Today, the Center for Disability Rights (CDR) announced that it had distributed $1,000,000 in bonuses to attendants in the Consumer Directed Personal Assistance Program (CDPAP).  Every year, CDR distributes bonuses to the CDPAP attendants as part of the organization’s policy to maximize the funds that pass through to attendants in the program.  Thanks to the continued hard work of the disabled people who manage their own services, in counties where unemployment, workers compensation, and other variable costs were kept down, CDR is able to provide these bonuses.  In addition, providing these vital services during a pandemic was not only difficult it was also heroic.  CDR wants to make sure to recognize the attendants who stayed committed to our mission and to their consumer supervisors.

“We are so happy to be able to make these bonuses available this year!” said Bruce Darling, CDR’s President/CEO. “For so many disabled people during this pandemic, attendants have been the difference that kept them safely in the community. They have sacrificed so much to support our consumers.” 

“We have seen the value of the attendant workforce repeatedly throughout this crisis. As COVID- 19 raged through nursing facilities, our attendants gifted us the ability to socially distance like the rest of the country,” said Tammy Papperman CDR’s Director of CDPAS. “It is why we are fighting so hard to increase attendant wages and ensure that they are properly compensated for their hard work even as the state does everything in its power to limit the program.”

The attendants receiving these bonuses provide their employers with services ranging from bathing and toileting to assistance with ventilators and feeding tubes. It is hard work for what are almost always minimum wages.

“As a consumer I am so pleased to see that our attendants will be recognized for the essential work they do every day, and especially during this pandemic, when it was even more critical that I maintain services in my home. While no amount is enough for what they do, I’m glad they can get a token of our appreciation,” said CDPAS consumer Kenyatta DaCosta.

The Center for Disability Rights serves as a fiscal intermediary providing services that support disabled consumers to be employers in 11 counties. The organization offers consumers with support and training to make the responsibility of being an employer more manageable.