This year, 2023, marks the 50th Anniversary of the Minnesota Council on Disability (MCD). For fifty years, MCD has served as the state’s disability Policy, Training, and Technical Resource. Charged with advising the Governor, state agencies, the state legislature, and the public, we have successfully advocated for disability rights and more inclusive public policy.
To commemorate fifty years of work, we want to make sure to keep the focus where it belongs: people with disabilities in Minnesota.
The MCD Legacy Funding bill (SF 3052 – Hoffman) enables us to document the expansion of disability rights in Minnesota by digitizing and archiving our own records and other media. The funding would also allow us to document and archive the many stories of resiliency and Disability Pride from people with disabilities across the state, with a focus on rural Minnesota.
As MCD Chairperson Nikki Villavicencio noted in her testimony supporting the bill, “To some, we are the invisible culture.”
View the Senate testimony for SF 3052 (Video).
How You Can Help
The MCD Legacy request was funded Senate; however, we need your support for a companion bill in the House of Representatives. Please contact Representative Leon Lillie with a request to fund the MCD request with a direct appropriation. Members of the House Legacy Committee:
- Chair Leon Lillie
- Vice Chair Samakab Hussein
- Minority Lead Jeff Backer
- Representative Ethan Cha
- Representative Leigh Finke
- Representative Josh Heintzeman
- Representative Kaohly Vang Her
- Representative Fue Lee
- Representative Brian Pfarr
- Representative Roger Skraba
- Representative Samantha Vang
The Senate funds this request in the Senate Legacy Omnibus Bill; please alert Chair Foung Hawj and the other Senate Legacy committee members to continue their strong support and to maintain their position in Conference Committee. MCD thanks Senator John Hoffman for authoring SF 3052 and we thank Chair Foung Hawj for including the MCD Legacy funding in the Senate Legacy Omnibus Bill.
With your support and advocacy, you can help us ensure people with disabilities do not remain invisible. Contact your legislator and ask them to support SF 3052. Join us we set the groundwork for another fifty years of disability advocacy.
Letter of Support Template
Dear Representative/Senator NAME,
I am writing to you with an urgent request to include the Minnesota Council on Disability legacy funding request (SF 3052/HF XXXX) in both the House and the Senate. The funding is included in the Senate Legacy Omnibus bill and we strongly encourage you to keep the funding in the bill and through Conference Committee.
We also ask that you include the Minnesota Council on Disability’s legacy funding in the House to capture stories across the state of Minnesotans with disabilities, their history, their culture, and the state’s progress over the last 50 years. I believe this is a key part of the legacy and culture of Minnesota and the disability community’s experiences need to be documented and historical materials become digitized.
Please support SF 3052 in both the House and the Senate Legacy Committees to help give recognition to half a century of disability history in Minnesota as we look to the future.
Sincerely,
FIRST LAST NAME
ADDRESS