WEBVTT

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The place we went to look was Rhode Island.

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Rhode Island had... was probably the first

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state to totally close a campus-based

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DD structure, or all but

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close a campus-based DD structure.

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And what had been done,

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there is that an agreement

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had been reached that essentially said

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"We will shut down the

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campus-based facilities.

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And then we will use a combination

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of private and publicly run group homes and

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day programs for what happens next."

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And I think by '84, '85

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we were sold on that.

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I remember flying out there

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just after I had quit smoking

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(it had to have been in '84)

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and we got the grand tour.

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And, you know, as much as we said

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"Look at Rhode Island...that's a

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minuscule place." And I think that really

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launched, then, a number of tours of

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Rhode Island, both by us, by advocates,

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by folks from DHS, and to start

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a serious negotiation on,

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was there a different way to do this?

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It took us a lot of work to put...

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to get the okay of our membership

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to engage in this.

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We were essentially saying,

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"Folks, while we may be able to

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maintain a job for you

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in a different system,

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we aren't going to maintain

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the job you have now for

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you in this system."

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And... that's a level

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of change that's scary to people.

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But I think part of what we

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also were willing to say

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to the Department and

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to the legislators was that the workers

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who have done this job all

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these years shouldn't

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be the folks that came out losers in this.