On May 13 at 11:30 a.m. there will be a People’s Town Hall Meeting at the Horizon Convention Center at 401 S. High St. in downtown Muncie. The purpose of this meeting is to try and help those who have lost their Medicaid benefits or food stamps. Many agencies will be there to assist victims of the new “Welfare Modernization System.” If you know people who need some help to survive this attack on a system that is supposed to help poor disadvantaged and disabled people tell them about this meeting.
On April 22, nearly 200 people criticized the new Indiana Family Social Services Administration’s attempt to modernize the welfare system. All of these people complained about how difficult it was trying to cope with the new system. Some of this testimony was reported in The Herald Bulletin by Brandi Watters on April 23. A few days later The Herald Bulletin published an editorial criticizing the new system that is being run by IBM as not being ready. The editorial said the system is flawed and needs to be fixed.
The editorial went on to say, “First the state must ensure that no one loses benefits or has them reduced. Gov. Daniels must intervene to fix this system, possibly by temporarily postponing the life-threatening decisions about benefits.” This is what the sponsors of our meeting called upon Gov. Daniels to do at a March 12 press conference at the Indiana Statehouse. Hopefully somebody will get his ear before too many more people have to suffer at the hands of this new system.
This meeting at the UAW Hall on 29th and Madison Avenue in Anderson was sponsored by Madison County Triad, United Senior Action, the Alliance for Retired Americans and Hoosiers First. After the testimony, those people who felt that they were being victimized by this new system were invited to come up to the panel and get advice on what to do next. Among the panel were several attorneys and others with experience working with the disabled and disadvantaged.
Triad is trying to revitalize the Senior Link program that was started when Ed Leonard was Anderson police chief. Under Chief Leonard we had five Anderson police officers who helped Triad check on the safety and welfare of seniors. Triad furnished the volunteer side of the program and Bob Highsmith was our Senior Link coordinator. In the past four years the APD’s role was diminished because their participation was more on an emergency basis. Senior Link was developed as a pro-active crime prevention program that evolved into a typical police reactive program.
Under APD Chief Sparks and Sgt. Boulware, Senior Link is trying to develop into an improved partnership between APD and Triad. One thing that Triad needs is volunteers who would go through some training in police investigation and reporting procedures. If you are interested in working with the Anderson Police Department and Triad, please call Bob Highsmith, at (765) 622-9631.
We also need your help in trying to find Madison County Korean War Veterans. On May 24 at the Pendleton Public Library we will have a ceremony honoring those who fought for our country in Korea. Contact Arlene Shannon at (765) 778-7527 or 778-0936. Too many times those who have risked their lives for our freedom go unnoticed. We would like to get together and tell them thanks.
Dennis Lanane is chairman of Madison County Triad. He can be reached by e-mail at qparadigm@iquest.net.
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