Association of Residential Resources in MN

Communicationarrm regularly communicated with members on critical issues, developments, and best practices in delivering services and policy changes on issues affecting services for people with disabilities, which included weekly conference calls, regular blog articles, and email updates. Arrm sent over 215,000 emails, and web traffic and site use averaged 11,352 people per day. We reached nearly 120,000 people on facebook, and our open forum threads and replies were up 9% and 13%, respectively. Arrm worked with media contacts to bring awareness to the industry workforce crisis and its impact on people with disabilities. Arrm continued growth in social media and refined its content to put additional emphasis on a "less is more" mentality and maximize our time in front of busy members. Arrm created a new committee for our family Residential services providers to ensure all member providers have a voice at the table. Arrm's 2023 annual industry report, which tracks trends in the industry, including staff turnover, wages, and patterns in crs licensing, brought the highest response rate in recent history.

Advocacyarrm directly lobbied state agencies, legislators, and staff in the governor's office and coordinated with advocates for people with disabilities to develop legislation to invest in the dwrs and icfs, direct support professional wages, and make meaningful changes to service delivery models. As arrm's bills worked their way through the legislative process, arrm staff, disability service providers, and advocates supported the bills with hours of committee testimony. in the end, arrm secured significant investments for dwrs ($87 million in fy 24/25 and $135 million in fy 26/27) and icf services (an increase of $11 million in fy 24/25 and $15 million in fy 26/27) and recruitment and retention bonuses for any staff making under $30 per hour. Further, arrm's bills secured $90 million in one-time workforce incentive grants. We also assisted in effecting changes in licensing requirements for homes that utilize alternative overnight supervision and technology and changed how unit based respite rates are funded. in 2023, arrm reinstated district dialogue meetings to develop relationships with essential legislators and advocates from their respective districts. Arrm connected with 195 of 201 state legislators and sent over 2,700 messages. in march, arrm engaged over 1000 people in our arrm day at the capitol and facilitated over 130 meetings with state legislators.

Educationarrm held several in-person and virtual educational events throughout 2023, engaging thousands of attendees, a 20% increase over last year. Arrm's cornerstone summer annual conference and business and finance forum engaged 812 attendees and 68 exhibitors who gathered at mystic lake center in prior lake for two days of marquee learning and networking. Arrm's virtual offerings continued in 2023, offering members new opportunities to advocate for the disability services industry and stay up to date on current topics. We had 12 online calls with the Minnesota department of human services and Minnesota department of health throughout 2023 that engaged more than 1,200 attendees. Arrm provided four leadership institute workshops to 69 attendees designed to build the skills and knowledge to become future leaders of the disability services world. in 2023, arrm's "diving deep on dwrs" workshop educated 81 on the disability waiver rate system. Arrm closed the year with the winter business and finance forum, which provided up-to-the-minute developments on emerging financial and operational trends, legislative matters, state statutes and procedures, information technology, and more to 99-member decision-makers.