Miss-Delectable
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Deaf-blind community fights to hold on to funding for support personnel | Local News | KING5.com | News for Seattle, Washington
SEATTLE – An agency that serves people who are both deaf and blind is ready to fight for its budget, even against much larger departments and agencies.
The Deaf Blind Service Center (DBSC) serves 120 clients with its $250,000 budget. But proposed cuts to that budget could mean reducing the availability of Support Service Providers (SSPs).
aj Granda (sic) is a single mom whose SSP helps her grocery shop, pay bills and buy supplies for her handbag business. She receives his help just four precious hours a month. Rationing those hours is tough, especially in an emergency. aj’s credit card was recently stolen.
"The other day I had to go to the bank to figure out the situation with the stolen bank card. That took three of my four hours allotted for the month," she said.
DBSC Executive Director Jelica Nuccio says the budget is still vulnerable and the small, determined deaf blind community will have to lobby hard to protect it. Any reduction would mean cuts to the Service Provider program, which already has 40 people on its waiting list. It could also mean fewer phones and special computers that keep clients connected.
"If this money is cut, this impacts us even more. It limits our access to information, to choices," said Nuccio.
Granda says part of the challenge is letting lawmakers know the deaf blind community even exists. She says SSPs help them lobby along with the "big boys."
"We are a small community and as a result we’re not able to have as big a voice," she says. "The SSPs keep us in the game."
SEATTLE – An agency that serves people who are both deaf and blind is ready to fight for its budget, even against much larger departments and agencies.
The Deaf Blind Service Center (DBSC) serves 120 clients with its $250,000 budget. But proposed cuts to that budget could mean reducing the availability of Support Service Providers (SSPs).
aj Granda (sic) is a single mom whose SSP helps her grocery shop, pay bills and buy supplies for her handbag business. She receives his help just four precious hours a month. Rationing those hours is tough, especially in an emergency. aj’s credit card was recently stolen.
"The other day I had to go to the bank to figure out the situation with the stolen bank card. That took three of my four hours allotted for the month," she said.
DBSC Executive Director Jelica Nuccio says the budget is still vulnerable and the small, determined deaf blind community will have to lobby hard to protect it. Any reduction would mean cuts to the Service Provider program, which already has 40 people on its waiting list. It could also mean fewer phones and special computers that keep clients connected.
"If this money is cut, this impacts us even more. It limits our access to information, to choices," said Nuccio.
Granda says part of the challenge is letting lawmakers know the deaf blind community even exists. She says SSPs help them lobby along with the "big boys."
"We are a small community and as a result we’re not able to have as big a voice," she says. "The SSPs keep us in the game."