NC Statewide Independent Living Council
Meeting Minutes
April 1, 2016
Country Inn & Suites, Burlington, NC

Welcome/Mission /Minutes
The meeting was called to order at by Chair Kay Miley at 9:08am.  

SILC Mission was read by Debbie Hippler

SILC Accessibility Reminders was read by Debbie Hippler

Introductions: Introductions were made by all.
Absent members: Sabrina Dionne who is in the hospital.

(Action) Approval of Agenda – Corrections needed, after the approval of January minutes, Jan will tell us about something coming up on Tuesday; she has to leave early.  Some reports will differ.  Mark Steele’s report will be after lunch.
(Gary Ray/Kimlyn Lambert) Motion carried unanimously

(Action) Approval of the minutes – (Gary Ray/Paul LaVack) Motion carried unanimously

Ex. Officio Report  
Division of Services for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing                       Janet Withers

I have to leave a little before noon today.  What I wanted to share this morning is that I will be at a legislative meeting Tuesday morning that could affect North Carolina interpreters/ transliterator licensing board.  A bill was drafted by not introduced that job occupational licensing boards proposed for elimination.  One was the North Carolina interpreter transliteration licensing board.  That resulted from a study that occurred in the fall of 2014.  The North Carolina General Assembly recommended that program evaluation do a study of all the occupational licensing boards.  They had some people survey with a rating system.  The survey was not sent out; it was developed internally as a study.  One question for example asked whether there is harm to North Carolina if that licensure was removed and the North Carolina interpreter license board had very low scores.  Doctors and lawyers received high score so that is the perception of harm if licensure was removed.  The licensing board itself submitted a response to the study and their comment was that the score should be higher because doctors and lawyers rely on interpreters to provide their services.  My point is no action was taken during the summer last year but now they are planning to take action on this.  It will be a legislative committee meeting on Tuesday, where the public has the opportunity to present comments.  The name of the committee is a long one, Joint Legislative Administrative Procedure Oversight Committee.  That meeting is at 9:30am.  It will take place in the legislative office building.  It will be in room 544.   Anyone is welcome to submit comments.  I believe that if you want to make a comment you have to send a request to a specific address.  I believe that email address belongs to one of the co-chairs; I’m thinking Hartsell.  I can share that information by sending it to Debbie who can send it out to everyone.  I just wanted to make you all aware.  

Pamela Lloyd Ogoke is asking if written comments are accepted if you are unable to attend in person.

I’m sure they would welcome written comments but as part of public comments I don’t know.

Julia Sain - Thank you Jan.  I just want some clarification.  When the legislators are talking about eliminating the board, is that the same thing as doing away with the requirement for licensure  for this state or would that mean that someone else would oversee the license interpreters?

Jan Withers – That is a good question.  The initial thought was to possibly set an umbrella which would regulate all license boards.  The program evaluation initiative decided that was not a recommendation.  The legislators felt that some of the boards were not needed.  They recommended those 12 boards.  That means that license itself would be eliminated.

Pamela Lloyd-Ogoke – I’d like to emphasis that you support those comments whether you use interpreters every day or not.  This is a huge impact of removal of this licensure, a very negative impact.  There are people out there who call themselves interpreters who took maybe one or two classes and their skills are nonexistent.  If you are in court your outcome depends on the skills of your interpreter.  The interpreter can really affect your outcome.  This can harm individuals and the profession. This really does affect everyone even if this is not your daily thing.  Think of all who are deaf or hard of hearing this could affect.  

Jan Withers – I would like to add, licensure is the only mechanism that establishes minimum standards for all interpreters who can interpret and be compensated.  There are various certifications and there are different types of interpreters and transliterators.  There was no one standard minimum standard for all interpreters whose goal was to work and be compensated.  Licensure provides that.  


Keith Greenarch – Good morning.  I want to announce that the SILC has made a change in some SILC office personnel.  I’m very proud of that.  I know that you know we have been without an Executive Director for close to a year.  The Executive committee has been working as the ED in that role.  We’ve also had someone else who has been working shoulder to shoulder with us and has been very good and brings a lot of knowledge.  That is Debbie Hippler.  She has been named Operations Manager.  She will manage the day to day work of the SILC and she has been doing that all along.  

Back to member activities you need to be contacting your chair of your committee or you need to contact Kay or myself about other matters.  There are a lot of calls that Debbie gets that can be handled by someone else.  Debbie is doing 26 hours a week and will be doing full force.  She has been doing that and we want to thank her for that.  I think this is a good move a positive move going forward.  She had been very instrumental being right there with us with the SPIL writing committee.  She has gained a lot of knowledge in her 7 years with the SILC and sometimes you need to talk to her about her background.  She has a very impressive background that she brings.  Debbie thank you so much for keeping us a float as we move forward we hope and pray that we can keep this ship going for a long time.


Goal Committee Reports

Goal 1 Provision of Quality Services                                        Rene Cummins, chair
Unlike our usual reports, because we are meeting so early in the month of April all of the committee reports will be based on the two months of reports since the last SILC meeting.  The reports for March were not available.  

We are five out of twelve months through our fiscal year.  We should be roughly at 42% for achieving our outcomes and expenditures.  

The activity of network building has no activity to report but Helen is going to be integrating Mark Steel’s report in where it fits in the goals.  In a few moments she will update us on what is scheduled and upcoming.

For the activity of staff development, funds have been used for various activities including the Southeast ADA Center training, the ILRU webinars, assisting the center directors to come to these SILC meetings and there was also a recent Youth Transition Conference in High Point that staff was able to attend.  

At this point the funding utilized is at 35.5%, a little under but Helen will fill you in on upcoming events that will bring us to the point where we should be and possibly exceeding this.  

Helen Pase – I am reporting this for Mark.  The CILs maintain an ongoing dialogue, monthly teleconference calls and a face to face at the SILC which we did yesterday.  We have been working on Goals 1 – 4 and objectives 3.1 and 3.2 for the new SPIL.  We are planning a center director’s retreat in May.  That will be our 2nd one for the year as written in the SPIL.  We also are going to the Southeast Center Director’s meeting in April in Mobile, Alabama.  This is our second training from them for the year.  We are working on an organization chart for the network.  



Goal 2 Leadership and Empowerment of individuals with disabilities: 
										                Gary Ray, chair
Under our goal we have two objectives.  Goal 2.1 has to do with youth specifically the Youth Leadership Forum   I’m going to ask Nellie Galindo to give her report here.

Nellie Galindo – I am the Youth Program Coordinator at Alliance of Disability Advocates, we are the holder of the Youth Leadership Forum contract.  I would like to ask Debbie to play a video of last year’s forum.  Some may recognize this; it’s about a 9 minute video we made to promote Youth Leadership Forum across the state.  We get the majority of applicants from Wake County but would like to get youth from all 100 counties.  It is closed captions but not audio described so I will try my best to audio describe.    (video shown)

 We have a planning committee made up of young people with disabilities, some professional peers like Vocational Rehabilitation, Division of Services for the Blind and other organizations and CIL peers.  They are really the ones organizing and creating the Youth Leadership Forum.  I do the coordinating; making sure that every group and subcommittee is meeting their deadlines.  

Right now we have extended our application deadline from the 15th to the 31st.  Because it is a competitive application we wanted to be sure there were enough applications in the pool to choose from.  As of yesterday we have 31 applicants of which we will choose 20.  If the application was postmarked on the 31st we would accept it.  We want youth who are really excited and want to learn for that week.  We will be sending out the applications to the planning committee who will vote and decide on participants.  Those not selected will automatically be alternates to fulfill any position that may become open.  That ensures we have 20 delegates.  We really have not spent much money because we haven’t gotten to that point.  At the end of the month in May we will have a staff training for all members on the planning committee who will be attending the Youth Leadership Forum.  This training will happen in Kernersville, a central location.  The bulk of the planning will come after the delegation is chosen.  We will know then the accommodations needed.  One question I get often is, “What can I do to help?”  Last year Oshana Watkins, to my left, was able to get us a target gift card for $250.  Anyone can walk in and ask for donations, you can give them the tax ID for Alliance making it tax exempt. We can use all gift cards to purchase food and other items like sheets and supplies needed.  We have gotten food donations, just contact us and ask regarding donations.  All is helpful, no amount is too small. 

 We have had some folks in the past ask if their agency can sponsor a delegate. Yes indeed, it is free for the delegates but not free for us.  If you would like to support a delegate we can do that as well.  

Kimlyn Lambert - I wanted to ask if you had a PayPal account that we could put on the website for people to donate.  More people could donate even in just small amounts.

Nellie Galindo - I know there is one on our center’s website but I don’t think we have one for Youth Leadership Forum.  

Vicki Smith – If you have a Pay Pal account you can designate to where that donation would go rather than to the center.  If would save you the cost of opening a second Pay Pal.  

Chris Egan – I was checking on the YLF site again. One of our former staff was listed I would like to be sure we have a connection with you.

Nellie Galindo - Part of our YLF contract is getting national speakers.  I’m working with two people, one is Michael Bears and I’ve been talking to Suki Glick who came two years ago.  

Gary Ray – I would like to thank Nellie for coming to report to us.  We are certain that none of our funds will revert to the federal government.  Remember we don’t want to send any money back to the federal government.  That was 2.1.

Goal 2.2 is disability trainings and history presentations will occur. So far there have been 377 combined between those two.  I can’t break those out because we don’t have consistent reporting.  I will be working with Mark Steele so this reporting is consistent so we can monitor, review and evaluate.  On this line item only 18% of the funds have been spent.  At this time in our year we should be at 42%.  So I will be working with Mark.  The good thing is we can do a budget revision so it can be spent so the bottom line is money don’t go back to the federal government.  In July we will be much close to having our money spent.  

Rene Cummins – I’m just going to exercise my prerogative as Gary’s mentor.  I just want to say that Gary has stepped up as a new member to chair a committee.  I want to reinforce is that 377 far surpasses the SPIL outcomes.  That is why centers can do a budget revision. The cost of doing those presentations obviously is not at the same level as the number of outcomes.  This is a good thing, knowing this early in the game we are half way through the fiscal year, a budget revision will address this.  We have far exceeded the outcomes.

Sandy Ogburn – Gary, I want to reiterate what Rene said about stepping up as a new member and being willing to chair a committee.  As a ½ chair on the membership committee I know it’s a big job. To all new members we are going to revamp our mentor program and try to get more of a guideline to what a mentor should do to help new members.  I know you are in the dark because it takes a while to understand what we are doing.  Please if any of us more seasoned members can help, please grab anyone of us.  I’m sure anyone would be willing to answer or find the answer to any of your questions.  We are glad you are all here and want to help you out.  

Goal 3 Growth and Improvement of Independent Living Services:
Helen Pase, chair
Goal 3 Objective 3.1, one of the activities is that Part B and Part C Centers maintain financial support from Title VII Part B funding.  All the centers are successfully performing our 4 core services; Information and Referral, Peer Mentoring, Teaching Independent Living skills, and Advocacy.  Without this support of Part B funds, we would not be able to provide these direct services to people with disabilities.  


Goal 4 Support NCSILC office:                                              Oshana Watkins, Chair
No report

BREAK – 10:02 – 10:20


Goal 6 DSUs Provide Independent Living Services:                 Teresa Staley, Chair
Since the last meeting on the 19th of February, we were uncertain of what we were supposed to evaluate.  Patricia Sikes and Pamela and I met and discussed a situation in Greensboro looking at a transportation issues.  A consumer was having a problem with the local transit system because the transit was refusing to drive up a hill to pick them up.  Patricia said that she would seek opinions from her colleagues about situations like this.  

We discussed Tavonne’s concerns regarding veterans received communications regarding services. Pam spoke of Vocational Rehabilitation’s outreach to veterans and their work with The Wounded Warrior project.  Basically we were going to follow up with the advisory counselor in Greensboro.  

The goals we are supposed to look at are, how the DSU works in conjunction with access to transportation, necessary supports in the community and veteran services.  We are going to have a brief meeting over lunch and revisit the goals.  I think in the new spil this goal is not in there.

Pamela Lloyd – Ogoke – To clarify, we were told that the goal would be in the new SPIL.  Patricia and I have been working on that and will report on that later.

Standing Committees
Executive Committee                                                                         Kay Miley, Chair
I’ve been sick so I haven’t been able to do much.  I’d like to ask Keith to give an update.

Keith Greenarch – We’ve been working very hard with the SPIL writing committee, I won’t take away from Rene’s report.  We’ve taken information gathered from the sessions we held across the state.  We have compiled that information.  There has been a group meeting diligently.  Rene has done a good job and will report later.  

We are working on our DSE and the funding for the upcoming year.  It’s basically been work as usual, behind the scenes that you don’t see but takes up a lot of time, stuff that has to be done, planning and looking down the road we have so many things with new the WIOA.  We have to be sure we are in compliance in every way.  There are too many things to mention in one meeting.  Until you get in and work with the meat you don’t realize what all is there, it is a lot.  There are a lot of opportunities to explore and we are not leaving any stone unturned.  

Kay Miley – I want to thank Keith for all he has done for me.  He does a really good job.  I’m very proud of the SPIL committee.  

Finance Committee                                                                         Ping Miller, Chair
We had our last meeting on March 15th during that meeting we had an electronic vote on a budget revision.  We had requested budget line items to transfer unused funds from the Executive Director’s salary, so this is probably the appropriate time to congratulate Debbie.  The decision was made to make her the part time Operations Manager.  We did adjustments in salary and fringe benefits to increase budget in accounting and tax services to cover payroll service fees, filing fees, professional services for the sound system for meeting, supplies and staff travel for the Independent Living Summit.  This was submitted on March 10.  This will not be the only revision.  There are some other changes in the office regarding accounting staff.  Keith or Debbie would you like to share about that.  

Debbie Hippler – Kathleen Boate gave us her keys Tuesday night and left with no notice.  I contacted Freida Moore who left the SILC while battling cancer.  She has beaten that and is willing to come back into her old position to replace Kathleen.  Since this happened so quickly, she does not have an email set up but it is being worked on.

Ping Miller - So in regards to that we are looking at doing some revisions to get a contractor to help us with the Independent Living summit.

Operation perspective we are under burning 28% but there are future expenses that will bring us up so we are on target. There were some process improvements that have been executed where the CIL’s reports were sent directly to the SILC office at the same time they went out to VR. Thank you so much for helping us move forward in the right direction to get reports timely.

For those who did support Amazon Smile, we did get $22.12.  Debbie can you educate us, is this something we can continue to use?

Debbie Hippler – Yes, this is something you can use.  You go to smile. Amazon and you are asked what nonprofit you wish to support.  You find NCSILC and a small percentage of your purchase will be donated to us.  I will send that link out to all, I had sent it out in November hoping people could use it while Christmas shopping.

Sandy Ogburn – I don’t do Amazon that much but I have a friend that gets an Amazon box almost every day during the week.  I’m going to hook her up.

Dave Wickstrom – I’m just going to interject.  I don’t know how big Kroger is down here but they have a great community partners program. Our SILC in Kentucky got a couple thousand.  If you use your Kroger card you get a good percentage back quarterly.

Sandy 0gburn – I think Food Lion does also.

Debbie Hippler – There are lots like Target and Harris Teeter.

Gary Ray – Will this work with Amazon Prime?

Debbie Hippler – Yes.

Ping Miller – For the fund report the CIL’s Part B funds, the latest I have is through January, I know it’s a little dated.  In context we have all January numbers and based on that the remaining should’ve been on 67%  the ones above that are just above for the purpose of disclosure and I know they will burn their funds down are:  86% Pathways Sylva, 82% at Pathways Asheville, 74% DARC, 79% Disability Resource Center.  I recognize there is concerted effort to zero down.

Julia Sain - You all approved us additional funds for an updated contract and some of us that money became available the 1st of February others later.  So just to say that if a center was expecting the money to come in and they might’ve burned through a little more of the original.  My February P&E didn’t include the new money, my March will include this.  I got an extra $15,801 that would not be reflected yet.  When we are looking at how much the CILs have to spend that was on the original contract.  All of us got this amount.  We have from the report this morning we have conferences and the Independent Living Summit coming up so some folks are holding some of that new or old so that we can do the things need doing.  I’m interest in the report with the March figures.  Its great numbers to have and keeping the report consistent is huge and what is reported today doesn’t include the extra money.

Ping Miller – The ISLC office is showing an under burn because we know that there are big expenses coming.  There is a request, the last item.  We have been approached in regards to the sponsorship for the GREAT Conference 2016.  The amount is $2500.  We have the funds to support continuing the partnership so I would propose that the next revision include this amount.  We will table that but we have this great conference coming.  Are there any questions?

Paul LaVack – Yes, to the smile.amazon, is there a link on the Facebook page?  I didn’t see it yesterday while on.  Do we have a linked in acct?  We should get one and put the link on there as well.

Gary Ray – Ping, I want to ask you as our treasurer, do you believe we will successfully spend all our funds by the end of September?  This is the last year of our state plan.  We don’t want to send any money back to the government.

Ping Miller – I believe we will spend a lot of it in the coming months.  

Gary Ray – That is not the question I asked.  

Ping Miller – We will zero down.

Gary Ray – For the new people, if you send money back, they will think you don’t need as much.  That is why it’s so important to stay on track and spend the funds because the government does not need to think the need is not there and for us to get a reduced amount.

Policy Committee							Joshua Kaufman, Chair
We have recently been working on formalizing the membership committee responsibilities, the requirement for a full year of mentorship.  Currently we have a draft proposal; it is in the review process and should be voted on before the July meeting.  There are a couple of policy issues that have not moved forward as hoped.  With the coming of the end of the academic year I am hopeful we can make progress on the policy, bylaw issues.  The other thing we’ve been working on is training for the member enrichment Thursday events associated with the quarterly meetings.  We should have in the next couple of weeks, have things finalized for the July and October member enrichment.  One of the things we would like to have from the SILC members is feedback on what it is you would like to see or information you feel you need exposed to or clarification on concepts and issues on which you feel you don’t have a full or good grasp.  It is difficult for us to provide training on Thursday without knowing what you as a new or continuing member feel you need more information.  That needs to be a two way communication. So it is not just us putting together on what we think you need more information.  As new members you don’t know what you don’t know.  But for those who have been here a little bit you probably have an idea of ok, I think I understand this but if I had more information it would provide more clarity.  If you have any feedback, please send it out me or one of the other members of the policy committee.  

Gary Ray – Not a question but a comment on the mentorship. Luckily I have known Rene since she first came to Raleigh so when she was assigned as my mentor I was not afraid to approach her and say, what the hell just happened.  I firmly believe we need the mentorship program.  You need to have somebody you are not afraid to talk to and ask what is going on.  We don’t like to look stupid and if we have to ask questions we look stupid.  No it is not, that is how I got to where I am today.  I’m a whole lot further along because I had someone to ask the 	questions and not feel stupid.  

Sandy Ogburn – Everybody is not like Gary and I, if we have a question or an issue we are going to find somebody to answer.  We have realized that we’ve dropped the ball on the mentorship program; we have been assigning mentors but just giving them the name.  Keith, Joshua and I and a lot of us have been talking and we really do want to start developing guidelines f or the actual mentor.  That we contact on a regular basis, that we make the initiative not the new member.  And we are hoping that will help clear up some things.  Over the next few months, by the time it becomes a policy we can implement.  Please contact your mentor or anyone on the council and we will get you your answers.

Joshua Kaufman – Are there any other questions for Policies?  I would like to wrap up with a small analogy.  As the Disability Service and ADA Coordinator at UNC Asheville, I’ve been involved in academic support for over 15 years now.  I used to supervise an academic support program at Western Carolina for students in a trial program, students who were first generation with parents who did not have a four year college degree.  These were students who met income guidelines, students with disabilities. They were typically students who are underrepresented at a higher education level.  When we looked at the statistics of students who were successful, they were the students who used the tutoring services available.  Looking in the same population, those making lower grades where those who did not use the academic support available.  So, the mentors are essentially your tutors. If you want to be a successful and contributing member of the SILC, the best way to do so is to make use of those resources and to ask questions and ask for support.  When we look at statistics of college level, those who use the resources are the ones who are successful, not the ones who pretend they know what it going on.

Debbie Hippler – To all members, there are online courses, webinars, a plethora of information on the ILRU website.  I sent a link out to the newest members.  There is a course called Smooth as SILC that you can sign up for.  Please look at the offerings at ilru.org.  If there is a registration fee, contact the office, we will work to be sure you take the courses you desire.  

Membership Committee                                                          Keith Greenarch, Chair  
Josh I thought that was a great analogy, it does pair right along with what the membership committee has been talking about.  We realize that we come and do our business and we get things done but it’s like we are always in a reactive mode, reacting and not being proactive.  That is just sometimes the nature of the beast but we have to stop and take a breath and realize that as folks come on and folks go off we have to make sure that those who come behind us have the knowledge on how to run this organization.  Its existence is up to us and the future is up to us, we have to lay the groundwork at this time.  I really feel since I’ve been here there has not been a good job done on this.  The membership committee is coming up with ground work on how the mentorship program should work; guidelines and timelines to follow.  Hopefully each member will be mentored for at least one year.  Once you are assigned a mentor that you will work with one on one for a year.  They should follow up by phone and at the meetings, once or twice a month.  The mentee would then graduate at the end of the year from being the person mentored to becoming the mentor.  With that being said, our membership committee met here in January, we had folks to clarify things on.  We have two new members here, Melea and Sabrina.  I think they will add a lot to our council.  Sabrina is not here today, she is in the hospital.  That is your only excuse for absence; you have to be in the hospital.  At this time we have no pending applications to look at.  We need to get our members to start talking to people in the community that could add to our council and bring their talents to this board.  We really need someone in the Boone area, that is an area we have not had any representation from; Wilkes and Watauga counties where there are no services, having to refer requests to the local Vocational Rehabilitation Independent Living office.  We also need someone from the upper north east, outer banks areas.  We were looking for applications from those areas.  Please get the information to share.  It’s on our website and if you give Debbie a name she can mail an application to them.  We talk to a lot of people when we go out and we get a lot of interest but we just don’t get the follow through.  That goes back to reactive and proactive.  Be proactive as we move forward.  The membership committee meets regularly on the second Wednesday of the month at 11:15.  Any new member is free to join us, get with me or Debbie to get the information.

Dave Wickstrom – I want to let everybody know, talking about ILRU.  ILRU staff is coming to Alliance and will be on site.  Maybe that is an opportunity to maybe have a ½ day, I can talk to them about that.  I would absolutely love to utilize that. I asked for them to come in to help me, being proactive.  I don’t know the exact dates.  Tim and Paula, if there is an opportunities the center can host that.

Sierra –As the Youth Leadership Forum is coming, if you have areas you are looking at, talk to Nellie and the Youth Leadership Forum committee if youth are coming that week from those areas.  Maybe you could get contact information from to recruit youth to be on the SILC.

SPIL Writing Committee                                                            Rene Cummins, Chair
I do want to thank everyone who has been putting in long hours and lots of travel to be present.  We met weekly for four weeks in a row and subsequent to that we have been working on other issues that involved people coming more than once to Raleigh in a single week.  This is an onerous task to come up with what the next three years are to look like.  

The other thing that I want all to be aware of is that all of our six Ex. Officios are currently working on what I’m terming collaboration because there is a place where we talk about how the SILC is collaborating with other entities.  It makes sense that we show collaboration with each of our Ex. Officios.  Some have proposed and this is all in process.  That will be included in the SPIL.  That is their part, their buy in so they are represented in the next SPIL.  To follow up with what Teresa said earlier.  We checked on whether our DSU which will be our DSE will have to have a goal in the next plan.  They will because they receive the state level funds in our state for Independent Living services. If you have any Independent Living services going on in the state that needs to be recorded and represented in the SPIL.  That is where Pamela Lloyd-Ogoke mentioned that she is working with Patricia Sikes. They are crafting an outcomes focus goal for Independent Living services with state funds that go to the VRIL program.  That is where the other goal is coming from.

What we are going to look at today and vote on is a draft of the activities of the work plan for our next SPIL.  This is what the activities will look like.  As Keith was saying, this is the result of the on the road, crossing the state at the information gathering sessions. We took all that raw data and the responses to the questions that all had an opportunity to respond.  We formed committees from the SPIL writing group.  Each committee analyzed all the responses on each of the four questions. This was following the California model.  It was recommended from ACL, our new home in the Independent Living administration to use this model.  We took all data and each committee analyzed and came up with themes of what was most recurring.  In this very short plan, because we can’t do everything in one state plan, but the activities crafted are our attempt to address the major themes.  Some of that will dovetail into what our Ex. Officios will propose as collaboration.  I think the SPIL has a lot of far reaching attempts to address the major themes and trends in all the data.  

There are two short revisions; a minor grammatical error in the second activity 3.1 outcome deleting a redundant word, the second change came from the CIL directors who met to review the SPIL.  It has to do with the activity on transportation.  Debbie, do you have a copy?  

Debbie Hippler – I do, I have it on the screen.  Do you want me to read all the goals?

Rene Cummins – The thinking behind the change is that where the previous transportation activity was headed was seen to be not something easily monitored, reviewed and evaluated.  That will be our job once we determined these will be the funded activities with Part B money. This becomes all our responsibility to monitor, review and evaluate how we are doing under these outcomes.  That is the way you read an outcomes focused state plan.  You read the activities from the bottom up. If we achieve the outcomes with the measurable numbers, that will bring us closer to achieving the outcome which will bring us closer to achieving the goal. The activities are where we focus our attention.  

That revision will be read as it was the only activity completely revised.  This is the only change.  

Debbie Hippler – I have been asked to read all of it just in case anyone has not had the chance to read it all.  You will vote on this today.

Goal 1: The network of North Carolina provides quality services as needed by people with disabilities
	Objective 1.1 The Independent Living Network staff members are well trained.
Activities: 
* Annually a  minimum of 8 Independent Living Network Staff per year are trained by attending conferences such as but not limited to National Council on Independent Living (NCIL),  Association of Programs for Rural Independent Living (APRIL), Southeastern Center Directors Association (SECDA), the National Americans with Disabilities Act Symposium,   Disability Rights NC, GREAT Conference, etc.
* Annually the Independent Living Network conducts 2 Independent Living retreats to focus on network building  and the dissemination of a uniform service delivery manual 
* Annually The Independent Living Network will meet in person at the SILC quarterly meetings which will in focus on network building and the development of a uniform service delivery manual.
* Upon request, The Independent Living Network will provide Information on “How to Start a Center for Independent Living” to a Grass Roots Advocacy organization in unserved areas of North Carolina. 

Goal 2: People with disabilities in North Carolina have increased leadership and empowerment
Objective 2.1 Youth with disabilities are prepared for leadership roles.
Activities
* Annually the Independent Living network recruits 20 Youth with disabilities and coordinates a Youth Leadership Forum.
* Annually the Independent Living network provides training on about Independent Living to including transitions to post secondary education and/or employment for a minimum of 50 youth with disabilities.
* Annually the Independent Living Network provides a minimum of 8 outreach events to youth with disabilities in rural areas.
* Annually the SILC assists 2 Youth with disabilities to attend the APRIL conference (Association of Programs for Rural Independent Living) which focuses on Rural Independent Living.  The SILC funding for each youth supplements other funding such as the Jean Wolf Rossi funding for participant involvement. 
Goal 3: Independent Living services in NORTH CAROLINA are improved
Objective 3:1: Current service areas do not become unserved or underserved to a greater degree, and previously unserved consumers in NORTH CAROLINA are served.  At a minimum, the current level of funding for CILs is maintained and funding increases are the optimum outcome.
Activities
* Annually the SILC and the Independent Living Network facilitate a minimum of 8 meetings with legislators to educate about centers and advocate for state funding of Independent Living Network of North Carolina.    
* Annually The SILC maintains Title VII Part B funding levels for Part B and Part C Centers.
* Annually the SILC and the Independent Living Network of North Carolina and the SILC provide a minimum of 1,000 information and referrals. 
* Annually the SILC coordinates mental health training for Independent Living Network and SILC members with key partners from Mental Health organizations. 

Objective 3:2: People with Disabilities have greater access to transportation in their communities.
Activities
* In year 1 the SILC forms an ad hoc committee of not fewer than 5 members to meet at least once with a representative of disability compliance with the North Carolina Department of Transportation to discuss opportunities for SILC, CILs and North Carolina Department of Transportation to advocate for greater access for people with disabilities.
* In years two and three the SILC uses findings from year 1 in collaboration with North Carolina Department of Transportation to implement at least 1 annual activity to further transportation access for people with disabilities.  Activities may include at least one training in accessible transportation to local transit boards.
* Annually the Statewide Independent Living Council coordinates training on accessible transportation for Centers for Independent Living staff and Statewide Independent Living Council members with North Carolina Department of Transportation.

Goal 4: People with disabilities in North Carolina live in the community of their choice.
	Objective 4:1 Residents in institutions transition to community-based living.
* Annually The Independent Living Network assists a minimum of 16 transitions or diversions from institutions with potential partners including but not limited to:  Money Follows the Person, North Carolina Housing Finance Agency, Local Council on Governments, Housing Authorities and Department of Vocational Rehabilitation Independent Living, etc.
* Annually The Independent Living Network of North Carolina will refer a minimum of 16 people with disabilities for affordable and/or accessible housing through the Key Program Targeted Housing.
Rene Cummins – that’s it but it’s a lot.  What we need to move forward is a vote from the council to approve these goals and activities endorsing our next work plan for the next three years with the new state plan

Keith Greenarch – I will be handling the vote.  I hope everyone has read this. Other than the revisions do we have any questions on the revisions? 

Chris Egan – The Rossi fund was mentioned was North Carolina was it identified as coming from North Carolina Developmental Disability Council, just in case folks don’t know where the fund originates?

Rene Cummins – How exactly should we have that appear in the activity?  Do you want us to say North Carolina Developmental Disability Council?
 
Chris Egan - Yes

Keith Greenarch – Are there any other questions?  The SPIL writing committee has a motion on the floor to accept the SPIL.  Let me back up, you know this has to go out for public comment.  It will be listed on our website.  So we have a motion from the committee do I have a second?

Gary Ray – Second.
Vote to approve unanimous

Pamela Lloyd-Ogoke – Would you like me to share the draft that we have worked on that represents the goal for DVR and DSB.

Rene Cummins – Yes, that is part of the plan because the state level funding for Independent Living services is supporting the program that Pamela and Patricia carry out through their agencies.  It does not have an endorsement but it is important and will be a part of what goes out for public comment.  All the consumers accessing all the services through all your programs will have an opportunity to make public comment.

Pamela Lloyd-Ogoke – I won’t go through all the activities, when we realized it had to be incorporated into the SPIL.  This is just for your information but want you to be fully aware and provide input.  Because we aren’t using DSU it will say DSB and DVR – We will provide services and supports that enhance the quality of life of people with disabilities.  These supports include but are not limited to, housing modification, personal assistant services, fiscal restoration services and community based transitions.    Each activity will outline the minimum number of people served.  The 2nd DSB and DVR will provide assistive technology supports that will enable people with disabilities in their independence within their home and community. Under the activities we have targets and terms of the trainings that DSB will provide and the trainings that VR will provided to participants in their community.
The last one is that DSB will enable veterans with disabilities to receive seamless supports and services that allow them to live in their choice of housing.  One of the activities so far is about DSB providing and collaborating with the VA.  At the next meeting we will have an outline of all the finalized activities for these goals.

Standing Committees
Goal 5 Promote Community Based Living:                                Gloria Garton, Chair
Good morning everyone and to our new members, anyone interested in joining Goal 5, we sure could use your support.  Goal 5 is helping individuals transition back to the community of their choice.  As of Oct. 1 to present, we have had 12 transitions amongst all Centers.  Do you get a copy of the report?  We probably didn’t get it to Debbie in time.  We might pass that out this afternoon when we get to Center Directors report.  While Center Directors and their staff are in meetings working on transitions we are also advocating for affordable, accessible and safe housing across the board. This often brings us into partnership with other agencies like local housing authorities, council of governments, initiatives and homeless among veterans and other populations.  A couple things have happened since October that goes beyond just transitioning people out of institutions.  When we think institutions we think group or nursing homes.  Sometimes these transitions happen from shelters and for preventing people from going into an institution.  In the Charlotte center alone, their Independent Living specialist and peer mentor found that by helping people, they have kept 66 children with their caregiver or family.  Sometimes we get so focused on the consumer with disabilities we forget about the others.  Sixty six child is important and to be proud of.  In Wilmington and across the state there is a new intuitive called Rapid Results to end veteran’s homelessness.  In Winston-Salem in particular and Wilmington the goal is to get all veterans that are homeless off the streets and back into housing. The local initiative deadline is by the end of May.  When we did our point in time count in January, I don’t know if you are familiar with point in time count, it is the one day each year in January where people go out and account for how many are homeless in the communities.  We are tracking demographics including veterans.  We know exacting the number of veterans on the street in Wilmington.  Our goal was to have them all off the street by the end of May.  We are somewhat on track, we still have a ways to go but what we have discovered in our strategy team is that while the vouchers are available, the housing is not.  So now we are trying to recruit new landlords and educate them.  We all know that are myths and stereotypes about the homeless population.  We are trying to educate landlords; about people with disabilities and barriers they face with fixed incomes and meds and trying to make ends meet.  It’s not always about alcohol, drugs and substance abuse.  We realize that vouchers aren’t just the problem. It’s finding affordable housing.  It’s taking us 144 plus days to find housing once we have a voucher.  That is our goal for the centers not just Wilmington. All the centers are working on helping people with disabilities find housing.  We are the advocates at the table trying to help teach people what some of the barriers are and educate to give them a better awareness.  When we talk about transitions I don’t want us to forget about the other import components, such as education, awareness and the diversion that keeps people together as families and couples.  

Barry Washington – Gloria, I love to hear your report about the veterans.  I am on the Continued Care Board in Winston-Salem.  We were successful in doing that. Our organization as well has housing for veterans.  We’ve put five5 duplexes together and hopefully we will be putting two more homeless veterans in housing. That is remarkable that Wilmington is on schedule to do the exact same thing.  Those who have served our country are the reason we are all enjoying our civil liberties because of their services.  Kudos to you and your team.

Vicki Smith – We know that one of the barriers to housing is criminal records,   frequently a result of their disability.  Are you all aware that there is an expungement project?  

Gloria Garton – We were just talking about that yesterday.  We have a veteran stand down each year and they started to offer assistance to those who have been dishonorably discharged.  Julia was educating me yesterday about the expungement part.  I’m hoping that this will help us move along.

Vicki Smith – The North Carolina legal services has money to look at expungement, you can contact them directly.  If the veterans have a disability and Legal services is not responsive, contact our office.  We might be able to do some prescreening.

Debbie Hippler – Pamela, you said that you had to leave early today by lunch.  Would you like to give your report now?

Designated State Units Reports
Vocational Rehabilitation Independent Living                         Pamela Lloyd-Ogoke

I sent out the numbers in terms of people served in the Vocational Rehabilitation Independent Living and the Assistive Technology program so I’m not going to go over them unless you have questions.  
The 704 is the annual report of all the activities.  I can proudly say it is done.  Normally that report is due midnight December 31 but because Independent Living moved from Rehabilitation to ACL, it didn’t go that way.  My personal access to input the report wasn’t there.  The report for North Carolina is done and looks very, very, good. It includes all the work that DARC did plus the Part B funding for all the other centers, the Youth Leadership Forum and Division of Services for the Blind and Independent Living dollars and programs outcomes.  As you know the Center’s contract is through Division of Vocational Rehabilitation and one of the things I thought would be on the agenda today was they need information to submit their contracts for next year and that you will approve of their funding.  Currently Vocational Rehabilitation is the agency that administers that contract and if there is going to be change with that you have to vote on that as well.  May is when all new contract information is due and they can’t do that without knowing first who is the agency that will administer those contracts and the amount of those contracts so that is included to whomever the contract is submitted to.  So since it is not on the agenda today I guess there will be some communication about that in the future.

Division of Services for the Blind                                                          Patricia Sikes
I submitted the information but will go through it again.  For January to March, this is preliminary because we don’t have final data for March.  Independent Living Rehabilitation = 321, Independent Living Older Blind = 550, for a total served both programs = 871.  Individuals who successfully achieved their independent living goals: 
Independent Living Rehabilitation = 44, Independent Living Older Blind = 100, Total served both programs = 144.  We had seen a decline in some of our numbers when we went live with BEAM.  We are getting back up to the numbers I would expect.  That is after two and half months of travel restrictions which started in November and took a toll on our counselors.  We needed a budget revision and they weren’t being accepted.  We were able to lift those restrictions the end of January. I have to hand it to our staff who found creative ways to meet needs during that time.  We had one person who may have been frightened when four staff went at one time because they had to carpool.  Many traveled at their own expense to continue meeting the needs.  I applaud our staff for their efforts.
  
We also held four mini centers between January and March with 56 participants with quite a few classes starting in April.  

Cindy Speight continues to serve as our Interim Director, Assistant Director Duties, Chief Independent Living services and Medical eye care and Chief Business Enterprises.  I applaud her for hanging in there.  Claudia is here so she might want to speak to something.  The Director’s position has been posted since the last meeting.  We continue to be fully staffed with Independent Living counselors and I’m very hopeful to have approval to fill the Independent Living specialist position for which I’ve been providing coverage.

The last thing is the discussion concerning our website; we have new improvements. We have new staff who is very customer oriented.  They really want to have a good website that meets the needs of customers.  They have some people who are familiar with website design for people who are blind or visually impaired; it’s a great resource.  We’ve made great improvements and more are on the way.

Kay Miley – Would you like to say a few words?

Claudia Horne, Director of Employment Services - I would like to reinforce that we are doing our best to fill key positions to our division. We have posted the Division of Services for the Blind Director as well as the Director of the Vocational Rehabilitation Director’s position.  It was out there for a while; we’ve got a few responses.  We didn’t really cover the range of possible avenues for recruitment, so it has been posted again.  There was some misunderstanding between HR and our division; they didn’t really understand that we wanted a full fledged statewide and nationwide search for recruitment for these positions.  I’m very optimistic that we will get some additional individuals that will apply for these positions. It is a priority for us to fill them.  Cynthia has done a remarkable job so it is my priority to fill this position and alleviate some of that burden from her.  I think we are actually in a pretty good place with no travel restrictions where we are currently on hold on class and compensation within the Department but that will go away in June. That prevents us from doing some of the things we want to do.  That will go away in June; we will strive to fill all the vacancies, we will get them filled.  

Gary Ray – Welcome, would you be willing to give a commitment that the DSB director will be a person with a visual impairment like it has been sense the 70s?  The blind community is extremely concerned that there might no longer be a Director of DSB who has a visual disability.

Claudia Horn - The first and most important quality the individual has is the capacity to lead the division and we have a priority to see someone who is in there that is blind and meets the requirements and represent the community well on all levels; that is a very strong goal.   The first thing we have to do is get a person who has the capacity to lead the division.  With that said I do want to see an adequate representation of staff that is blind.  That is a priority.

Gary Ray – The way I interpret that is that you are not willing to commit that that is your highest priority. There is a possibility that there will no longer be a director of DSB who is visually impaired.  You can comment on what I perceive that may be different than what you sent.

Claudia Horn – Well, again the individual has to be someone who can do the job.  The second most important quality is someone who represents the community.
I think the second characteristic is a high priority and if we can get someone who represents the community, we will.    I appreciate your comment Gary.

Kay Miley – I welcome you to our meeting and am glad you could make it.  

Ex. Officio Report
Client Assistance Program                                                                   John Marens
First of all I’ll give a short report today.  I want to thank Rene that you mentioned about talking to Ex Officio about collaborating and we have spoken and I appreciate you reaching out.  I’m looking forward to that collaboration.  

My report today is that I want to follow up on last quarter’s report where I mentioned that I had significant issue with timely payments for service for consumers.  As a follow up to that, I want to say that I was invited to a meeting with the controller’s office, the Department of Health and Human Services controller’s office.  Senior leadership of Vocational Rehabilitation including Ms. Horn and others were there.  The issue was discussed and I came away feeling very, very, positive because the issue is not ignored or swept under the rug.  Not only are they aware of it and the impact on people’s lives.  In my humblest opinion they are looking for a way to alleviate that problem.  I felt very positive that there will be follow up I know it won’t be solved overnight but that it will be solved.  

Dave Wickstrom – I am leaving at the break.  I wanted to say thank you and as a vet myself that I am excited; we just ended vet homelessness in Lexington, KY where my center was located.  I am super excited to get involved in vet treatment down here.  If there is any vet work the SILC wants to do, please let me know.  The vet community if you are not a vet is kind of hard to get into that community.  You just need a vet to tell another vet.  This is how our community is.  I’m supper excited. If there is anything our center can do to be more efficient or effective or a better partner with you all a community partner, please let me know.  I’m excited to go on the director’s retreat at Myrtle Beach.  I’ll be here till about 12 or 12:15. If I haven’t met you I would love to meet you.  Please come by the center to say hello.  

Pamela Lloyd-Ogoke – I just wanted to add to John’s comments about the controller’s office.  That this was across the board it was not just Vocational Rehabilitation it was Department of Health and Human Services.  One of the things I could commend the controller’s office on is that with that personal assistant program there has never been a delay in payments to the attendants.  During that meeting I brought up centers for independent living and the delays. My understanding is that is has gotten better when the submissions is accurate.  There are still times when corrections have to be made.  When accurate it is getting better but we are monitoring it and expect it to get better.   

Sandy Ogburn – I had a quick comment, I know we have several veterans in this room.  First of all, thank you for your service.  I’m sure everyone on the council appreciates that.  Just a comment, I don’t feel like that we should have to transition veterans because if you served our country and put your live on the line the government should take care of you for the rest of your life.  If any of us become president maybe we could do that.  Veterans thank you for your service and you are greatly appreciated.

Helen Pase, DARC - The funding, the reimbursement that John and Pamela spoke to is a concern because as the only Part B center, that is the only funding we have to operate on and it is not in a timely manner.  When I get 6 week to 2 months out I’ve got two months of expenses that is not being reimbursed and I get to a point when I can’t make my payroll.  It doesn’t happen every month or two but I would like to see Vocational Rehabilitation or Division of Vocational Rehabilitation or the Controllers or the state of North Carolina to come up with rules and regulations that they have to be accountable for as well as the center that has to have the report in by the tenth and documents by the fifteenth and the approved report before they will pay us.  Pam knows I get mine in on the second or third day of the month and very seldom do we miss a “t” or an “I”, it is really scrutinized so funding is not held up.  When I start sending emails they do get on it and I appreciate it very much.  I get scared when I can’t pay my people.  Thank you for letting me speak to that but $16,000 this month is a lot to us.

Claudia Horn – I think this is appalling and I think anyone we have a responsibility to including the consumer it is something we really have to pay a lot of attention to.  I don’t know if you are aware of the history but about 16 months ago, they had a major reorganization and 30 individuals were gone. So they are restructuring and I do believe that they are going to make it better and I do believe it is improving.  If you are having difficulty and you are communicating by email put me on as a cc and I will follow through.  

Helen Pase – I added Helen Tack the last time I had a problem, and I think she probably helped. I know when I email Pam she gets on the ball to track the progress, even when we were put on hold for whatever reason.

Claudia Horn – If it is late don’t wait.  If it’s late by 4 days or 3 days don’t wait.  

Julia Sain– I have a question, to piggyback on what Helen was saying.  We do have deadlines.  We get our draft to Pam by a certain day and when approved we send the proper documentation by the 15th of the month.  The state has never been put on a deadline.  We’ve never been told when to expect a check.  How do I know if it is late if I’ve never been told when to expect it? 

Claudia Horn – I would guess that there is a requirement to receive payment within 30 days. So late is 31 days.  

Debbie Hippler - Is that from the 15th?

Pamela Lloyd-Ogoke – No, the process is that it comes to me it is approved by fiscal service which is pretty quick.  It is 30 days from the time Vocational Rehabilitation fiscal services sends the invoice to the controller’s office. So, theoretically it could be 35 days or so but we know what you are experiencing is far more than that so yes, improvement is needed.

John Marens – Just because you are here Claudia, I would like to propose that whatever influence you have should you agree, that the department doesn’t consider a payment late until it is past 30 days.  That is a long time to wait for a payment, if you are waiting for travel reimbursement check to get to school or your job or if paying rent with assistance from Vocational Rehabilitation. Thirty days is a long time because the landlord won’t wait.  Maybe the time frame could be looked at for when it is actually considered late.

Lunch – 11:52 – 1:00


Ex. Officio Report
Disability Rights North Carolina                                                         Vicki Smith, ED
Good afternoon.  I hope everybody is recovered from dessert.  I wanted to do a couple of things.  1. As part of my report encourage all on the SILC to find out where the listening session is and when in your area about Medicaid reform and encourage very strongly that you go and talk about the impact that the suggestions will have on you and others with disabilities.  They are looking at the state plan to address manage care for physical health care.  There won’t be any changes in the short term to behavioral healthcare which is what we know about with the MCOs.  This is going to talk about the rest of Medicaid and how it impacts you when you go to the doctor for any physical challenge like an ear ache etc. Eventually physical and mental will be integrated.  Please go and talk about it.  If you have any question about the issues, I’m not the expert on my staff, but if you send me an email I can get information out.  I did forward to Debbie an email that has a link to the listening sessions across the state.  This is really, really, important.

I also wanted to make sure that members of the SILC are aware that the state has put in an application for a new TBI waiver.  This is the first waiver specifically targeting people living with Traumatic brain injury.  It is only going to cover a small area of the state Alamance MCO, Wake, Durham, Fayetteville.  It will, if successful eventually spread, in a good way, across the state. There will finally be a waiver specifically for people with traumatic brain injury.  

In terms of Disability Rights NC, we are today in federal court in the eastern district, arguing before Judge Boyle about the Pashby lawsuit that we hope will be settled today.  Pashby eliminates the states institutional bias for people with disabilities who need care in their own home.  This was originally filled in July of 2011, and what I mean by eliminate is that the same standards are being used in adult care homes and congregate living settings for receiving personal care services as they are in your own home.  Prior to filing this litigation in 2011, the state had developed a policy that would’ve made it harder to get personal care services in your home and easier if you were to move into an adult care home.  They are supposed to be applied in the same manner and assessments are supposed to be comparable.  It’s a small step.  

The other litigation has impact for a wide range of people with disabilities who want to be able to apply for and get a license so you can live long indecently without having to go through a medical review just because you roll into or walk into the room or visably use tech or identify as a people with disabilities.  In the past the DMV has subjected people to an annual medical review so you would have to have a note from your doctor saying you can drive.  We are pretty close to settling this case.  It means that there would be a change in the medical review process.  To be fully successful we would need to get the legislature to make changes and if the DMV has a better way then we have a good chance of doing that.  This litigation was filed 3 or 4 years ago.  

Our annual conference is April 20 in Chapel Hill.  This year we are focusing and talking about guardianship and the state’s over reliance on guardianship.  It is very easy to gain guardianship in NC.  We are going to bring in a key note speaker who is going to talk about a different way of doing it.  Guardianship means of course that depending on your guardian you may not be able to make the simples of decisions for yourself.

Finally I wanted to share with you that the DRNC has been working with NCDDC with a grant that they gave us to identify why people with intellectual and other disabilities are languishing in adult care homes.  How did they get there and why can’t we easily move them out?  It has been very enlightening; there have been lots of barriers.  I don’t’ think I need to remind people in this room that NC has a heavy reliance on barriers when it is not necessary.  That is true with people with intellectual and developmental disabilities.  We found a person who is in his 50s who has been living in an adult home since he was 17.  There is no reason why, with appropriate services and supports he shouldn’t live in the community.  The grant said that we would identify the barriers by trying to get, I think 6 people out.  As people who have to go into a facility and actively try to get someone out of that facility and into the community, you all know it is extremely difficult to do.  We hope to be able to get 18 people out by mid-summer of this year.  And in the process we have identified several barriers including lack of case management, other appropriate services and guardianship, particularly uninterested public guardianship.  We will be issuing a report in conjunction with the DD council that will highlight this and offer recommendations to the council, the state and   
for Disability Rights ourselves to continue to address this.

We do an awful lot of other things. I want to share one example.  If you are homebound and aren’t connected with services and need help getting from your home to the polls or if you have a disability that makes it impossible to leave your home because of your fears, one of the changes for absentee ballots in the voter ID bill is that you have to have two witnesses to an absentee ballot.  Someone after the last election called and said they couldn’t leave the home because of my fear.  I want to vote in the next election.  There was no mechanism in the law or regulations that had been developed by board of elections to allow this to happen in an easy way.  It think that is an area where we could collaborate and get the board of elections to collaborate because Independent Living centers and staff all around the state are in a good position to go to people and be those witnesses.  We’ve started that conversation.  Here’s the fun part of this, the woman voted.  But in order for her to vote we had to find a second witness to go with our staff.  We went to the attorney, the legal counsel for the board of elections and talked him into being the second witness.  In the course of voting she threw papers in his face and it made an impression.  As he walked away he said we need to make sure this woman has a way to vote in the future.  It’s the little things like this that keeps us going back to work every day.  Are there any questions?

North Carolina Council on Developmental Disabilities                          Steve Strom
Chris Egan gave the report in Steve’s absence.
Good afternoon I hope the sugar is still in your system as it’s that time of day.  This is Chris Egan, I’m the director of North Carolina Developmental Disabilities Council and it’s a pleasure to be here.  Steve Strom has been assigned to represent the council but I really miss being able to be with you. It’s been two years in July since I last attended a meeting.  

Steve did provide his report to me to review and I think he provided it to you also.  I just might briefly mention but not spend as much time on the details.  We have nineteen initiatives we are funding right now all are important. The one he highlighted, on which we are working with NC Disability Rights, the adult care home effort as we heard from Vicki.  We are really looking forward to their recommendation because it’s such a huge issue and we need to continue to affect system change and build inclusive communities and move out of these settings.  We are involved in guardianship as well. That is in partnership with Aging Adult Services and Department of Health and Human Services.  Steve has some details in his report.  That is in its second year.  It’s a fairly large group of folks coming together and trying to impact guardianship and protect the rights of people.

We have a medical and health home initiative and right now that is very relevant as always.   As we look at the transition to managed care and behavioral health and medical health coming together, we need to pay close attention with how this will impact folks with any other developmental disability.  There are many questions as we go forward so as Vicki mentioned, I would encourage you to attend these sessions.  One of the things we heard pretty loudly from Rick Frazier, the secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services during the Wednesday night meeting, they know there is an opportunity now to take a look at those details and Dave Richards said this as well this is an opportunity to move forward with this to make it better if we can and to identify the gaps, how to help the employment process.

We have an initiative in the emergency preparedness reports with the Department of Public Safety.  

In March as you may know was Developmental Disability awareness month.  We had an opportunity to partner with Fort Macon State Park, they with support of North Carolina Access purchased four new beach float chairs and we went down and had opportunities to get press there.  Folks came to use the chairs; one was our council member who had not been to the beach to put his feet in the water for ten years.  It was a great opportunity to highlight access but want we also want to do was highlight community.  Not just the beach but that you are there with family and other folks at the beach.  We want to see more of this type of awareness.  Barry and I were talking about the 18 initiatives we are involved in ways to get past access to more inclusiveness.  How do we do both?  

Steve highlighted in his report that the council has approved our goals and objectives for our next five year plan.  We all have to work under our federally approved plans.  That directs our funding working within those goals and objectives.  We have been in our planning process for the last year and half.  It will go into effective in federal fiscal year 2017.  What we really want to do and what we heard in our meetings is three main areas of effort to focus on. The core of our plan was approved at our February council meeting. There are only 3 goals, we want to speak about and target and understand them.  We have three objectives for each goal.


GOAL 1:  By 2021, Increase Financial Security Through Asset Development for individuals with Intellectual and Other Developmental Disabilities (I/DD) 
  
  Objective A:  Increase financial asset development and security for individuals with I/DD by increasing their knowledge, developing financial plans, and implementing the plan’s goals
Objective B: Increase Integrated Competitive Employment and Careers. 
Objective C: Increase Educational Expectations for Employment and Careers

GOAL 2:  By 2021, Increase Community Living for individuals with Intellectual and other Developmental Disabilities (I/DD)
     Objective A:  Increase Community Housing and Transportation
     Objective B:  Increase Health Access and Wellness Opportunities
     Objective C:  Increase Healthy Community Relationships

GOAL 3:  By 2021 Increase Advocacy for individuals with Intellectual and other Developmental Disabilities (I/DD)
OBJECTIVE A:  As mandated by the DD Act, increase support to statewide self-advocacy organization(s) through leadership development and coalition participation by: 
OBJECTIVE B:  Increase individual, family, public and system knowledge, and engagement to provide system advocacy for the financial security and community living opportunities of individuals with I/Developmental Disabilities
OBJECTIVE C:  Increase Professional Development to Improve Expectations and Supports for Individuals with I/DD

Those are our goals and objectives for our five year plan.  These have been approved.   We are putting the rest of the components together for submission in august.  It will drive our efforts for the next FIVE years.  Something that we are collaborating with you all on is the ADA and Barry and I were talking about this earlier, on opportunities to strengthen and continue our collaboration with you is our contract with Karen Hamilton, who engages and advocates across the state promoting knowledge, awareness and modification and change, to promote the ADA.  A lot of that work has been around physical access and we want to keep going but see opportunities to strengthen that for inclusion, contribution and link it to higher expectations with folks for jobs for example. This is an important area.  We want to continue to see how we grow, how we have more impact across the state.  

Something else when talking about Youth Leadership Forum, one of our new council members runs an organization under North Carolina Department of administration, an organization called the State Youth Council.  Anyone heard of that?  Let me tell you what it’s about, The Youth Advocacy and Involvement office.  They administer the state of North Carolina Internship program for Students Against Destructive Decisions Program, the State Youth Council Program which includes a youth legislative assembly, a mini grant program and other things.  My thought was and we are thinking about this too, we have several initiatives that are finishing up this year in terms of number of years of funding, our third year of funding, is our Partners in Policy effort as well as Advancing Strong Leaders and IDD, two separate leadership tracks. We really need to step back a moment and figure out how these need to evolve.  One of things I’ve observed is, why are we running these as two separate siloed efforts?  Where is the opportunity for them to come together?  These are questions we want to ask and think about as we move forward.  We have an opportunity here to think about this particular youth advocacy involvement office.  They are teaching youth how to be more active in leadership roles.  They are involved right now with a very large legislative assembly activity to engage with legislatures and take on a project and understand the political process.  These are what we are thinking about as we go into our next five year plan.  How do we keep engaging community, to keep expectations high at an early age as possible because that will change thinking over time and increase community opportunities to see individuals to be seen with  value and worth and as contributors and that is expected in the community.   I think that is pretty much touching everything. 

The only other comment I’d make is, the Wolf Rossi fund which is a great opportunity is another collaboration we’ve been working with Alliance on.  We have tried to make it more accessible but we are still figuring out how to do a good job with that. The Rossi fund is meant to help folks attend, learn and engage.  Anyone can apply but we have to see what the impact will be.  There are limits on how much we can spend per person but they can go to a conference and bring back and have an impact.  We do realize that it has been a reimbursement option, all spelled out in the application but, what we’ve been trying to do and we think folks have not taken advantage because upfront cost is hard and that takes it off the table.  We’ve been working with Alliance on a fiscal mediator component to pay and offset front end expenses, not all, but some of them.  It would depend on what that person needs and what we can do.  Perhaps paying conference registration, travel, like air travel, so we are working on that and it’s available. It also means we are open for some risk as a result of this.  What if they bail out and it’s already paid for?  We are willing to take that risk if it means more people can access this fund.  We are trying to fill more of those opportunities as we can.  

The last thing is my request to insert our name in the state plan?  That wasn’t simply to own it or get a pat on the back.  That is not the point.  In my effort in the last couple of years with the council we are trying to raise awareness about the council so we can help support and effect system change.  It’s not owning it and having a feather in our cap.  It’s really about awareness, building about who the council happens to be and who our partners are and really what we are trying to do to build communities.  Are there any questions for me?

Sandy Ogburn – I just didn’t get the entire name of the state youth council is out of the office of what?

Chris Egan – It’s under State government, Youth Advocacy and Involvement Office. The only reason I knew about it is one of our newest members actually administers that office.  I spoke to her about the Youth Leadership Forum.  

Center Directors Report                                                        Mark Steele, IL Network
Earlier this morning you heard a lot of this already.  The network has been busy doing our own stuff at the individual centers.  I encourage you to visit a center close to you, get to know us.  We are busy everyday not only carrying out the SPIL but meeting the needs of our communities.  One thing that has been mentioned is about rethinking guardianship.  The network was invited to work on that and be on that work group.  Since all the directors were here yesterday, I had a staff person attend the meeting and got positive feedback from her.  I look forward to participating in that.  We are planning one of our retreats which is in the SPIL; it will be next month.  We are constantly working on our uniform practices manual and that is again something we will be working on when we get together.  This is a piece of work that will probably continue for many of years.  

We’ve been actively working on the SPIL goals and activities which you have already voted on.  That was good news.

Later this month a lot of us will be going to Mobile, AL to the South East Center Directors association meeting, SECDA.  I think that is about it.  Is there anything I’m missing?  Oh yes, we will all be there at the upcoming Independent Living Summit.  Again get out to your local center and see all the great things we are doing.

Kay Miley – I’m glad to hear you are going to participate in our summit.


Other Council Reports
SRC report                                                                                         Rene Cummins
I am the newest member of the State Rehabilitation Council.  I was on it before and they welcomed me back.  I’ve been recycled.  I’m not going to recap the whole meeting but as the SILC representative on SRC I’m going to bring back what I think is the take away message that this council needs to hear, the most important work coming out of the SILC.  In light of the recent reauthorization of the rehabilitation act and WIOA, Vocational Rehabilitation employment now has a mandate to put 15% of funding into youth transition services. There was mention made at the SRC public forum and at the quarterly meeting. It was also mentioned that they are looking at centers in terms of collaboration under providing these youth transition services. They are looking to centers to provide youth advocacy services.  That is good but a narrow view of what the centers have to offer.  I wanted the SILC and network of centers to know that this is a great start but maybe there should be more dialogue to broaden the focus of what the centers could be providing.  Especially pre employment services that come out of the centers in the areas such as job readiness, soft skills in the work place, money management, and budgeting, banking and financial literacy.  All of these are important pre employ services and skills that could be a great collaboration between Vocational Rehabilitation employment and centers.  The mandate that Vocational Rehabilitation has under the reauthorization of the Rehabilitation Act is to focus on those ages of youth that are in secondary education, before they graduate out of secondary education. The mandate for centers is to focus on post secondary education.  It seems like to me that it makes sense that the collaboration should be together teaching those skills starting in high school and then it would be a very smooth transition for the centers to continue to work with that population that they already have gotten to know and provided services to.  It would make it a very smooth transition into what they need postsecondary.  A lot of these issues are going to bridge that gap, like how will you self identify as a person with a disability especially in employment arenas and handling the interactive process with your employer.  A lot of students with disabilities from dealing with them in the youth program staff at Alliance, a lot of them don’t even know how to identify or define what their disability is, let alone what reasonable accommodations they need going into post secondary education or employment or training, whatever happens after high school.  I would recommend that the SILC and centers continue a dialogue strengthening looking at how both parties be a part of that transition from beginning to hand of for post secondary education.  That is my take away message from the SRC.

Kimlyn Lambert – I want to say we welcome Rene on the SRC as a member from the SILC.  They kept asking for one. I just wanted to comment that now we have four representatives on the SRC.  I’m pleased that we have a full slate.

John Marens – I just want to compliment Rene, I think even with the transition counselors in schools I don’t think that is the kinds of things you are talking about collaborating on is not what is being focused on to any extent.  That is really important stuff.  I think that would be an awesome collaboration in terms of helping youth talk about themselves and sell themselves or maybe not sell themselves short.  Developing soft skills is probably one of the major barriers for lots of folks with disabilities.  


Kay Miley – Do we have anyone who can share about the Commission for the Blind?

Debbie Hippler – We heard after we arrived here in Burlington that Sandra Hicks has been appointed to the Commission for the Blind.  She has been approved but no official notification has been received but Patricia told us. 

Patricia Sikes – Something came into my email in the last few days and we will get that all cleared up quickly.

Old Business: none
New Business:
Debbie Hippler – The Independent Living summit is coming up.  The most important day to take part is Wednesday, May 11.  We want to have all the appropriate legislators visited, addressed or greeted that Wednesday afternoon.  We are going to have a lobbyist speak Tuesday afternoon.  Then Wednesday morning we will be given talking points and instruction on how to approach your legislators.  We are going to walk from the Downtown Holiday Inn to the legislative offices.  It’s funny because we checked to see if we needed a parade permit and we were ok to walk the sidewalks. Because we want to cut through the two museums meant that we had to go to the state to get approval to all walk between the museums.  Once you meet with your representative or senator you will have the rest of the afternoon free.  That evening there will be a reception to which all the legislators will be there.  We want all who have a representative and/or a senator being invited, to be there to speak to them.  We will be on the top floor of the hotel, a great accommodation at the hotel.  We want this to be a time of advocacy and education by the SILC members to our legislators so more and more become aware of what Independent Living means.  It’s not an institution it is not a home, it’s a philosophy.  We heard Chris say that people are unaware of what the Developmental Disabilities Council does.  I think even more people are unaware of Independent Living and of what the centers do.  So this is our opportunity to help our legislators become aware of what Independent Living is and what the Centers are.  
Then we will have a greater possibility of becoming a permanent line item in the state budget.

Keith Greenarch – As we are making our visits I think the best way to do this because we have several mark and I have the same folks.  I don’t want to go in and someone else come in again and repeats the same thing.  I know some of you said that you want to meet everybody.  That cannot happen realistically.  There are not enough people or time.  We have to narrow the folks down who are the decision makers for what we do.  I know mark and I and Fred Johnson is helping us with making the appointments.  We can invite all the legislators to the reception, we can do that but when it comes to us going into the legislative buildings, we need to seek and find the folks that can help us the most.  We’ve had a couple of folks come to our office.  One lady is in education and pretty much talked about what she likes in education which didn’t help us, but gave us good information to carry us down the road.  There are those in appropriations and Department of Health and Human Services that we need to get to, the ones we have to rely on.  We will take into consideration of where everyone lives.  We need to know who is not going to come so we know when we schedule.  You need to be there.  It will be a packed day with all the appointments.

Debbie Hippler – We do know that there are a number of council members who will not be able to attend because of prearranged travel.  

Sandy Ogburn – I’ve never done this, I like the way we did this at NCIL and was told to go to this office and this office.  It really helped a lot.  I’m an advocate of having a schedule.

Keith Greenarch – We’ve done this several years at the national level.  We pretty much know and are good hands at it.  We are going to do it on the state level.  We don’t know what will happen because of sessions or whatever.  When we leave their office we want to leave someone in that office who knows who we are and know what we do.

Debbie Hippler – We do want to encourage all our Ex. Officio as well.  The Ex Officios and members will receive an email invitation.  The legislators will get paper invitations.  

Kay Miley – Are there any questions?

Helen Pase – What did you just say?

Debbie Hippler - The council members, Ex. Officios and Centers will receive an email invitation.  All legislators will receive an email first and then a paper invitation.

Keith Greenarch – We do need to know by next Friday who is coming and from the centers who will be coming.

Debbie Hippler – I will send out email with the instructions.  Please respond to Keith and there will be given an alternative email.  I will be out of the office for the month of April on a trip that has been planned for two years.  

Chris Egan – The statement of economic interest, is that something this council ha s to take care of?

Vicki Smith – As a person who sits on your council and others, yours is the only council that has to do that.

Announcements: 

Julia Sain – I want to go back to Jan Withers announcement this morning and reiterate the importance of this.  I’m not sure everyone realizes the impact of what is being proposed.  I was one of the interpreters that fought to get licensure.  The hair dresser has to be licensed but your interpreter doesn’t?  We fought to get licensure as a requirement in the state.  There is something about having it determined that you have received your license in the state, it doesn’t just protect the person who is deaf.  I can tell you from a different perspective.  I do a lot of ADA and advocacy training to different business; doctors, lawyer, hospitals, police.  I go once a quarter to address a whole room of police and law enforcement about working with people who are deaf.  It’s just what we do.  You may not know if you are not an interpreter or deaf.  American Sign Language (ASL) is not English, it is not code, it is a language.  There is no sign for the word weapon there is not a sign for the word drug because in ASL it is the specific drug or weapon that has the sign not the generic.  When talking to police officers and giving examples, let’s just say there is a litmus test and they call an interpreter and they ask did you see a weapon?  The interpreter cannot interpret that.  It is not possible.  The interpreter has to take the police officer aside and ask them, what do you suspect? I’m going to have to give a list of weapons, so that you will get the right answer.  Now you have to be a good interpreter to do that and if you are a good interpreter you are licensed.  What I hear from police officers when I give them the example and I take them through it is that they start to panic.  They say, how do we make sure that we have someone who can do that?  The answer is you hire a licensed interpreter.  They ask where can I get that list.  If we do away with licensure then I say you don’t have a prayer.  You will take your chances.  I know you all may have heard of this situation.  A young man, who was deaf, went to the doctor for a treatment. The doctor said there is only one thing I can think of to treat your situation but I want you to know it will make you sterile.  He didn’t have an interpreter and the doctor wrote on the paper, you will be sterile.  The person who was deaf had only seen that word once in his life on a bottle of alcohol and thought ok, I don’t mind being clean and ok’d it.  Then years later when he was unable to impregnate his wife and went to the doctor with an interpreter the doctor said, well yes you took that medicine when you were young and you are sterile.  That is what will happen if we go backwards and allow anyone who hangs out a shingle to be an interpreter.  The only safety net those who are deaf have is licensure.  If hair dressers need to be licensed we need to be sure to let our legislators know that interpreters need licensure.  

Debbie Hippler –Jan Withers sent me the email and I forwarded it this morning to every member on the council and every center director with the time and place of the meeting and who to contact.

Kay Miley – Are there any other public comments?

Rene Cummins – I want to add to what Julia said.  Chris had mentioned about NC ADA network and working on removing physical barriers and moving into other areas of the ADA. One of those areas is providing effective communication.  This is the same state that passed the statute into law for recognizing AEL as a foreign language in high school and post secondary education. That happened because of the lobbyist who is coming to the Independent Living summit to speak on Tuesday.  Julia Adams started her career as my lobbyist.  She is fantastic; it was under her direction that the law was passed.  It is a tremendous irony  that if we eliminate this licensure like Julia was saying, we have no way of knowing that we are complying with the ADA in promoting, that we can only get with qualified interpreters, effective communication.  We are the same state that recognized ASL as a foreign language credit. If you are going to point something out to your representatives and senators, you might want to mention that. It is definitely going in the wrong direction.


Public Comments:

 Kay Miley – This involves someone with a disability, my daughter with a brain injury was out doing her daily walking and passed a house that had two teenagers on the porch with a dog.  She said to the people what a cute doggie; she is very verbal and likes to talk to people.  They let go of the dog and it attacked her.  Be careful because it has really working on her and her mental status.  She has been very affected.  What got me about that situation was that nothing was done to stop that dog.  Police, emergency and animal control came and I thank goodness that they were there to help her. 
Kay Miley – Are there any more announcements?  If there are no more announcements, do I have a motion to adjourn this meeting? 
(Sandy Ogburn – Kimlyn Lambert)

Meeting Adjourned at 2:42
Next Meeting: July 14 at the Country Inn and Suites in Burlington, NC.
Attendees:       P = Present / T= attending by Teleconference / A = Absent
Members

Ex. Officio

Staff/Support

Rene Cummins
P
Pamela Lloyd-Ogoke VRIL
P
Debbie Hippler
P
Tavonne Enoch
P
Steve Strom DD Council
A
3 ASL interpreters
P
Gerald Green
P
Patricia Sikes – DSB
P
1 PCA
P
Keith Greenarch
P
John Marens  CAP
P


Sandra Hicks
P
Vicki Smith – DDNC
P
Guests

Joshua Kaufman
P
Jan Withers – DDHH
P
Fred Johnson

Mark Steele
P


Mike Ogburn

Kimlyn Lambert
A
Center Directors/Reps

Jenny Pleasants - VR

Paul LaVack
P
Julia Sain
P
Chris Egan – NCDDC

Kay Miley
P
Benita Williams
P
Rodney Enoch

Clare “Ping” Miller
P
Gloria Garton
P


Sandy Ogburn
P
Sierra Royster
P


Gary Ray
P
Nellie Galindo
P


Teresa Staley
P
Helen Pase
P


Oshana Watkins
P
Dave Wickstrom
P


Barry Washington
P




Sabrina Dionne
A




Melea Williams
P




Respectfully submitted, Debbie Hippler, SILC staff	




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