HARRISBURG, Pa. — Beneath the ornate rotunda where state legislators are charged with funding social programs that improve the lives of those who need help most, a mother was left near speechless.
Lora Vaknin and daughter Danielle, 24, were among the 22-person contingent from the Lehigh Valley Center for Independent Living who visited the state capitol Wednesday on its annual Advocacy Day.
“The CIL has helped her in so many ways.”Lora Vaknin, speaking about her daughter Danielle
The mission: meet with and remind lawmakers who represent the Lehigh Valley how extremely vital continued and increased state funding of nonprofit organizations such as CIL are to those with disabilities.
With such funding, the future for folks such as Danielle, who has received intervention at CIL for autism, remains promising and bright.
But where, Vaknin was asked, might her daughter be today without it?
The mother’s lips parted but the words don’t come.
She glanced at her lovely daughter standing nearby, the one who has come so far — she enjoys her employment at Weis Market in Allentown, and now has social opportunities — because of the CIL.
Vaknin’s words didn't come right away, but an answer did with a slow negative shake of her head — as if to say, “I don’t want to even think about that.”
Then she spoke.
“Before going to CIL, Danielle had no friends,” Vaknin, a special education teacher in Berks County, said. “Now she goes on field trips to IronPigs games, Knoebels and Camelback. She has a social circle.
“The CIL has helped her in so many ways.”
The pocketbook and the heart
The organization helps in the same way each year for more than 1,000 Lehigh Valley residents with a variety of disabilities.
But services cost money. And given the cuts to health and human service programs in the proposed federal budget, state funding becomes that much more important.
The proposed $47.6 billion state budget from the Shapiro Administration includes significant funding for people with disabilities, particularly those with intellectual disabilities and autism.
The budget allocates resources to various programs, including home and community-based services, vocational rehabilitation, and support for direct support professionals.
“I understand the importance of this funding. And this is how you do it, how you advocate. You tell your story."Rep. Mike Schlossberg, D-132nd District
The budget increases such funding to all 16 CILs in the commonwealth from the current appropriation of $2,634,000 to $3,634,0000.
Should the budget pass as proposed, the Lehigh Valley CIL’s funding would increase from $292,666 to $403,777.
And so, the CIL-led group boarded a bus early Wednesday morning to Harrisburg.
Once there, they divided into two groups and trekked from one legislator’s office to another — seven in all — and spoke from the pocketbook and the heart.
'Tell your story'
What they found were legislators whose offices are halfway across the state, but whose concerns remain rooted in the Lehigh Valley.
“I understand the importance of this funding,” state Rep. Mike Schlossberg, D-132nd District, told the group.
“And this is how you do it, how you advocate. You tell your story.
“The state doesn’t have the capacity to make up for the massive cuts in the [federal budget]. That just shows where [the federal] priorities are.”
State Rep. Peter Schweyer, D-22nd District, told the group he supports the governor’s bill to increase funding.
He then categorized the federal budget cuts to human services as “a tire fire.”
The proposed federal budget for Fiscal Year 2026 includes a significant reduction in funding for the Department of Health and Human Services, totaling a 26.2% decrease from the previous year, which amounts to $93.8 billion.
That includes substantial cuts to key agencies like the National Institutes of Health and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
“There’s a human factor when you talk about these programs,” Schweyer said. “When you cut them, you throw these people’s lives into chaos.”
'Pennsylvania needs to be leaders'
The CIL group also met with state representatives Ann Flood, R-138th; Steve Samuelson, D-135th; Zach Mako, R-183rd District; Jeanne McNeill, D-133rd District; and an aide from the office of Robert Freeman, D-136th District.
“The takeaway for me today, being here with our board members, our consumers and staff, was very powerful and empowering,” LVCIL Executive Director Seth Hoderewski said.
“For them to come out and talk directly to the legislators about what’s going on in their lives and the concerns they have is very important.
“Legislators need to hear that and they heard it today. They heard what the needs are and what they can do to help us and people with disabilities.”
The LVCIL employs 50 members and operates on a $3.5 million budget.
LVCIL Grant Project Supervisor Catherine Bogdanski said she came away from the visit with local state legislators very encouraged.
“I think they're all very receptive to what we do,” Bogdanski
said. “They want to help.
“It's a matter of getting everybody to understand that what Lehigh Valley Center for Independent Living does is to remove those barriers in the community for everybody.
"That’s where the future of the world needs to go and Pennsylvania needs to be the leader for that. I feel vert positive with what I heard today.”
