Valentine’s Day is a time to show your love to those you hold dear. This year, people supported by AHRC Nassau Day Services took it one step further by crafting Valentine’s Day letters to Governor Kathy Hochul urging her support for a 3.2% Cost of Living Adjustment (COLA) as well as a Direct Support Wage Enhancement (DSWE) for disability support service providers.

AHRC’s activity development team led the project that involved people supported in nine of our day services sites in Hicksville and Freeport. Site managers and direct support professionals (DSP) assisted people supported in crafting the letters, helping them gather supplies and providing hand-over-hand support to those who needed it.

“We had around twelve participants interested in sending letters to the governor. They enjoy doing arts and crafts and had fun creating the letters and delivering them to the post office,” said Danielle Robinson, Manager of the Hicksville Day Service Site.

Jeanie-Lee Saletto, who has received day services at the Hicksville location for over ten years, was particularly excited to contribute to the project.

She loves arts and crafts and took the lead in acquiring the supplies to create the letters, a task that aligned well with her role as the treasurer for the site.

With the help of the site DSPs and Managers, Jeanie handles the money collected to cover supplies for holiday parties and activities like the Valentine’s Day letter project. Due to the careful guidance of staff, Jeanie now independently handles money and initiates transactions at checkout while shopping with staff.

Between the nine sites, they collected dozens of letters and mailed them out to Governor Hochul as a loving display of activism.

Now it’s your turn! Click here to send your letter to representatives requesting support for a 3.2% COLA and DSWE for disability care providers.

Visit our advocacy center to learn more ways to get involved and take action.