Meeting with Ala-WIN counselor and Tuscaloosa ARC about job benefits for client

Earlier today I attended a meeting that is a part of the job process for those receiving supplemental security income, and or Social Security Disability Insurance benefits. The meeting was to inform the client that I am job coaching on how her benefits will be affected and or helped by working. The meeting was with a counselor from Ala-WIN(The Alabama Work Incentives Network). Ala-WIN helps supplemental security income recipients and social security disability insurance between the ages of 14 and 64 understand their work options so that they can make good choices about their money and their employment. The Alabama Work Incentives Network is administered by Independent Living Resources of greater Birmingham Incorporated and United Cerebral Palsy of greater Birmingham. Ala-WIN serves 38 Northern and central counties of Alabama while the Alabama Department of Rehabilitation Services 29 counties in the southern part of the state doing the same work incentives program.
These agencies exist to assist Social Security beneficiaries understand federal and state work incentives. Alsos staff are on site to assist beneficiares in knowing the impact of earned income on Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, and any other public benefits that they may receive.
A meeting regarding social security disability insurance and or income is very common when working with people with developmental disabilities. Especially when a client is working a limited amount of hours and or salary which goes up to 423,000 a year. Anything earned over $23,000 is exempt from Ala-WIN and or any disability income program. Shortly after our meeting about the client's benefits we will be starting her first work week on May 9th, 2010 with 12 hours of work a week to start.

Job coaching with client

After about a month and a half of working with a client for preparation of a job and for volunteering at the Tuscaloosa Association for Retarded Citizens I am now going to start job coaching on May 9th, 2010. The client is also learning to read as well and I am the one who is teaching her to read from her People First of Alabama hand book and also with an animal picture book that she brings in with her from her appartment to learn new words. I am patient with the client as I help her to pronounce and enunciate words by how the letters sound. It has been a success so far working with this client on the job preparation process and I have gotten to know of her interests and been able to see her skills at cleaning at bathrooms, vacuuming, and dusting desks at the Palk Enterprises and Supported Employment office in Tuscaloosa. She has done well and I have gotten along well with her as well as we have worked from sample job duties hand books over the last month and a half to get her used to what she needs to do when she works at the office of the Ability Alliance of West Alabama. The job hand book has pictures of sweeping, mopping, dusting, taking out the garbage, and shredding paper so that the client can associate the pictures with her job tasks. Yet I am taking it one step further and that is teaching her how to read what I have wrote under the pictures over the time she is working with us so that she can have basic reading skills for the benefit of this job that she will with AAWA and any other jobs she will have in the future. Reading skills are important to have and it is never to late for someone to learn how to read as many would say it is hard for people to start learning to read at an older age but to me that is a defeatist attitude to have about the wisdom of learning and the wisdom of getting older. The job coaching that I will be doing will be around the tasks of sweeping, mopping, dusting, cleaning bathrooms, taking out garbages, and shredding papers amongst the offices at the Ability Alliance of West Alabama. I hope that as others from the Tuscaloosa ARC see that Amanda has a good job that they will want my help in getting jobs for them and or in job preparation for them when they need the help. Therefore the success of this particular client on her job can be a good example for other clients of the Ability Alliance of West Alabama that they too can have a job and be able to work.

Personal Centered Planning Meeting

Last week the Chamber of Commerce of West Alabama had a meeting on personal centered planning for the Ability Alliance of West Alabama that I had attended on Wednesday of last week. Personal Centered Planning is a different approach to working with people with intellectual disabilities in regards to care taking and helping them to plan for their futures. Personal Centered Planning is geared around the individual that a case management employee works with regularly and determines the dreams, goals, and aspirations of the client that the client chooses and not the case management employee for the client. The goal of it is to create more interpendence for clients and for them to have the capability of making their own decisions and choices of what kind of job that they want to have, how they choose to spend their money, what kinds of daily activities that they want to participate in, what kinds of foods that they want to eat, and also what friends they want to have. It is all about the client making the choices on a personal level first and then if they request help from their case manager and or staff that works with them then they can indeed have the help that they need.
During this particular meeting on personal centered planning a presenter from Region II Community Services went over what personal centered planning is and how to incorporate within your agency. Another presenter from the Ability Alliance of West Alabama presented on case management changes that are occurring in the state of Alabama and how the AAWA will use the changes to its benefit. Overall the purpose of case management support and personal centered planning is for assistance for clients and also to help clients become active participants in society and even if possible become employed in the workplace and be able to make choices of what kind of work that best suits them.

Al-DAN Conference

Last week I went to the annual Alabama Disability Advocacy Network conference in which speakers talked about what Al-DAN is and what it intends to do. AL-DAN is an advocacy network of individuals with both physical and developmental disabilities who represent themselves before the government in an effort to try to change policies around people with disabilities in the work place and in regards to their activities of daily living. The AL-DAN advocacy network is provided through a grant from the Alabama Council for Developmental Disabilities and is maintained by disability organizations such as the Alabama Centers for Independent Living.
Some of the main objectives that AL-DAN has for the year of 2010 that were discussed at the annual conference that I attended last week were: 1. having regional meetings/trainings 2. statewide summit 3. gubernatorial forum 4. provide information on voting rights, voting registration deadlines and legislative updates concerning people with disabilities 5. to have at least 500 AL-DAN members, at least 10 grassroots disability advocacy organizations with vested interest in disability issues. One of the major issues and an example of effective advocacy presented was a bill about placing $50 fines on vehicles for parking in handicap places and an advocacy group by the name of Disabilities Unlimited was handing out stickers about this advocacy effort that they are working on currently. Disabilities Unlimited is representing this issue with their advocacy group from Walker County Alabama. The Ability Alliance of West Alabama also had an employee Eloise Woods speak at the conference for the election of board advisors in which three people are selected from each county of Alabama to provide assistance to the Board of Directors for AL-DAN on disability issues and for attaining more memberships within AL-DAN as well.

Quarterly meeting of Americorps VISTAs for Ability Alliance

Recently I was in attendance of our quarterly meeting for progress for the new Americorps VISTA program that started for the Ability Alliance of West Alabama back in September of 2009. The success factors are as follows for Americorps VISTA members and they are: on-site orientation, community outreach, community volunteer/recruitment, effective volunteer engagement, resource mapping, resource development/fundraising, grant writing, organizational development, performance measures(number of VISTAs), tracking systems, information technology, development on-site orientations and training plans, and orientation to developmental disability services.
The quarterly meeting was held on April 13th, 2010 and went over the progress of the Americorps VISTA members as of current times. There has been success in the recruitment of two new Americorps VISTA members in which one of the two new members has already begun orientation and the second member will start in mid May. This goes along with our performance measures amongst our quarterly progress reporting and training plans. Also during the first quarter of 2010 we have identified 36 clients that are seeking and ready to become employed in the job sector in both Bibb and Pickens County with our new supported employment case manager. I have been working on resource mapping with the new supported employment case manager as of February of 2010 and we are actively seeking employment for the 36 clients that we have identified as needing employment.
Employment was a major focus of the Ability Alliance's of the past quarter because of our new grant from Vocational Rehabilitation Services for the purpose of supported employment in Bibb, Tuscaloosa, and Pickens Counties. The focus being on Bibb and Pickens Counties. One of the main purposes for Americorps VISTA members for the Ability Alliance of West Alabama was to help build resources and partnerships for employment with businesses in Bibb and Pickens Counties. Also to develop volunteering opportunities amongst these counties as well to foster community and relationships for our clients in these counties. Volunteerism and job development will help uplift our clients and bring to them a higher quality of life as opposed to if they did not have employment and did not participate in volunteering activities.
Employment and volunteerism efforts are of strong importance yet the Ability Alliance of West Alabama has also benefited from 9 new partnerships since the inception of the Americorps VISTA program for the AAWA. The 9 new parterships are: 1. The Children's Policy Council and Juvenile Court Judges 2. Alabama Department of Rehabilitation Services 3. Alabama Department of Mental Health 4. Tuscaloosa Mental Health Task Force 5. Self Advocates Becoming Empowered 6. Tuscaloosa Emergency Services 7. Indian Rivers Mental Health Center 8. People First of Alabama and 9. Tuscaloosa One Place. The outcomes and or benefits of these partnerships for this quarter have been an employment supports grant, coordination support for the Children's Policy Council by the VISTA Volunteer, contributions to the cost sharing VISTA volunteers from Indian Rivers, Alabama Department of of Rehabilitation Services, Arc of Tuscaloosa, and People First of Alabama. Also an application for technical assistance grant from the Governor's Office on Faith Based Community Services. Also our employment grant as previously mentioned above will help us to sustain and maintain our strong commitment to our clients to increase job opportunity along with the support of job training from the Alabama Department of Rehabilitation Services. Overall the Americorps VISTA program has been a success thus far and will continue hopefully for its three year grant duration.

Sunrise Community is putting on its 27th Annual Balloon Race

A local organization by the name of Resources For Independence out of Tuscaloosa Alabama will be hosting the 27th annual Balloon Race which benefits people with intellectual disabilities in the Tuscaloosa region. Sunrise Community is an organization that has been around for over 40 years helping people with developmental disabilities.
Sunrise Community is a private, non-profit organization which provides the services of personal care, supported employment, respite care, residential habilitation, and day habilitation. The mission of Sunrise Community is to provide value to people with disabilities and support to individuals ages 12 and older. The programs provided by Sunrise Community are licensed through the State of Alabama Department of Mental Health, Division of Intellectual Disability Services.

Offense taken-Film about the "R" word

People with intellectual disabilities have taken offense to the word "retarded" when referring to their disability. They would much rather have their abilities understood first before their disabilities and be accepted in society. I have been working with people with intellectual disabilities and I have had to set aside any old views I have had about people with intellectual disabilities from before and see opportunities with regards to working with the clients we serve. It can be difficult but it is what I need to do to make my experience as an Americorps VISTA worthwhile and meaningful not just for me but for many other people that I work with too. This being said it is unfortunate that society still uses statements like "celebretards" and also in a recent movie called Tropic Thunder starring Ben Stiller he was acting developmentally challenged. Prejudices in our World should be a thing of the past but they still persist due to ignorance of others and of misundertandings of varying ethnic groups, arrogance, and downright meanness. This video below goes over these issues and is 26 minutes long and is called "Offense Taken." Please watch it to become more informed on what has made organizations such as People First and Self Advocates Becoming Empowered into what they have become today.

Talkshoe for internet radio shows for Ability Alliance

Talkshoe is a great website for teleconferencing directly online and a website in which a broadcaster can interact with his or her callers and record each broadcast for later listening. I will be using Talkshoe for the Ability Alliance in which to have hosting capability of my shows on topics dealing with issues pertinent to work for people with intellectual disabilities, benefits, alternative economics, etc. Some of the Talkshoe benefits are: free and unlimited multi-person talking internationally, conversations, discussions, and community calls, and an easy connection. Calls can be by either phone or by a pin number to participate but to just simply listen to a call all you need is a web address for the call itself. Below is a video about how to use Talkshoe for your own online internet channel for broadcasting your own topics.

Job readiness Easter Seals Class for Clients

Currently there are three clients of the Ability Alliance of West Alabama that are attending a three day job readiness class that goes over the basics of what you need to know about the workplace. I am attending the three day class with the clients and am helping them with their preparation at the Tuscaloosa ARC. There were many areas that the class covers such as: rules, timeliness, job etiquette, getting along with others at the workplace, job expectations, being on schedule, following tasks, and knowing roles at the job.
The first two days of the class are dedicated to learning about what to do on the job and how to act. Also how to dress was discussed and how much make up you need to wear to a job and how to behave in an interview. The clients were told to be polite and courteous to the job interviewer and also to be polite and courteous to others at the workplace. The role of a supervisor as a person of giving job tasks and managing workers was stated in the class and is reviewed on the second day of the class as well. On the third day of class the clients will be videotaped based on individual interviews that are conducted by the job readiness teacher. I will help one of the clients with work at the Ability Alliance of West Alabama's office shortly after the third day of the job readiness class. This class will help the client that I will be job coaching that is attending the class with knowing when to take breaks, how to follow instructions, what to wear to a job, and how to be respectful to others at the workplace. Shortly after the third day of the class I will start my job coaching of the client.
At first I will be showing the client around the Ability Alliance building and then teaching them how to clean the building. I will be doing with this with a picture book and reading job tasks to the client everyday that they will be working until they can get a full grasp on how to do their job and how to get to each room in the building. The client will be sweeping, mopping, taking out garbage and shredder paper, and also cleaning off tables five days a week.