They used their training and voices to impact Maryland’s FY 25/26 budget decisions.

For many years Penn-Mar has joined hundreds of advocates, families, and fellow providers traveling to Annapolis for Developmental Disabilities (DD) Day at the Legislature to lend its voice about disability rights and other issues that are important to people with developmental disabilities and their families.

With the advent of COVID in 2020, the organization elected to participate in the event via ZOOM for the convenience and safety and to ensure a broader representation of its team members and self-advocates. At the recent February 13 event, the Penn-Mar coalition virtually attended seven different meetings with legislators with the opportunity to express their concerns.

“We have found this format to be incredible,” said Tina Chan Sweenie, Associate Director of Development and Volunteer and Donor Engagement. “It has allowed us a more concentrated amount of time with legislators, and we can include more people we support in the confines of the virtual space. It gives them a comfort level to speak about budget cuts and different policies.”

The stakes at this year’s DD Day were high: There was the possibility of $664 million worth of state and federal DDA funding cuts, including the elimination of the $5 million Low Intensity Support Services (LISS) program managed by Penn-Mar and another provider.

This staggering figure would have been the equivalent of a 22 percent overall 2025/26 budget deduction stemming from the state’s structural deficits of some $3 billion.

Back in 2020, Penn-Mar Community Supports Day Program Manager, Central/MD Line, Jennifer Hisey, started an impactful curriculum at the MD Day Learning Center to educate the people Penn-Mar supports to become self-advocates.

The self-advocates focused on learning about the disability rights movement and how it connected to the civil rights movement. Participants spent one month on each topic and learned about the impact movements such as these can have on change.

In 2023 the group partnered with Maryland’s People on the Go, an organization run by people with disabilities for people with disabilities. They conducted an 8-week training course for Penn-Mar on self-advocacy and what it means to be a self-advocate. This led to the creation of a Self-Advocacy Club at the Central Day Learning Center.

In 2024 Jennifer challenged DSP Amanda Destefani to focus on helping the participants learn how to contact their lawmakers and representatives and to be aware of the different policy changes that directly affected them. “We are also in the process of helping them to register to vote so that they can actually have a voice to say, ‘Hey this is not OK’ if the circumstances warrant it,” said Jennifer.

Three months before the 2025 DD Day event, DSP Treena Banks joined the group of self-advocates who were then meeting weekly. “When they became fully aware of what was at stake with the budget cuts, they became more interested in being involved,” said Treena.

The self-advocates wrote 18 personal letters to Maryland Governor Moore prior to DD Day asking him to reconsider the budget cuts and gave examples of how the cuts would personally impact their lives:

“Life would be a lot harder if we didn’t have our DSPs.”

“My DSP helps me with making decisions that can be hard to make alone. She’s like family and I would be sad if she wasn’t here to help me.”

“My favorite people are my DSPs. They keep me safe and happy all day. “

“I can go to my DSPs for anything. They are concerned for me when I am in pain. They make things more enjoyable for me.”

“Worst of all, I would have limited opportunity for employment without DDA funding.”

Penn-Mar was proud to have been part of the advocacy effort led by the Maryland Association of Community Services (MACS) and our group of self-advocates were gratified to play a small part in the larger discussion to help protect the approximately $1 billion that was restored to the DDA budget.

“The impact and beauty of having an advocacy group in place is that you are ready for the moment,” said Tina. “The constant conversations about advocacy and why it is so important has illustrated that you can in fact effect change when you are proactive and have a good understanding of what budget cuts can do to your personal services.”