Thursday, Nov 21st, ADAPT chapters from Ohio, Michigan, Wisconsin, Indiana, Illinois and other disability activists rallied 75 strong in front of the Office of Civil Rights (OCR) for the Department of Health and Human Services in Chicago. This demonstration was part of a national call to get OCR to enforce the Supreme Court's Olmstead Decision. Most states have been dragging their feet on implementing the Integration Mandate of the Americans with Disability Act as interpreted in the Olmstead Decision. The institutional bias that lets states spend 80% of their financial resources on institutions and nursing homes and less than 20% on home and community services continues to oppress people with disabilities and senior citizens. There are tens of thousands of people in nursing homes in this region that want to live in their own homes but are not able to because the system is stacked against them.

At noon, despite the rain and the cold, the demonstration kicked off with the protesters chanting, "Our Homes, Not Nursing Homes" "Living in Our Homes is Our Civil Right". Many people had signs and as we circled in front of the high rise office tower we nearly blocked the building and gave out hundreds of leaflets. During this time people had a chance to talk to media, a camera man from ABC Channel 7 interviewed a spokesperson and the Medill News Service interviewed many participants. Some media coverage reached the papers the next day.

At 12:45 a delegation or negotiating team representing all the states attending and all the groups in Illinois that were there such as Progress Center, Will Grundy CIL, SEIU Local 880 and Access Living went up with the groups demands. The demands included: 1. demand that CMS (Center for Medicaid and Medicare Services) institute a policy of the "funding following the individual" to redirect money to home and community services 2. direct Tom Scully, head official at CMS develop a national marketing campaign to promote home and community options 3. demand that OCR National Director, Richard Campanelli, enforce "the most integrated setting" provisions of Olmstead by cracking down on state violations of this civil rights decision. 4. demand that OCR stop turning systemic Olmstead violations into individual complaints that are often easily settled to the detriment of the thousands left behind. 5. Insist that the OCR National Director meet with ADAPT 6. Demand that a regional meeting be held between the OCR Region V office and disability rights activists from all the states in Region V

After an hour and a half meeting, the negotiating team came back to announce that they had a heated but productive discussion with the Regional Director, Lisa Simeone, and her staff. While OCR had tried to state many time that "their hands were tied" the delegation insisted that they do their job and enforce the civil rights laws on the books. Olmstead was decided 3 1/2 years ago and this long delay is unacceptable as people are needlessly dieing and suffering from abused and neglected in nursing homes and institutions. We demanded real enforcement not phony settlements. The OCR office had agreed to fax the demands that were directed at the national officials to them and agreed to a regional meeting to be held on December 19th.

Because of the cold and rain, the protest ended with most the protesters hearing the announcement of the successful meeting in the lobby of the OCR office building from the regional delegation. People agreed that it had been powerful to work together as a region and that we looked forward to the regional meeting in December to start pushing the OCR into doing their job.

Tom Wilson, Chicago ADAPT