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The mission of the CDDC is to advocate in collaboration
with and on behalf of people with developmental disabilities for the
establishment and implementation of public policy which will further their
independence, productivity and integration.
 
Call for
Presentations!!
The deadline for
Proposals
has been extended to July 8, 2009
Click HERE for online form to submit your proposal.
SAVE THE DATE!!
October 9 - 10,
2009
Summit Conference and Event Center
Aurora, Colorado
Learning from Each Other --
Things We Share
Aprendiendo uno del otro –
Cosas que compartimos
Second Annual Cultural Competence
and Responsiveness Conference
Would you like
to know what last year's conference was like?
The conference agenda is
available here.
Check this
website often for Conference Updates!!
We would like your
comments as the Council reviews the
Five-Year Plan 2007 - 2011
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The Council reviews its
Five-Year Plan each summer when it is possible to amend the Plan.
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The Council welcomes your
suggestions for possible amendments to the Five-Year Plan.
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You will find the
Five-Year Plan Goals and Objectives by clicking here.
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The Council will review
all public comments and decide whether or not to amend the Plan at its
meeting on July 22, 2009.
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Please e-mail us with your suggestions
for how the Plan might be amended by clicking here.
Change it Anyway
Changing systems can be frustrating, confusing
and time consuming;
Strive to change them anyway.
If you speak out for change,
they may accuse you of being self-serving;
Speak out anyway.
If you make changes that work,
they may pretend to be an ally or persist with attacks;
Make change anyway.
If you make honest attempts at change,
they may undermine your efforts;
Attempt change anyway.
What you spend years developing,
they may undo overnight;
Develop it anyway.
If your innovations are successful,
they may be jealous;
Innovate anyway.
The progress you achieve today,
they may forget tomorrow;
Make progress anyway.
Create positive change the best that you can,
and it may never be enough;
Give it the best you've got anyway.
You see, in the final analysis,
it is between you and the person relying on the system;
It was never between you and them anyway.
This is dedicated to all
those involved in changing human service systems to work better for people that
rely on them for support.
Adapted by Michael Steinbruck from The Paradoxical Commandments by Kent
M. Keith and Do it Anyway by Mother Theresa.
WORDS CAN HURT...OR WORDS CAN WELCOME: RESPECTFUL
LANGUAGE MAKES A DIFFERENCE
Click here for a bookmark from the New York State
Parent-to-Parent organization
The Colorado
Developmental Disabilities Council is seeking applications for membership on the
Council
The Council seeks applications throughout the year from interested citizens
of Colorado. Appointments by the Governor are generally made effective
July 1 of any year, but can be made at any time during the year when a
Council member resigns their position.
Click
here for the application form for Governor appointment to the Colorado
Developmental Disabilities Council, and for additional information
about Council membership. Applications may be submitted directly via this
link:
http://www.colorado.gov/cs/Satellite?c=Page&cid=1177024890343&pagename=GovRitter%2FGOVRLayout
About the Colorado Developmental
Disabilities Council:
The Colorado Developmental
Disabilities Council is a 24-member body appointed by the Governor to advise the
Governor and General Assembly on matters affecting persons with developmental
disabilities under the federal definition.
United States Public Law No. 106-402 (the Developmental Disabilities Act)
mandated creation of a Council on Developmental Disabilities in each state and
in all U.S. possessions and territories. The
CDDC was established in 1977.
The Colorado Developmental
Disabilities Council functions independently, advocating for the development and
implementation of public policy to further the independence, self-determination
and community inclusion of Coloradoans with developmental disabilities.
Check Upcoming Events for information on
conferences and events in Colorado and around the nation.
The Council meets every other month, and the meetings are open to the public.
Please join us! Click here for a schedule of upcoming
Council meetings.
Summary of Grant Projects and Activities
Colorado Developmental Disabilities Council
2009
Council
Grants and In-House Projects:
Autism Commission
Funding was granted to the
Autism Commission that was created by Governor Ritter to complete long-term
planning and recommendations to the legislature by the fall of 2009. The Council
funding will be used to support their work, including facilitation, report
writing, research and administration.
Cultural Competence &
Responsiveness Conference
The
first annual conference was held in October 2008, and a second conference is
planned for October 2009. The
conference will again include a two-day conference and a follow-up one-day
workshop to be held six months after the conference.
At the conference in October 2008 participants contributed to the
planning of the agenda for the follow-up workshop in a session based on
person-centered models. The Council
offered a unique model by combining the conference with a follow-up workshop,
based on the assumption that a follow-up workshop is more effective than the
more typical training provided by a one-time conference.
The workshop encourages participants to frame the content of the
workshop, implement some of the ideas they learned at the conference, and engage
in an interactive discussion of concepts, obstacles and opportunities.
Dan B. Davidson Annual Awards
for Excellence in Inclusion
These
awards recognize outstanding examples of inclusion of people with disabilities,
and honor
Dan Davidson, who died in 1996 at the age of forty-one. Defying the odds,
Davidson had followed his dream of living independently in the community. To
celebrate his spirit and memory, the Developmental Disabilities Council
recognizes individuals and organizations that have demonstrated visionary
practices—providing exemplary supports—for persons with disabilities leading
to meaningful lives in their neighborhoods and communities.
El Grupo Vida Leadership
Development and Empowerment Project
Conducted
by El Grupo Vida, the
project is guided by four goals: 1) Conduct training sessions in Spanish that
will provide an overview of the service system and written materials in Spanish,
2) teach Spanish-speaking families about the empowering tools of Future Plans
and Personal Networks, 3) Support a group of family members and people with
developmental disabilities to pursue their own plans for leadership development,
and 4) Provide computer training to family members so that they may better
access information needed to support their children with developmental
disabilities and their own community leadership efforts.
Enhanced Person-Centered
Planning Initiative Project
PEAK
Parent Center is
currently conducting the second year of the Enhanced Colorado Person-Centered
Planning Initiative Project to build upon and expand existing
person-centered planning efforts in Colorado.
The project will continue
to offer person-centered planning to young adults with developmental
disabilities, ages 21 to 30, to address the need for best-practices in life
planning for young adults, and to build
upon and expand existing person-centered planning efforts in Colorado.
The project will include young adults with developmental disabilities who
represent the broad range of ethnic, cultural and geographic diversity in
Colorado. All materials and training will again be offered in English and in
Spanish. The project will produce outcomes in the following areas:
1)
Person-centered planning facilitation services, with a focus on Aurora
for a Live-Building training series;
2)
Leadership
and self-advocacy development offered through a five-session course entitled
“Taking Charge!”
3)
Follow-up
and support for person-centered planning circles/networks,
4)
Training
in the facilitation of the person-centered planning processes in order to
increase the number of facilitators statewide,
5)
Marketing
of project activities for the purposes of recruitment for the Life building and
Taking Charge courses, and the increase in the number of person-centered
planning networks statewide, and
6)
Forming
a statewide coalition of person-centered planning initiatives.
PEAK's presentation to the Council on May 28, 2008 is available by clicking
here.
Full Access for All Abilities
Conducted
by Access and Ability in Weld County, The project will continue the
collaborative advocacy and training effort between Access and Ability and the
Arc of Weld County targeted to young adults with developmental disabilities and
their families. The project will continue to provide materials and training in
Spanish and in English to deliver a Mobilizing Families training series. The
project will initiate and support a Youth Leadership Team and continue work with
regional entities that provide services and supports in order to craft a
cooperative agreement to address issues of concern to people with developmental
disabilities and their families. Additionally,
the project has created a “Real
Work” Working Group and will continue to work with local and regional partners
to develop a policy that no transitioning youth will be referred to a sheltered
workshop for employment training. A significant goal of this Working Group is to
identify barriers to real work and post-secondary education for young adults
with developmental disabilities. Finally, the project will continue with the
development of a replicable database to track and identify barriers to community
inclusion for people with disabilities and their family members, and to monitor
the effectiveness of project training and advocacy activities.
Access and Ability's
presentation to the Planning and Grants Committee on March 17, 2008 is available
by clicking here.
Leadership
Development for African-American Parents
Native
American Self-Advocacy Project
Conducted by the Native American Disability Law Center in Farmington, New
Mexico, the grant was used for community outreach to encourage development of
self-advocacy groups in Southern Ute and Ute Mountain Ute communities in
Colorado. The grant activities ended in the early part of FFY2009.
Project
SEARCH in Colorado
Conducted
by Employment Link, the project will replicate the essential components of
Project SEARCH, which are:
1) Lead coordinating agency that has an emphasis on
business and familiarity with human resources in medium to large companies, as
well as having experience with job development, coaching and follow-along for
people with disabilities who have jobs in non-congregate settings;
2) Business partner (e.g. hospital, bank, or
university) that provides one classroom for 15 students and internships;
3) Local agency partners. For example, Vocational
Rehabilitation or a Center for Independent Living employs the internship
support/job coaches; the school district employs the classroom teacher and
recruits students;
4) Technical Assistance from Project SEARCH
consultants and the Project SEARCH curriculum;
5) Students with disabilities and family members who
are project participants shall have the opportunity to act in an advisory
capacity with other project partners.
Watch
Our Words
CO
Watch Our Words (WOW) is an in-house project of the Colorado Developmental
Disabilities Council. WOW addresses the Council’s objective to support
leadership training by people with disabilities and their family members for
other people with disabilities and family members who may become leaders in
Colorado by continuing to conduct trainings in facilitated communication. WOW
members are people with disabilities, their family members and other citizens
whose mission is to train other people with disabilities, family members and
interested citizens to use facilitated communication as a means to advocate for
themselves and to increase the visibility and active presence of people with
disabilities in many arenas. WOW’s trainings have been designed and conducted by WOW
members who are users of facilitated communication, with assistance from family
members and others who are facilitators for FC users. WOW has modeled and
encouraged leadership and participation by people with disabilities in a variety
of ways, from initiating and participating in person-centered planning meetings
to taking leadership positions in community organizations.
The
Council has supported the development of this self-advocacy group of facilitated
communication users through a grant that includes payment to a coordinator.
While her role is crucial to the ongoing work of WOW, it is the WOW
members who are FC users who play the key leadership roles.
What is significant about WOW as a self-advocacy organization is that the
FC users themselves lead the monthly meetings.
They have determined the agenda for each meeting, and have initiated the
practice of cross-training facilitators who attend WOW meetings so that they
learn to facilitate with different FC users. The FC users developed the training
curricula and agendas for the in-home and large-group FC trainings.
WOW is following best practices, in common with others who train large
groups, in that the FC users of WOW are the most important presenters at the
large-group trainings.
The
Council will fund eight groups who will grant scholarships to individuals and
family members for 2009.
The groups will be reimbursed for the scholarships following the event or
conference. The following groups currently function within the Council’s
Five-Year Plan as well as dovetail with the Council's values and mission. Please note that some of the links are specific to content on
the Council’s website at www.coddc.org
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ADAPT/Atlantis – Civil
disobedience actions and advocacy around the country regarding
institutionalization and the Community Choice Act legislation, contact Babs
Johnson (303) 733-9324. Worked
with national legislators and organizations re legislation and policy
changes in Washington DC to advocate for passage of Community Choice Act.
Website: www.adapt.org
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APSE – The Network on
Employment, annual conference in September, contact Gayann Brandenburg (303)
636-5600. Website: www.denveroptions.org.
CO APSE held a joint conference with Region VIII CRP RCEP in June 2008 on
community-supported employment for people with developmental disabilities.
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Assistive Technology Conference
– annual conference on assistive technology in June, contact Kathy Bodine
or Julia Beems (303) 315-1280. Website: http://www.uchsc.edu/atp/events.html
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El Grupo Vida – Annual
conference for Spanish speaking families in October, contact El Grupo Vida 303-904-6073.
Council’s grant is used to provide support to Spanish-speaking
people with developmental disabilities and family members to access
conferences, trainings and workshops, including funding for interpreter
services. Website: www.elgrupovida.org
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EMPOWER/CO.
– Funding to support childcare of monthly parent training groups for
parents of children with mental health needs in rural and urban areas across
CO. Contact is Cheri Bena at bena303@msn.com
Website: http://www.empowercolorado.com/
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Inclusion Conference – annual
conference on inclusive education in January, contact PEAK Parent Center,
1-800-284-0251. Website:
www.peakparent.org. Scholarships were provided to family
members and people with disabilities who had not attended conference before
or were ethnic minorities or were from rural areas.
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Joint
Conference of the Mental Health and Developmental Disabilities communities,
April 5-7, 2009 in Fort Collins, Colorado. The conference is the 21st
annual Colorado Child and Adolescent Mental Health Coalition Conference,
entitled “Building a ‘Green’ System of Care: Changing the Environment
of Mental Health Services. More
information is available at http://www.ccamhc.org/form_registration_2009.pdf.
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Training for Transition
–ongoing training for families/students ages 14 and up, contact Lynn
Robinson at Colorado Easter Seals (303) 233-1666.
In 2008 training was provided to families and young adults with
developmental disabilities concerning transition from high school to working
and living in the community. Website: http://co.easterseals.com
Council
Activities:
The
Council publishing a quarterly newsletter that is posted on its website and sent
to the 3800-member mailing list. Minutes from Council and committee meetings are
posted on the Council’s website, as well as pertinent articles and links to
informative websites and publications. The website is presented in three
formats; English, Spanish and accessible to screen readers.
The
Council’s Legislative and Public Policy Committee meets weekly at the Capitol
during the legislative session, January through May.
The Council’s legislative analyst for the 2009 legislative session,
Sheryle Hutter, follows bills that the Committee determines relevant to the
Council’s Five-Year Plan. Following is an update and a summary of bills
currently being followed by the Council and its Legislative and Public Policy
Committee:
1.
HB 1048 (LaBuda) was PI’d (postponed indefinitely). It has been replaced with HB 1281. It has to do the boards of Housing, Health and Human Services
being encouraged to include people with disabilities, family members and
advocates on the boards.
2.
HB 1273: Colorado Health Care bill will be coming up on March 4.
Rep. Kafalas is the sponsor. Sheryle Hutter will send out the talking
points for the bill, and encourages people to testify on the bill.
3.
SB 103: Insurance ethics act: would restrict insurance companies from
giving incentive pay to adjusters or staff to either reduce or deny claims. It
will be coming to the floor, probably next week.
4.
HB 1001: tax credit for employers that create and fill 20 positions in a
calendar year has been challenged because the tax credit for hiring people with
developmental disabilities had been tabled due to budget restraints.
Sheryle Hutter thinks that the tax credit may be reinstated. Sheryle
Hutter is pushing to have small businesses included (there are 360,000 small
businesses in Colorado) because a tax credit that would include small business
would probably provide more opportunities for employment of the people with
developmental disabilities than big business that will be creating highly
skilled, high paying positions.
5.
SB 228 concerns Rescinding the
6% Arveschoug-Bird limit on stage agency budgets.
The Spring 2009 Newsletter, "Between the Lines," is
available now online. Just click here.
About the Colorado Developmental
Disabilities Council:
The Colorado Developmental
Disabilities Council is a 24-member body appointed by the Governor to advise the
Governor and General Assembly on matters affecting persons with developmental
disabilities under the federal definition.
United States Public Law No. 106-402 (the Developmental Disabilities Act)
mandated creation of a Council on Developmental Disabilities in each state and
in all U.S. possessions and territories. The
CDDC was established in 1977.
The Colorado Developmental
Disabilities Council functions independently, advocating for the development and
implementation of public policy to further the independence, self-determination
and community inclusion of Coloradoans with developmental disabilities.
Areas of Emphasis and Goals and Objectives for
Five-Year Plan 2007-2011
Colorado Developmental Disabilities Council
Employment
Goal 1: Support and sustain successful community
inclusion and employment of people with developmental disabilities.
Objective 1 :
Participate in and
support a network of agencies providing education, training, employment and
other supports to employers, community members and people with disabilities.
Objective 2: Support the
cultivation of natural supports within employment settings that foster job
retention, skill achievement/enhancement and employee success.
Objective 3: Promote and increase
the active participation of people with developmental disabilities in
designing the approach and implementation of employment strategies.
Goal 2:
Promote community-supported employment
Objective 1: Reestablish a policy through legislative advocacy
that sheltered workshops will not receive any new funding.
Objective 2: Establish a policy that no person transitioning
from education to work would be transitioned into sheltered work.
Formal and Informal Community Supports
(Individuals have access to other services available or offered in a community, including formal and informal community supports that affect their quality of life.)
Goal 1: Support communities and community organizations
to increase their capacity to create new options and strategies to meaningfully
include people with developmental disabilities and their family members.
Objective 1: Promote and support person-centered approaches in planning
with people with developmental disabilities, including children and
family members, regarding individuals transitioning into
adult life, employment, post-secondary education, home
ownership, transportation and recreation.
Objective 2: Inform the
legislature and other policymakers of the benefits of
implementing policies that promote the inclusion and
participation of people with developmental disabilities
in all aspects of community life.
Health
Goal 1:
Engage in and support systems advocacy and legislation on health issues.
Objective 1: :
Engage and support systems advocacy
and legislation for targeted health care such as the reduction and
elimination of the wait list, universal access for healthcare (208 commission
activities,) and person-centered planning such as the implementation of House
Bill 05-1243.
Council member, Dr.
Irene Aguilar, co-chaired the Vulnerable Populations
Task Force of the 208 Commission. Her presentation to
the House Health and Human Services Committee from March
2008 is available by clicking here.
Quality Assurance
(People have the information, skills, opportunities, and support to live free of abuse, neglect, financial and sexual exploitation, and violation of their human and legal rights and the inappropriate use of restraints or seclusion. Quality assurance systems contribute to and protect self-determination, independence, productivity, and integration and inclusion in all facets of community life.)
Goal 1:
Promote and support the development of leadership and
self-advocacy capacity among people with developmental disabilities and their family members.
Objective 1:
Support leadership training by people with disabilities and their family members for other people with
developmental disabilities and
family members who may become leaders in Colorado.
Objective 2: Support policy-making
groups to actively include people with developmental disabilities and family members in
decision-making processes.
Objective 3: Serve as a representative voice of the cultural
competence and cultural diversity interests and concerns among Colorado
citizens with developmental disabilities.
Objective 4: Support and expand participation of people with developmental
disabilities in cross-disability and culturally diverse leadership coalitions.
Objective
5:
Establish or strengthen a program for the direct funding of a State
self-advocacy organization led by people with developmental disabilities.
Goal 2:
The Council
and its Committees receive staff and administrative support to effectively
implement the Council’s mission and goals.
Objective 1: Each year of the State Plan, provide input as appropriate
representing the philosophies and positions of the Council on public policy
issues affecting people with developmental disabilities, and coordinate various
activities to provide information to the public.
Objective 2:
Each year of the State Plan, coordinate the Council’s planning
processes, develop and evaluate model projects, and provide monitoring to grant
projects
Objective 3:
Each year of the State Plan, provide support and coordination for
meetings of the Council and Committees, and leadership and administrative
coordination to implement Council approved activities.
As part of the Council's implementation of Objective 1 under Quality
Assurance the Council directly supports self-advocacy and leadership
development through a grant to Watch Our Words (WOW). WOW is a
group of facilitated communication users, their facilitators and friends who
meet monthly alternately in Lafayette and in Denver. WOW offers trainings to any groups interested in learning
about facilitated communication. WOW
has also produced two DVDs, one with short documentaries about 5 WOW members,
and another that can be used as a training video.
Click here for the documentaries on Michael
Hoover, Jaison Hart, Daniel
Sutter, Sharisa Kochmeister and
Chris Patton. Click here for the training segments
"What is FC" and "Learning to be a Facilitator."
You may call or email the Council to have a set of DVDs mailed
to you, at no charge. Please use the "Contact Us" form on this
website, or call the Council at (720) 941-0176. Thanks!
In this booklet the Colorado Developmental Disabilities
Council presents its Five-Year Plan for 2007-2011:
Folder and Goals and Objectives
Please contact the Council to have a booklet mailed to you
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