An End of Year Message from Acting Commissioner Willow Baer

As we approach the end of 2024, I reflect on our progress toward meeting the most important goals of growing our direct care workforce, amplifying self-advocates' and families' voices, and delivering services effectively and efficiently to the people who depend on them most.

Our work is ongoing and we rely upon the support of each one of you to fulfill our shared mission: helping people with developmental disabilities live richer lives. So many of you were responsible for our progress during 2024 and will continue to be integral to our continued work as we move into 2025 and beyond.

First and foremost, thank you to the self-advocates and family advocates who share their stories and challenges with us, helping us evolve the vision of the agency year after year and inspiring us to do better. It is because of your input and persistence this year that we:

• Created a new Advocacy Service Office staffed with a network of trained peer specialists who will act as resources and advocates for people and their families
  as they navigate our programs to ensure they get the services they want and need
• Launched New York's new statewide Ombuds Program to provide education and to objectively hear and act on people's concerns with our service system.
• Brought formal Plain Language review to our agency with the help of the Self-Advocacy Association of New York State to make our communications more accessible to everyone.
• Launched the "Accessing Life" podcast, which is led by people with lived experience so that the voices of people with developmental disabilities could be heard and amplified.
• Updated our agency's 5-Year Strategic Plan to further reflect what you told us you want for yourselves from our service system.

Thank you also to our incredible network of provider partners and their dedicated direct care staff who work day in and day out to ensure the very best services are offered to people with developmental disabilities statewide. In my first six months as Acting Commissioner, I have been honored to visit so many of your programs and am continually amazed by your commitment, your innovation, your creativity, and your dedication to this system. Your partnership this year helped to:

• Elevate the DSP profession with 41 service providers participating in the National Alliance for Direct Support Professionals(NADSP) microcredentialing program to enable DSPs to enhance their skills and build a true career path by earning expanded credentials.
• Add and keep more DSPs in our ranks through your participation in the joint state-voluntary recruitment campaign #MoreThanWork with 127 providers onboard since its March launch.
• Diversify our system by helping to communicate our shared work with Georgetown University National Center for Cultural Competency to ensure it is equitable and inclusive of all backgrounds for the people it serves and employs.
• Support competitive employment of people with developmental disabilities through partnership with New York's businesses and organizations, including those who have signed our EmployAbility inclusive workforce pledge.

Last, but certainly not least, I am so grateful to my dedicated and hardworking agency staff, who support the service system every day through policy development, administrative and quality oversight, processing eligibility and referrals, providing language access services, delivering direct care and clinical support, and so much more. This year my incredible team:

• Opened six Certified Adult Transitional Homes to provide time-limited intensive services for people with complex behavioral needs, to prepare them to succeed in less-restrictive community -based settings.
• Created award-winning New Front Door Videos in multiple languages through our Ensuring Access grant to improve the intake process.
• Partnered with external experts to issue a Managed Care Evaluation Final report and a survey on our self-direction program.
• Released new data dashboards, making agency data easier to find and explore, enhancing the transparency of our work.
• Launched a multi-step initiative to more efficiently identify Certified Residential Opportunities and match those opportunities with people who need them.

As we head into a new year, I feel so honored to have stepped into this role and am so grateful to work alongside each and every one of you as we continue to strive for excellence in advocacy, equity, and quality of life for people with developmental disabilities. I look forward to our continued collaboration in 2025.

Sincerely,

Willow Baer
Acting Commissioner