Dear Friends and Colleagues,

An integral part of providing services to people with developmental disabilities is ensuring that we are reaching all communities within the larger disability community.  I am excited to announce that, as OPWDD continues imperative work towards an equitable service system, we are pleased to release our first report on the topic: “Advancing Cultural and Linguistic Competence, Diversity, Equity and Inclusion: OPWDD-Georgetown University NCCC Partnership for Systems Change.”  This report provides recommendations for cultural and linguistic competence, intended to increase the service system’s capacity to work well across all cultures, languages, communication styles, and more.  The report is based on information collected from Regional Provider Forums held in 2024 with OPWDD providers and community organizations.  You can find the full report, its Executive Summary, as well as a clear language version of the summary on our website here.  Translation into the top12 languages spoken in New York State will be available in the weeks ahead.  In addition to the external work, OPWDD has been partnering with Georgetown to develop an agency vision statement for cultural competence, linguistic competence, diversity, equity, and inclusion for our agency and service system, which will be shared in future forums.  I am very proud of the work that has been done to date to expand outreach to more New Yorkers with developmental disabilities and their families.

Sincerely,

Willow Baer
Commissioner