-648-1171 
Sen. William Walaska: 401-737-1065
Sen. Glen Shibley: 401-222-2708
Sen. Josh Miller: 401-276-5582

It's also important that Governor Chafee continue to hear from West Bay supporters about the need to rectify these funding issues. For that reason, we would ask our supporters to call Governor Chafee's office directly and encourage him to intervene and stop the additional cuts that may force West Bay and other agencies to shut their doors. Governor Chafee can be reached at (401) 222-2080.