The U.S. Department of Labor’s (DOL) Office of Disability Employment Policy (ODEP) and its Federal partners is holding a series of six Listening Sessions across the country on disability employment. Each Listening Session is an opportunity for members of the public to provide input to senior Federal officials on their ideas for more effective ways to employ all people with disabilities, including women, Veterans and minorities with disabilities and what is currently working in their regions to increase employment of people with disabilities. ODEP seeks input particularly from:

• Individuals & Consumers: youth and adults with disabilities, parents and caregivers.
• Employers: public and private
• Service Providers & Advocacy Organizations (such as Employment Services and Partners): Independent Living Centers, One-Stops, State Vocational Rehabilitation Programs.

The agency asks that participants register on the A New Day: We’re Listening Web site established especially for these meetings.

The San Francisco event is open to residents of Alaska, Arizona, California, Hawaii, Idaho, Nevada, Oregon, Washington,
Guam. (DOL Region VI) and will be located at:

Congressional Schedule

The House returns from its recess tomorrow, Jan. 12, and will meet to establish a quorum for the second session of the 111^th Congress. The Senate will hold a pro forma session Jan. 19 and reconvene on Jan. 20.  Health care reform will continue to consume much of the congressional schedule as the House and Senate bills are reconciled during the conference process.

Health Care Reform

House and Senate leaders continue to negotiate conference procedures for the health reform bills passed just before the holiday recess. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has reportedly said that the House does not plan to accept the Senate’s health reform bill in its entirety, and that she will fight for key provisions in the House version. House Democratic leaders held a mass conference call with members to discuss the conference process. During the call, nearly every major area of disagreement with the Senate was discussed: the Senate’s proposed tax on high-costs “Cadillac” insurance plans, restrictions on abortion services, the timetable for changes in the health insurance market, and whether to include the House bill’s government-run public option. Pelosi and other top Democrats have indicated several areas where concessions will be made, including eliminating the public option.

CLASS Act

AUCD is working with a number of aging and disability advocacy groups to ensure the inclusion of the CLASS Act in final health reform legislation. As the House and Senate versions are reconciled during the conference process, the provisions of the program will be fine-tuned to ensure its success and long-term solvency. AUCD has signed on to a letter to House and Senate leaders urging that the CLASS Act remains in a final bill. The letter also urges the preservation of certain Senate provisions (the Community First Choice Option and four Home and Community Based Services provisions) and the allocation of resources to the Aging and Disability Resource Centers.

House Representative and Senators Announce Retirement

With less than a year before the mid-term election, Representative Henry Brown (R-SC), and Senators Byron Dorgan (D-ND) and Christopher Dodd (D-CT) announced last week their decision not to seek re-election to return for the 112th Congress next year.  Brown, 74, said he would like to spend more time at his family farm.  Dorgan, who has spent thirty years in the Senate, said he is looking forward to writing books, teaching, and working on energy policy in the private sector.  Dodd, who has also been in the senate for thirty years, cited personal and family battles with health, the loss of his friend Senator Edward Kennedy, and an upcoming campaign where polls have him at a disadvantage that led to his decision. Sen. Dodd has been a champion of children’s and disability issues, such as the CLASS Act. Some Democrats worry that the pending vacancies may give Republicans extra seats, thereby ending the 60 vote majority that they currently hold.

Restraint and Seclusion

AUCD signed on to a letter to both houses of Congress requesting more cosponsors for the Preventing Harmful Restraint and Seclusion in Schools Act (H.R. 4247, S. 2860). The bills, which are very similar, outline federal standards for the use of restraint and seclusion in schools. For more information, and to view the text of the bills, visit AUCD’s resource page on this issue. To ask your members to cosponsor the bills, please visit AUCD’s action center.

Children and State Budget Cuts

Every Child Matters along with its partners, the National Association of Child Care Resource & Referral Agencies (NACCRRA), and Voices for America’s Children, have just released a new report, State Budget Cuts: America’s Kids Pay the Price. Plagued by record-setting revenue losses, the housing and credit crisis, and high unemployment, state budgets are suffering tremendously. The report shows that millions of children are feeling the effects as states cut basic services and programs, such as Head Start and Early Head Start. The document urges the federal government to expand children’s programs that will create new jobs while providing long-term benefits for children.

New Policy Fellow

AUCD welcomed this year’s Disability Policy Leadership Fellow, Paul Galonsky, MPA, last Monday.  Paul holds a Bachelor of Arts in Sociology from the University of South Florida and a Master of Public Administration from the School of Urban Affairs and Public Policy at the University of Delaware.  Paul worked as a Graduate Research Assistant for the Healthy Delawareans with Disabilities: Bridging the Gap Project (HDWD) at the University of Delaware Center for Disabilities Studies.

Prior to becoming a Graduate Research Assistant, Paul was employed with the Mental Health Association in Delaware for over eight years, where he developed and organized state workshops and conferences on mental illness prevention and promotion.  He was honored with the University of Delaware’s 2008 Ratledge Family Award for Delaware Public Service for his outreach efforts towards promoting good mental health and public service in Delaware, a proclamation from Wilmington Delaware’s Mayor James Baker, and the Wilmington Award in gratitude for his dedication and loyal service to the citizens of Wilmington. We hope that many in the network will get to know and work with Paul in his fellowship year.

PEP’s project will focus on developing a program to support the families of children with co‐occurring developmental disabilities and behavioral health issues. PEP will implement the program in conjunction with key partners, including the Nevada Center for Excellence in Disabilities; Nevada Division of Mental Health and Developmental Services and Division of Child and Family Services; Nevada Office of Disability, the Disabilities Advocacy Law Center and the Developmental Disabilities Council; and Clark County School District and Juvenile Justice Services. Through this partnership with public agencies as well as providers and parents, PEP will develop a system that enhances interagency collaboration, empowers families to participate in service planning and delivery, and ensures access to community based, individualized and culturally appropriate health, mental health, recreation, and educational services and supports.

Using a Systems of Care approach, a single location dedicated to supporting local families will serve as a focal point for the project to increase awareness of the needs of children in the target population, conduct outreach to their families, and provide families with strengths‐based, individualized family navigation services and supports.

A family navigator will team with each child’s case manager, serving as a mentor, guide and advocate to assist families in identifying their needs, developing a plan of action, and obtaining services for their child. The project will support 20 families in the first year and 40 families in each succeeding year of the project.

The role of the family navigator will be adapted from the family‐to‐family support model currently being used by Nevada PEP with families of children who have serious emotional disturbance. The project will assist case managers and key partners in using a wraparound model of service planning and implementation. The family navigator will support successful implementation of this approach in their work with families.

The project will provide flexible funding and linkages to specialized services such as PBS Nevada to increase the effectiveness of the child and family team in developing an appropriate plan for each child. The goal of the project is to improve outcomes for the child, increase family empowerment and satisfaction, and enhance community partnerships.

]]> http://nced.info/blog/2010/01/11/nevada-pep-awarded-family-360-support-grant/feed/ 0 http://nced.info/blog/2010/01/08/nced-consumer-advisory-committee/ http://nced.info/blog/2010/01/08/nced-consumer-advisory-committee/#comments Fri, 08 Jan 2010 20:42:04 +0000 rock http://nced.info/blog/2010/01/08/nced-consumer-advisory-committee/ The NCED Consumer Advisory Committee met at noon on January 8, 2010 at the Joe Crowley Student Union, Rm 356.  As one of their new responsibilities, the Nevada CAC has the responsibility of distributing the Community Partner Fund for the NCED.  NCED staff assisted with sending out the first CAC-approved mini-grant Request For Proposal and at the January meeting, CAC members reviewed the submissions and awarded three of the five submissions.  Approved were: $1,000 to RAGE (Rebuilding All Goals Efficiently) to support the development of a vocational training center for people with disabilities in southern Nevada;  $1,000 to PBS (Positive Behavior Support Nevada) for toilet training classes and in home support to families of children with developmental disabilities and $1,000 to the Note-Ables for their 2010 Evening of Romance community concert & fundraiser.  See the CAC page for more details.

Location: Sierra Regional Center (SRC) Rm. XXX

Video locations: