Approved December 3, 2010 Minutes State Independent Living Council Quarterly Meeting Friday, September 10, 2010 ? 8:30 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. Renaissance Inn ? 5188 Wittenberg Lane North ? Keizer, OR INTRODUCTIONS Members Present: Frank Synoground, Dodie McKenzie, Jackie Hovey, Mike Volpe, Sharon Coverstone, Randy Samuelson, Ann Balzell (Chairperson), Sherry Stock and Angel Hale. Dean Westwood, Barry Fox-Quamme and Wendy Howard were not available for this meeting. Staff Present: Shelly Emery, Joette Williams, Tina Treasure, and technician from Cascade Sound. Guests Present: Joan Claypool (OVRS), Ted Wenk (Disability Rights Oregon), Dave Fricke (UVdN), Cindy Campbell (applicant), and Ryan Green (applicant). AGENDA REVIEW Tina Treasure would like to add discussion on support for the Building Futures Conference and discussion on federal issues regarding IL and Part C ARRA funds. APPLICANT INTRODUCTIONS Cindy Campbell introduced herself. She lives in Neotsu, near Lincoln City. She is totally deaf and has a cochlear implant. She has a Master’s Degree in Rehabilitation and was a rehab counselor in Maryland for many years, as well as the Assistant Director for the Institute on Deaf Blindness. She was on the State of Washington SILC when she was the Director for the Deaf Center, in Vancouver. She currently works for the Oregon Telecommunications Relay Service, and with the Telecommunications Device Access Program. Ryan Green introduced himself. He is with the Oregon Paralyzed Veterans of America. He and his wife moved to Oregon at the end of June from South Dakota. He was injured in a car accident in 1996. He was working for Citibank at the time. At the time of his accident he was in a management position, which was saved for him. When he came back to work after a year in rehabilitation, they demoted him to an entry level job. It gave him a passion to educate himself on disability rights. He worked for an Independent Living Center in Sioux Falls as the ADA coordinator and an Independent Living Specialist. He was on the South Dakota SILC and was its Chairperson for two, three year terms. His wife had a job transfer to Oregon, which brought them here. SILC GENERAL ACTION ITEMS June 2010 SILC meeting minutes ACTION ? A motion was made by Frank Synoground and seconded by Angel Hale to approve the June 3, 2010 SILC meeting minutes, as submitted. Votes in favor: Sharon Coverstone, Jackie Hovey, Dodie McKenzie, Randy Samuelson, Sherry Stock, Frank Synoground and Mike Volpe. There were no abstentions or votes in opposition. Third Quarter Financial Report (5/16/10-8/15/10) The third quarter financial report was included in the meeting packet. Shelly Emery gave a brief verbal report. Expenses to date are approximately $267,000, leaving a balance of just over $164,000. 62 percent of the budget has been spent. Two line items went over budget. We had not planned to hold the June meeting at the MegaConference and have members attend the conference training sessions, so our Training line went over budget. We also had an unforeseen laptop computer replacement, which caused Equipment and Supplies to be overspent. However, no budget sections are overspent. ACTION ? A motion was made by Sherry Stock and seconded by Randy Samuelson to approve the financial report as submitted. Votes in favor: Dodie McKenzie, Frank Synoground, Jackie Hovey, Mike Volpe, Randy Samuelson, Sharon Coverstone and Sherry Stock. There were no votes in opposition or abstentions. Proposed 2011 SILC Budget Tina Treasure explained the proposed budget document that was included in the meeting packet. The SILC budgeted about $8,000 less than last year. The proposed budget may need to be adjusted more than once during the year depending on what the Emergency Board does and what future revenue forecasts show. ACTION ? A motion was made by Sherry Stock and seconded by Sharon Coverstone to approve the proposed budget as submitted. Votes in favor: Sherry Stock, Sharon Coverstone, Randy Samuelson, Mike Volpe, Jackie Hovey, Frank Synoground and Dodie McKenzie. There were no votes in opposition or abstentions. Proposed 2011 SILC Calendar Sherry Stock noted the year was incorrect on a portion of the calendar and should read 2011 starting in January, rather than 2010. ACTION ? A motion was made by Sherry Stock and seconded by Angel Hale to approve the proposed SILC calendar, as corrected. Votes in favor: Mike Volpe, Dodie McKenzie, Randy Samuelson, Jackie Hovey, Sherry Stock and Sharon Coverstone. Frank Synoground abstained. There were no votes in opposition. SILC OFFICER ELECTION – Vice Chairperson ACTION ? Nominations were taken from the floor for the position of Vice Chairperson. Angel Hale nominated Sherry Stock. Frank Synoground seconded the nomination. Randy Samuelson moved the nominations be closed. Angel Hale seconded this motion. A role call vote was taken to elect the Vice Chairperson. Votes for Sherry Stock: Mike Volpe, Dodie McKenzie, Randy Samuelson, Jackie Hovey, Frank Synoground, Sherry Stock and Sharon Coverstone. There were no abstentions or votes in opposition. EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE ELECTION – Member-at-Large ACTION ? Nominations were taken from the floor for the Executive Committee Member-at Large position. Sherry Stock nominated Wendy Howard. Randy Samuelson seconded the nomination. Randy Samuelson moved the nominations be closed. It was seconded by Sherry Stock. Votes for Wendy Howard: Sharon Coverstone, Sherry Stock, Frank Synoground, Jackie Hovey, Randy Samuelson, Dodie McKenzie and Mike Volpe. There were not abstentions or votes in opposition. CIL PRESENTATION – Dave Fricke, Umpqua Valley disAbilities Network Dave Fricke is the Executive Director for the Umpqua Valley disAbilities Network (UVdN). UVdN is located in Roseburg, servicing Douglas County. Beyond the core services, they offer transportation through Oregon Department of Transportation (ODOT) Special Transportation Funds. This has improved outreach to rural Douglas County. Dave was part of the Oregon delegation to the National Council on Independent Living (NCIL), where he did a joint presentation at one of the break out session on the Community Engagement Initiative. The Community Engagement Initiative is sponsored by Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU). This is built around a town hall meeting process to affect changes in the community. There were 50 to 60 people with disabilities at their event in Douglas County. Healthcare was the first issue that came up. They also talked about transportation; physical access, such as an examination table that did not accommodate a wheel chair user; heavy doors; curb cuts and disabled parking. After that meeting UVdN met with the community service providers that could affect those concerns. They also worked with Umpqua Transport. A new process was set up so that UVdN takes calls from consumers and connects them with the bus service. There will now be fixed bus routes into South Douglas County. They were able to work with ODOT and have the cross walk lights retimed to assist pedestrians. Public funds for bus shelters were obtained and Dial-a-Ride was extended. They also worked on some accessible parking where the spaces were not wide enough to accommodate users. UVdN was invited to participate in the Healthy Active Douglas County Coalition. It is a community health organization. The coalition is focusing on three areas. One area is poor nutrition and inadequate food supplies. The second is physical inactivity. As a result of this focus they are now offering wheelchair yoga at the YMCA and are trying to encourage people to take a proactive, wellness approach to meeting their physical and sometimes mental needs through physical activity and diet. The third area is tobacco use. Statistically, people with disabilities are at a higher risk to use tobacco products. There is an Add-Us-In block grant that is currently being applied for. This is a $360,000, three-year grant. The grant would be to identify minority disabled adults who are chronically unemployed. The goal of the grant is to do outreach to identify who and where these people are and then to get minority owned businesses in the area to employ adults from their ethnic group. In Southern Oregon this would affect Hispanics and Native Americans. UVdN is also partnering with Access Technologies assistive technology program. Access Technologies is providing adaptive equipment to UVdN. The UVdN staff will be trained on how to utilize those technologies. UVdN can lease, loan or rent this equipment to people that have a need. UVdN will be participating in a Center for Independent Living (CIL) training on Standards and Assurances coming up soon in Bend, and the State will be doing a site review of UVdN in October. UVdN is in partnership with three other non-profits in Roseburg including ADAPT Battered Persons Advocacy and the Confidence Clinic to run a retail clothing store. This helps provide vocational skills training for consumers. UVdN is one of two centers in Oregon that did Life Span Respite. SPOKES is the other. The State’s Life Span Respite program went away, which is of concern. UVdN also does in-home service contracts for seniors, in-home comprehensive supports through DD and long-term diversion for kids. In-home supports and funds for those are ending. Dave was asked if he knew why UVdN’s Consumer Service Record (CSR) numbers have gone down. He believes part of it is internal. They have improved training and developed a definitive time as to when to open a CSR versus an Information & Referral (I & R), to address consumers coming in for immediate and short lived services. The standard at UVdN is that working with the consumer less than three times is considered I & R. Dave believes the correct time to open a CSR could be different at each CIL and is hoping that the training in Bend may provide some consistency throughout the CILs. Also, two years ago UVdN instituted a quality assurance program to make sure they touch every file at least once a year and do quarterly reviews. They meet once a week when they open new files. At the time they instituted this procedure, they found a lot of files that needed to be closed, so there was a huge drop in their numbers and the numbers have never gone back up to where they were. It is possible that the numbers may now be where they should have always been. Dave was also asked to explain what is meant by “in-home services” and if they are now opening CSRs on those services? One part of what their staff does is to hire and certify in-home workers. In-home support services can include anything from respite, personal care equipment, recreational equipment or whatever is in their service plan and contract. Yes, they are now opening CSRs on these consumers. 2011-2013 COMMITTEE WORK PLANS Draft work plans have been prepared by the committees. They are being presented today so the SILC members can provide input to the committees or ask questions. Depending on input, final revisions may be made, and the work plans will go to the SILC Chairperson and the Executive Director (ED) for the final approval. When the State Plan is approved by the Rehabilitation Services Administration (RSA), these work plans will go into effect. If a committee ever has something in their work plan that needs to be adapted, they can make a recommendation for change and take it to the Council Chairperson and ED to approve the revision. Time was taken to explain each of the activities assigned to each committee. Shelly Emery reported that while RSA was doing their initial review of our State Plan, they contacted the Designated State Unit and the SILC to request clarification/information regarding specifically what the lead agency on each activity would be doing. As a result, they suggested some language be clarified. Clarification led to a slightly different grouping of some activities. The content is the same, but may be stated differently than when originally submitted, with more specific information added. COMMITTEE REPORTS Membership Development Committee (MDC) The Membership Development Committee has interviewed two applicants, who were invited to attend this meeting and be introduced. ACTION ? Frank Synoground presented a recommendation from the MDC in the form of a motion, that Cindy Campbell’s name be forwarded to the Governor’s office for appointment to the SILC. Sharon Coverstone seconded the motion. Votes in favor: Sharon Coverstone, Sherry Stock, Frank Synoground, Jackie Hovey, Randy Samuelson, Dodie McKenzie and Mike Volpe. There were no abstentions or votes in opposition. ACTION ? Dodie McKenzie moved that Ryan Green’s name be forwarded to the Governor’s office for appointment to the SILC. Angel Hale seconded the motion. Votes in favor: Sharon Coverstone, Sherry Stock, Frank Synoground, Jackie Hovey, Randy Samuelson, Dodie McKenzie and Mike Volpe. There were no abstentions or votes in opposition. Both names will be forwarded to the Governor’s office with a recommendation for appointment to the SILC. State Plan for Independent Living (SPIL) Committee The SPIL committee has shifted from SPIL development to monitoring activities. They have assigned out all of the monitoring activities to particular people or entities and are currently gathering the data from each party, trying to wrap up this SPIL period and getting the information ready to go into the 704 reports at the end of the year. Collaboration Committee (CC) They have identified the three groups they are going to focus on as community partners next year. They are also looking at some mental health issues. They have been involved in initiating a Special Projects Work Group (SPWG), which is one of the current SPIL activities. It is a project that is intended to bring CILs and Vocational Rehabilitation (VR) partners together. Dodie McKenzie is participating in the project as the Tribal VR representative. Angel Hale has been talking to the CC about Oregon Commission for the Blind’s participation. Sheila Thomas, from LILA, had planned to participate in a meeting at the end of August, as a CIL Director. An initial project for this work group is to cross-train partners regarding each program’s services. The SPWG approved development of IL and VR training videos for this purpose. The IL video would train VR staff on services that CILs provide and how they work together with VR. The VR video would train CILs on services that VR programs provide and how they work together with CILs. AGENCY REPORTS Oregon Commission for the Blind (OCB) – Angel Hale Angel has been learning new things in her position with OCB and starting new projects. She is working on the ongoing collaborations for OCB’s program, and would like to find more ways to collaborate with the CILs. Angel is looking at a pilot project for older adults experiencing blindness, trying to get them to a place where, if they feel they want employment they could get it. One of the things that gives people that type of independence is computer knowledge. Angel announced that White Cane Day is October 15. Designated State Unit (DSU) – Joan Claypool There is a written report in the packet. Joan reported that the CILs have decided what to do with some of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) funds they received for special projects. One project is the Standards and Assurances training that will be held at the end of the month. The other project is to purchase a video conferencing product to promote intrastate communications between IL entities. They will each be purchasing a lap top with a camera and a microphone for staff training and monthly CIL Network communications. This technology will also allow CILs to communicate with consumers in remote areas. SPOKES and EOCIL have asked to purchase a laptop that will be housed at a Department of Human Services (DHS) location, to allow consumers to talk to an IL Specialist when traveling may be too difficult. State Rehabilitation Council (SRC) – Ann Balzell There is a written report in the packet. Ann wanted to add that there are now three SILC members on the SRC. Besides herself, Sherry Stock and Dodie McKenzie are also on the SRC. Oregon Disabilities Commission (ODC) – Tina Treasure There is a written report in the packet. No verbal report was given. SILC STAFF REPORT Tina Treasure updated the SILC on what is happening on the federal level with the proposed IL program budget and Rehabilitation Act reauthorization. The Federal Proposed Budget The President’s budget suggested that Parts B and C of Title VII be rolled together and have the DSU control those funds. Though that proposed budget still stands, there has been some needed education of the President’s budget staff on this. They now understand what the opposition is about. Tina does not believe this is something the SILC needs to be concerned about. Reauthorization of the Rehabilitation Act It does not look like the reauthorization of the Rehabilitation Act will happen for some time. The major program change, to develop an IL Administration (ILA), is tied up in reauthorization of the Act. It did not look like the ILA could be rushed through without doing harm to SILCs and CILs. While there is still some support for pushing the ILA forward, the better option would be to keep the existing structure and rewrite the language to deal with current problem areas. If the reauthorization goes forward, then things like the budget would be examined, as well as the need for additional appropriations to make the ILA possible. If no additional appropriations will be made, the changes to the language are prepared to go forward. Those language changes would change a lot of things in the Rehabilitation Act that need correction, for example, broadening the definition of what a SILC can do and removing the forward funding approach for CILs. Since there is a new SILC member, Tina gave some history about the IL program transition. Initially, RSA changed from having regional offices to a central office in Washington DC. They developed individual state teams for monitoring, technical assistance and program development. When this change was made, there was a lot of turnover in the RSA since many long time employees did not want to move to Washington DC. Some of the people now on the state teams are knowledgeable about specific issues they have dealt with in the Vocational Rehabilitation program, but are not necessarily familiar with how the laws pertain to the IL program. When you call now for technical assistance, they often don’t understand the nature of the question in relationship to IL, and so are unable to give you an answer. RSA had identified Oregon as having a best practice related to collaboration, but after the transition, RSA told the SILC they could not do some of the things that had been part of those best practices. General Council for RSA explained that the SILC has a role to meet with other state agencies, councils and commissions, but when a project is identified for the CILs, the SILC is allowed to help connect the CILs to these other agencies, but then must step out of any discussions and just monitors how the process goes. The SILC can’t help with the project development. By limiting the SILC’s involvement in project negotiations and planning, the SILC has more time to spend on monitoring of the SPIL, conducting needs assessments and SPIL development activities. One thing that has come out of the transition is that the CILs have been more connected to what the SPIL is really about and what their part is in its implementation and objectives. American Recovery & Reinvestment Act (ARRA) Tina explained about the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act so all members can have the same understanding of what is happening. In 2009, the federal government passed ARRA, which included funds for the IL program. As with most agencies that were given ARRA funds, RSA was not ready for the influx of money. They weren’t ready to figure out how it would interact with the Rehabilitation Act regulations so that it would allow both the use of the money and would meet the unique goals associated with ARRA. RSA announced there would be both Part B & Part C funds within ARRA. The distribution recommendation by Oregon was to give Oregon’s ARRA Part C funds to the existing Part C CILs. The allocation developed by Oregon’s ARRA fund committee followed closely with the regular annual funding split among the CILs, as far as the percentages of C funds they each have been receiving. The exception was for ILR (Independent Living Resources) in Portland. ILR usually receives 48% of the Part C funds. ILR agreed to take only 40% of the ARRA Part C funds, with the other 8% being divided between the other four Part C CILs. The other four Part C CILs then would need a smaller supplemental State grant, so more of the State’s IL funding could be pushed to the non-federally funded CILs. This was to meet Oregon’s goal of having a more stable Network of CILs funded over the long term. Building Futures The SILC received a letter from Oregon Parent Training and Information Center (OrPTI) regarding the Building Futures Conference on the 25th and 26th of October. They are asking for sponsorship. The sponsorships start at $250.00. Building Futures is focused on youth with disabilities, who are transitioning to the next phase of their life – leaving high school and going to work or to higher education. ACTION ? A motion was made by Sherry Stock to pay for a table at the Building Futures Conference, seconded by Mike Volpe. Votes in favor: Mike Volpe, Sharon Coverstone, Jackie Hovey, Dodie McKenzie, Sherry Stock, Randy Samuelson and Frank Synoground. There were no abstentions or votes in opposition. The SILC’s exhibitor table would include information related to needs assessment input. The Executive Committee can determine if incentives should be on the table at the conference to encourage participation, and what the incentives might be. SILC Web Site SILC staff has been working to have the SILC Web site disassociated from the DHS banner. There is now a method to get that accomplished. We have been working on restructuring the information on the current site to make it more user friendly. RSA Site Visit In the last week of July, Oregon’s IL program was visited by RSA to look at the fiscal piece of the IL program. This was a follow up to the monitoring process they started in February of 2008. Their intention during this visit was to review some sample documents. SILC staff assist in providing the documents and answering RSA’s questions. Consumer Satisfaction Survey Reports Shelly Emery pointed out that there were copies of this year’s statewide consumer satisfaction survey in the meeting packets. These are just informational for members. Sherry Stock noticed a typographical error on question 6. It looks like the average percentages were transposed at the bottom of page 2. Shelly pointed out that the surveys will have different questions starting with fiscal year 2010, when CILs decided to revise the surveys. The CILs develop the basic statewide survey questions, give the surveys to their consumers, and consumers send them to the SILC for compilation. A report is then provided to each CIL. The CILs feel they get a more honest appraisal of their services and more value to the community by having the surveys go to the SILC versus back to them. NCIL CONFERENCE REPORT There is a written report in the packet. Shelly Emery and Sherry Stock attended the conference and went to visit legislators along with Oregon CIL representatives. Congressman Curt Schrader made a point to see them during his lunch hour as it was the only free time he had. Shelly pointed out that it was different this year, having more CIL representation. The CILs could do advocacy and demonstrate what they do, the SILC then could provide information and education about the program itself. Having Sherry there as a SILC member and also the Executive Director of a different disability organization that interacts with CILs allowed her to discuss CILs leverage services for other agencies and help to fill gaps. Both Shelly and Sherry thought it was noticeable that the breakout sessions at NCIL were not geared toward SILCs. MEETING AJOURNED 9/10/10 Approved SILC Meeting Minutes - Page 1 of 1