Activists rally on Capitol Square for change in CVTC funds

RICHMOND — About 200 mental-health activists and community-home residents rallied on Capitol Square on Wednesday to urge state officials to switch $43 million in state funds for upgrading Central Virginia Training Center and use the funds instead to help people with disabilities live in smaller homes.

Calling the $43 million approved by the General Assembly this year a “rebuild item,” Howard Cullum of Chesterfield County said “Virginia needs to step back, rethink and reform” its approach to caring for people with disabilities. Cullum is president of The Arc of Virginia, an advocacy group.

No one from the Central Virginia Training Center or families of its residents spoke at the rally, which was sponsored by the Virginia Alliance for Community, a newly organized advocacy association.

Martha Bryant of Amherst, vice president of CVTC Families and Friends, said later Wednesday that the association’s goal appears to contradict the rights set forth by the Supreme Court and both state and federal laws. Those laws give families and guardians a choice between institutional and group homes for their dependents.

The alliance argues that people with disabilities have a civil right to live in a community setting.

Repeatedly chanting “A life like yours,” people at the rally cheered a comment from Katherine Montgomery, who spoke from her wheelchair to say she’s among Northern Virginia people waiting for community-based services.

“People with developmental disabilities do not want to live in an institution,” Montgomery said, to a round of applause.

Bryant, who has twin sons living in hospital care at Central Virginia Training Center, said, “a group home is not equivalent to a training center” and does not provide the same level of services that are available at the training center. CVTC provides four levels of care, Bryant said. Also included are skilled nursing, intermediate care and regional community support.

Bryant said the alliance “falsely assumed that CVTC was all intermediate care.”

Del. Shannon Valentine, D-Lynchburg, said that in her 2 1/2 years in Richmond the goal for CVTC started as a $160 million replacement of the facility and, this year, evolved into a $43 million upgrade of life-safety issues such as sprinkler systems, alarms, generators and elevators aimed at protecting residents.

“Since then we have been trying to decide how the money should be appropriated,” Valentine said. A planning meeting is scheduled next week at the center.

Valentine also acknowledged the group that sponsored Wednesday’s rally.

“There is an alliance that has been pulled together whose mission is one, I think, that we all respect,” Valentine said. “It is for providing more choices and more opportunities for those living with disabilities.”

Two years ago, Valentine said, CVTC had almost 500 residents, and now the number is down to 460. And 60 of those people are on a waiting list to move to community housing that is not yet available, Valentine said.

“As we explore various options, we’re also looking at how we can make sure those living at the center have the best quality of life we can provide,” Valentine said.

“I think there is real common ground. I don’t know what the final result will be.”