ADAPT Confronts AARP:
“Put your money where your mouth is!”
 (WASHINGTON DC, March 24, 2004) ADAPT challenged the AARP to backup the rhetoric they generate on independence and choice by openly supporting MiCASSA and Money Follows the Person legislation. ADAPT members carrying copies of the AARP publication “Beyond Fifty,” returned them at the front door of the office asking that AARP do something to support the long-term care philosophy represented in the book.
“AARP uses our words to describe freedom and choice,” said Rene Ford of Memphis ADAPT, “we are just asking them to put their money where their mouth is.”
The ADAPT Community wrote a letter to the director of the AARP Bill Novelli asking for “a meeting with you … to discuss critical issues that will promote the independence, integration and inclusion of people with disabilities and older Americans in our country.” At the front entrance to the AARP headquarters on the corner of Sixth and E Street in downtown Washington DC, Barbara Toomer of Utah ADAPT read the letter to those assembled.
“Seniors of America need to receive services when and where they choose,” said Cecil Walker of Kansas ADAPT. “It will makes us both more powerful and will benefit the members of AARP.”
ADAPT activists tossed their copies of the AARP publication into a pile at the front door of the building as a demonstration that expect the advocacy group to support the things they say. ADAPT activists had spent the week building support for MiCASSA and Money Follows the Person legislation in Congress, the visit to the offices of AARP cap an exceptionally productive week.
“The AARP needs to support MiCASSA because age is not a qualification for a nursing home,” said Randy Alexander of Memphis ADAPT, “it is a disability.”
 An AARP representative spoke to the assemble crowd and said that he would personally give the letter to Novelli. He also thanked members of ADAPT for showing up and pledged to continue the good working relationship that the two groups have shared over the past years. The representative also informed the crowd that the AARP board had developed a new “Social Impact Plan.” He explains the plan:
The gist of that plan is that as people age they will have the independence, choice and control over their lives that they want in a way that is meaningful and affordable to them and that they stay in the community as they choose.
The police provided escort, stopping traffic on some of the most crowded streets in the Capitol and made no
attempt to block ADAPT’s progress. ADAPT marched back to the hotel after a week of solid work. The return trip was a stark contradiction to the first march to the White House Ellipse that ADAPT had made. That march was into the bitter cold and freezing wind, while today’s march was bright, clear and comfortable.
TEXT OF THE LETTER TO BILL NOVELLI
March 24, 2004
Dear Mr. Novelli,
ADAPT requests a meeting with you by July 4, 2004, to discuss critical issues that will promote the independence, integration and inclusion of people with disabilities and older Americans in our country. ADAPT has met with your staff in the past to develop an ongoing cooperative working relationship with both the national and state affiliate AARP organizations.
Though there has been some forward movement, AARP continues to decline to actively support MiCASSA and other Olmstead related initiatives that directly impact our combined constituencies. While your recent publication, 50 Years of Independent Living, is philosophically supportive of these issues, we need more direct action at both the national and state levels. The agenda we are proposing for our meeting is to discuss how we can actively work together to secure protections in law for people with disabilities and older Americans, and how we can positively develop our relationship with one another.
Please respond to Barbara Toomer, by April 30, 2004.
We look forward to meeting with you and finding ways to partner on issues of mutual concern.
Sincerely,
The ADAPT Community
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