Letter from CDSN Board President, Dion Aroner

September 21, 2006

Dear friends,

As many of you know, after I left the Legislature I have been working with colleagues at UC Berkeley, the Service Employees International Union, the Bay Area Regional Centers and other stakeholders to find ways to improve the quality and availability of community-based, consumer-directed service for people with developmental disabilities.

I am thrilled to share with you the new non-profit organization--the Consumer Directed Services Network--that we have created. The CDSN is designed to improve the recruitment, retention, and training of direct support workers and to encourage the growth of agencies providing person-centered services. We are beginning with a small demonstration project, and are hoping to grow as more agencies choose to join us.

I hope after reading about the CDSN you will be as eager as I am to get this effort on its way and--if you are an agency director--consider using its services. It is vitally important that we improve services by addressing the interests of all stakeholders—consumers, agencies and workers—and I believe the CDSN can be an important vehicle to accomplish this.

Sincerely,
Dion Aroner
Former Assemblywoman
Board President, CDSN