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Brain Injury Legislative Network | |
Disability
Legislative Tracker Bulletins Please click on drop down arrow to view the Bulletins, then highlight one and click on go! To view the most recent 2008 Bulletin, please click here. | |
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| Our state is unique than most in that as citizens, we have the opportunity to shake the hands of future presidents of our country every four years. I remember in past years shaking hands with Gerald Ford at the Weeks Traffic Circle in Dover with my friend Barbara and listening to my mom announce over supper that she shook hands with Jimmy Carter that morning while she was at work at the local shoe factory. I also remember the time when First Lady Barbara Bush came into my daughter’s intensive care unit and offered encouragement to our family during a devastating time in our life. Another memory was when Sara and I attended an event and listened while Vice President Al Gore spoke to the crowd about why he should be the next president of the United States. After he was finished, he walked over to us and chatted briefly and then signed a photo for Sara and kissed her on her cheek. | |
| Well those experiences will probably be the closest contact that Sara & I will have with United States Presidents. Opportunities for citizens to meet presidential candidates in our state are greater than most other states because presidential candidates want to take the political pulse of the “people of New Hampshire”. We are the gauge to help determine if their values and beliefs are what most Americans are supportive of. Public policy is value based and our vote in the presidential primary is seriously considered by candidates. | |
| As all of you know, 2008 is an election year and we will have opportunities to meet presidential candidates in our own community. If you have the opportunity to attend a house meeting or a forum for candidates to listen to their statements of governmental principles and policy, ask candidates what they would do to support individuals and families with brain injury. | |
Ellen M. Edgerly, Community Organizer |
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| New Hampshire State Legislature | |
| Did you know that the New Hampshire General Court is the third-largest governing body in the English-speaking world after the United States Congress and the British Parliament? Unlike most states in our country, we have a “citizen legislature” and not a professional legislature whose members receive salaries. These volunteers are committed and dedicated to the good of the citizens of New Hampshire by offering their time and energy in creating and supporting public policy and legislation. | |
| In our state, we are able to meet our legislators while carrying on with our everyday life. These are the individuals that you come upon at your local grocery store, bank, post office, church, PTA meeting or at your child’s sports game. They are your coworkers, relatives, and friends. | |
| We have 424 legislators in the New Hampshire Legislature with 424 opportunities to introduce ourselves and talk to these legislators about brain injury public policy and legislature that supports individuals with brain injury and their families. If you are comfortable while talking to them, share with them the challenges that you are met with on a daily basis as a survivor, family member or professional working with individuals with brain injury. | |
| If you want to learn more about the New Hampshire General Court and find out who your representatives and senators are along with reviewing the proposed 2008 legislation, please visit the NH General Court Website at: www.gencourt.state.nh.us | |
| The committee and the Disability Legislative Network has earmarked quite a few pieces of legislation that will require monitoring and/or support this session. Proposed legislature have acts relating to Special Education, Case Management, Long Term Care Services, Residential Care Facilities, Trust Funds and Bingo Regulations. | |
| If you would like to review these bills, please click here | |
| WE NEED YOUR SUPPORT! Your Public Policy Committee continues to meet regularly and welcomes attendance and/or input relative to public policy and proposed legislation by all. We invite guest speakers at our periodic meetings to keep the Committee abreast of current affairs. We are pleased to have Amy Messer as Chair. | |
| The Brain Injury Association of New Hampshire Public Policy Committee welcomes additional members to help work on public policy and legislation for the 2007-2008 Legislative Session. Please click here for more information and how to be contacted if you are interested in joining our committee. | |
| f you would like additional information relative to the Brain Injury Public Policy Committee and/or the Brain Injury Legislative Network, please contact Ellen M. Edgerly, Community Organizer at 332-9891 or e-mail Ellen. | |
| Legislative Coffees | |
| We have a lot of new legislators that will need to be informed and educated on the challenges that individuals with brain injuries live with. We are asking all of you to consider hosting a legislative coffee in your home as a way to invite local representatives and senators to partake in a discussion on brain injury experiences and legislation. If you are interested in hosting a coffee, (as small or large as you want it to be), please contact Ellen Edgerly at 332-9891 or e-mail Ellenedge@metrocast.net and she will help you facilitate the coffee. | |
| In the past, these coffees have proven worthwhile to all in attendance. Legislators hear hundreds of bills proposed throughout the session and often do not have the knowledge as we do relative to life with a brain injury. As a survivor, family, friend or professional of brain injury, our experiences are very valuable in this education of our legislators. | |
| Constituent Contact | |
| If you have not been involved in contacting your legislators relative to brain injury legislation in the past, let this be the year that you will commit to taking the time to call your representatives and/or senator to discuss our issues. If you feel you have more time to spare, attend a hearing in Concord to provide testimony or to show your support. Your support is important as we take great pride in pursuing legislation and public policy on a grassroots level which has proven to be effective and credible to our legislators. | |
| If you are not on our legislative mailing list or e-mail listserv, and would like to be, please contact Ellen Edgerly at 332-9891 or e-mail Ellen at Ellenedge@metrocast.net | |
2006 HB 118 Celebration!
HB 118, an act relative to bicycle helmet use by certain minors, had a photo signing with Governor John Lynch on Friday, January 6, 2006 in the Governor’s Chambers. As all of you know, HB 118 went into law on January 1, 2006. Thank you to Governor Lynch for taking part in our victory!Remember! It can be done! |
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| Ellen
M. Edgerly Community Organizer Brain Injury Association of New Hampshire | |
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| We
advocate because we believe. We believe because we know there is a better "right" way. We Persevere because it's all we know. -unknown | |
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© 2008 - 1998 Brain Injury
Association of New Hampshire
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| The Brain Injury Association of New Hampshire
does not support, endorse, or recommend
any product, method of treatment, or program for persons with brain injury. We
endeavor to inform and believe that you have the right to know what help is available.
Information within these pages consists of items that may be of interest to our
community. |
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