We Did it! Unite for Change for the Next Round!

I am thrilled to report that my Idea for Change to Fully Fund the Medicaid Waiver Program and create portability of waivers has made it to the next round of voting on Change.org.

We placed 16th out of 7,783 ideas - and did it even though we started later than most of the other ideas. You can see here where we are.

But we have a NEXT round of voting to prove that Funding Medicaid Waivers is one of the top 10 Ideas for Change in America. And we need to unite to get the word out to VOTE beginning January 5. Voting will end on January 15 so that is not much time.

Now I am going to ask everyone to start preparing for round 2. Build your circle of contacts so that you can send messages to hundreds of people at a time to vote. We are probably going to need to get at least 2500 votes to place in the top 10 - maybe even more than that. But there are 300,000 families on waiting lists in America so we should be able to do it, right?

Here is what is at stake for us:

On January 16th, Change.org will co-host an event at the National Press Club in Washington, DC to announce the top 10 rated ideas and our plans for supporting the formation of a national advocacy campaign behind each idea in collaboration with our nonprofit partners. The top 10 ideas will also be presented to President Obama on inauguration day.

Here's what you can do:

Individuals can:
1. Join a NEW internet support group (or more!). Start with:
Parent to Parent - http://www.p2pusa.org/
Yahoo Groups - http://yahoogroups.com - search for the largest groups you can find and join them. Make sure some are disability related but also join some general interest group. Start participating in the group NOW, so that you can feel comfortable sending a message about voting later.
Moms Like Me - http://www.momslikeme.com
2. Do some Google research to locate groups and organizations that will be interested in voting. Find contacts (preference is by name) and prepare to send them a personal email about what is happening.
3. Contact your local newspaper and tell them about waiting lists and our national Change effort. Point them to the site to read the stories from all over the country.
4. Think about your circle of influence - clubs, church, Linked-in, Myspace, Facebook, PTCO, coworkers, networking groups. Do you have email addresses - or can you get them? Write your own letter to the editor and make sure to include how to vote.
5. Friends and family - who do they know? Start asking now!
6. Do you belong to the national organization associated with your child's condition? If not, join now!

Organizations Can:
1. Get prepared to send out mass emails to your membership.
2. Contact all service providers you know.
3. Contact associations.
4. Contact your national organization if you have one.
5. Contact newspapers. Do press releases and letters to the editor.
6. Post the widget for voting on your web site, blogs, Myspace, Facebooks.
7. Find other contacts in other states and reach out to them.
8. Contact the Chamber of Commerce you belong to and ask for their help.

I will be posting sample messages you can send to people once I have all the info from Change.org.

We can do this!