WASHINGTON State Independent Living Council P.O. Box 45343 Olympia, WA 98504 360-725-3695 www.wasilc.org Members Present: Meeting Minutes SILC Quarterly Meeting Friday October 10, 2014 Best Western Conference Room, Bellingham, Washington Dale Kosier, Advocacy Representative, Puyallup. Mark Leeper, CIL Directors Representative, Pullman. Jana Finkbonner, VR Tribal Representative, Bellingham. Sheila Turner, Parent Guardian Representative, Pasco. Ryan Nabors, Other CIL Representative, Tumwater. Krysta Van Woert, General Public Representative, Tonasket. Almir Trejo, General Public Representative, Tacoma. Debbie Brown, Ex-Officio DSB, Spokane. Andres Aguirre, Ex-Officio DVR, Olympia. Council Staff: Emilio Vela, Jr., SILC ED, Olympia. Marie Slusser, SILC Executive Assistant, Olympia. Guests: Brian Carlson, Lummi Tribal VR, Bellingham. Tammie Cooper Woodrich, Stillaguamish Tribal VR, Arlington. Teesha Kirschbaum, WSRC ED, Olympia. Jerry Johnsen, Client Assistance Program Director, Seattle. Patt Kosier, CFI ED, Lakewood. Kimberly Heymann, APdA ED, Seattle. Michael Richardson, NWADA ED, Mount Lake Terrace. Mary Anderson, Whatcom Council of Governments, Bellingham. Charley Lane, SCIL ED, Spokane. Kim Canaan, OB, Seattle. Samantha Murray, WATAP, Seattle. Alexandrea Hatcher, CFI, Bellingham. Todd Holloway, CFI, Lakewood. Ryan Blackwell, ADR, Bellingham. Linda Reed, CFI, Bellingham. Service Providers: Darlene Pickard, CART Captioning Service provider. Lorie Abrams and Karee Waldrum, ASL Interpreters. Call to Order The meeting was called to order on October 10, 2014, at 9:00 AM by Dale Kosier, SILC Chair. 1 P a g e
Approval of Minutes Motion: Jana Finkbonner motioned and Mark Leeper seconded to approve the minutes of July 11, 2014 as submitted. The motion passed. Review of Agenda Motion: Jana Finkbonner motioned and Mark Leeper seconded to approve the Agenda. The motion passed. VR Tribal Program Report: Jana Finkbonner The deadline for the Tribal VR five year grant renewal was last month. There are some tribes that will not receive funding for the upcoming year. North Intertribal VR will not be receiving funds. There are new tribes coming onto the grant cycle. ACIL-WA Report: Mark Leeper ACIL-WA met on Thursday October 8 th, 2014. The group discussed a planning process where the individual centers will come together to talk about acquiring funding to serve people across Washington. The group also discussed how to better work with the SILC regarding fundraising and generating revenue. Spokane Center for Independent Living will soon be getting a new Executive Director. Kimberly Heymann is the new Executive Director for the Alliance of People with disabilities in Seattle. WSRC Report: Teesha Kirschbaum The WSRC is a Governor appointed group of volunteers that make sure the voice of the DVR customer is heard. The WSRC has four new members that were appointed last month. The WSRC has partnered with the SILC to talk to and inform State Government and Legislature of the role of the Councils and how they relate to individuals with disabilities in communities of Washington State. The councils have been focusing on working with council members and key stakeholders on planning the 25 th anniversary celebration of signing the Americans with Disabilities Act. DSB Report: Debbie Brown West of the Cascade Mountains, DSB serves 42% more people than last year. East of the Cascade Mountains, they serve 64% more people than last year. The VR program had 191 successful employment outcomes. DSB held the blind youth consortium in September. They also participated in the Governor s 15% budget reduction exercise. DSB is going to continue their partnership with Hispanic Affairs Commission, who does a talk radio show and extends outreach. 2 P a g e
DVR Report: Andres Aguirre Andres gave an update on his interpretation of the WIOA law changes. Significant changes are associated with serving transition students. DVR is discussing what constitutes transition students and pre-employment transition. DVR is also reviewing the impact of WIOA changes to the Washington Administrative Code (WAC); since there is change in federal language, there has to be changes in the WAC. DVR partnered with the WSRC in crafting the first draft language for the WAC changes. The DVR State Plan has been approved, broken down into tasks, and prioritized. DVR will begin with five tasks associated to the state plan. DVR participated in the Secretary s budget reduction exercise. A 5.2 % reduction was submitted and DVR will pull from other resources to cover any losses incurred. DVR hired Rob Hines as the Area-2 manager, which covers south king county and up to the Canadian border. DVR is still hiring for a Statewide Transition Coordinator. A Supported Employment Coordinator position has been reopened and will assist state entities for developing supported employment positions in state government. A Community Program Manager position is in the process of being filled and will be the conduit with the contracts unit. Client Assistance Program (CAP) Report and Discussion: Jerry Johnsen Jerry gave a brief explanation about what CAP does. The Client Assistance Program is responsible for providing advocacy for both individuals and systemically for all programs/projects funded under the Rehabilitation Act as amended. Jerry noted that it has never been clearly understood what the CAP role is with Independent Living customers or the IL program. CAP is still in the process of figuring that out. A clear role that CAP does have is advocating for systemic issues within IL. CAP does not want to step in and tell the Centers what to do; they want to have a process where recipients can voice their concerns if they are unhappy. It is the responsibility of the CIL to inform IL recipients that CAP offers. Another responsibility that the CILs have is to inform DVR of their services. Jerry expressed that every VR office should know what the Independent Living programs are in their area and how they can benefit each other. SILC Development Subcommittee Report and Discussion: Dale Kosier Aerius is no longer with the SILC. There are five new members on the Board: Mark Leeper, Ryan Nabors, Krysta Van Woert, Almir Trejo, and Sheila Turner. There are two vacancies and they need to be filled as private business seats. Dale discussed the intent of having private business representative on the Council. Emilio suggested forming an ad hoc subcommittee to discuss filling these seats and changing the number of private business from two to one. Executive Director Report: Emilio Vela The SILC received verbal approval of a onetime grant by Department of Health for Emergency Response and Preparedness for $154,000. It will include three regional Train-the-Trainer 3 P a g e
workshops, and one Statewide Conference. Emilio gave credit and thanked the people involved with the driving of the grant proposal and helping plan the process. He especially thanked CFI s Todd Holloway, Zacchorelli Friscobaldi-Grimaldi, Alexandra Hatcher and APdA s Tom Lane. Northwest ADA Resource Center (NWADARC): Michael Richardson The Northwest ADA is one of ten regional centers across the country that provide technical assistance and information training about the meshes with Americans with Disabilities Act. NWADA covers Washington, Idaho, Oregon and Alaska, and housed with the Center for Continuing Education Rehabilitation with the UW s rehab medicine department. NWADA is funded by the National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research. The NWADA is not an enforcement agency to make people compliant with the ADA. NWADA provides trainings, awareness, and site surveys. The NWADA can also provide a funding model for mini grants regarding speakers for webinars and ADA trainings. The NWADA plans on supporting the 25 th anniversary of the ADA and also SILCs DOH grant with the mentioned resources. Public Comment Shawn Latham came to speak about: Lack of accessible/affordable housing, transportation, and employment. Involvement with advocacy groups. Mary Anderson came to speak about: Accessible public transportation and being a voice with the Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO). ACIL-WA SILC Summit Report and Discussion During the July Quarterly Meeting, a meeting was scheduled between the SILC and the ACIL-WA. The SILC and the ACIL-WA came together Ellensburg, mid-august, for a Summit meeting to discuss WIOA and the State plan for Independent Living (SPIL). A brief description was given of legislative process evolving to how SILCs function and how SPILs are created. All of the CILs were represented at the Summit and spoke about their roles. The group at the Summit meeting proposed changes to the SPIL, and have been recorded. The changes will be submitted as an update but there will be no official amendments to the current 2014-2016 SPIL. Patt Kosier with CFI discussed going to the NCIL conference in Washington DC over the summer. Washington State was perceived to be in trouble in the IL community. Patt expressed that Washington is making a strong, united comeback. WATAP: Samantha Murray The Washington Technical Assistance Program (WATAP) provides assistive technology (AT) services to people across the state of Washington for people in any age of their life. WATAP provides through four core programs; two of which are designed to help people make decisions about AT. WATAP does statewide loans for people to borrow AT from a library database. The other two programs are based on obtaining devices in alternate ways. WATAP works with 4 P a g e
Washington Access fund to provide low interest loans for AT. They also do trainings, technical assistance and information referral. WATAP is looking for an appointee for their advisory council and also consumer council members. SILC Budget Report: Emilio Vela Jr. The SILC has spent 67% of the budget for 2013-2014. The budget is $180,600 and SILC has spent $120,554. The budget includes salaries, rent, communications, training, contract services and other operational accommodation expenses. Emilio discussed again that having a 50% support staff is not enough for the SILC needs. He will work with the council in the future to develop a resource development plan to increase this position to full time. WIOA Changes IL has moved from Rehabilitation Services Administration under the Department of Education (DE) to the Administration for Community Living under the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS). Transition services are a fifth core service now in the law. The SILC can now be involved with resource development in conjunction with the CILs. Standards and indicators need to be in place for CILs and SILCs no later than one year after the change; there is a two year transfer period and exact dates are still being determined. WIOA makes the SPIL more important and have more power. WIOA changed the language from Designated State Unit (DSU) to Designated State Entity (DSE). WIOA now allows the SILC to choose what DSE to be fiscally associated with; the SILC will have this discussion in the coming year. Subcommittee Assignment Discussion Motion: Jana motioned to table the Subcommittee Assignment and Discussion to the January Meeting. Ryan seconded. There was no discussion. Motion passed with all in favor. Old and New Business Motion: Mark motioned to have Dale to represent SILC on the WSRC council. Jana seconded. The motion passed with all in favor. 2015 Quarterly meetings will be as follows: Olympia January 8 th and 9th Clarkston in April 9 th and 10th Seattle in July 9th and 10 th Yakima in October 8 th and 9 th Motion: Jana motioned to table elections till the April meeting. Mark seconded and the motion passed with all in favor. Adjourn Motion: Almir Trejo motioned to adjourn. Krysta Van Woert seconded and the motion passed. The meeting adjourned at 2:45 PM. 5 P a g e