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The Mission of the Statewide Independent Living Council of Georgia, Inc. is equal participation of people with disabilities within their communities. Therefore, the Council will bring about results in the following areas:
The goals of the Georgia SILC are consistent with the areas listed above. For the most part, the goals and objectives listed below are a continuation of the ‘99-01 SPIL. The Council recognized that its previous plan was ambitious and would require long-range effort and commitment
Seek grant funding for CILs for advocacy and for transportation vouchers. Provide verbal and written testimony to Department of Transportation’s annual planning process. Identify transportation expert as potential board member.
At least one CIL secures voucher funding. At least 5 rural counties apply for Rural Transit or Disabled & Elderly funding. At least one urban transit system improves compliance with ADA.
These outcomes will be achieved by 9/30/04.
Assist CILs in securing funding for outreach to people with disabilities in nursing homes, for advocacy and for transitioning people from nursing homes. Administer funding for Unlock the Waiting List! Campaign. Provide scholarships for people with disabilities to educational/advocacy events.
CILs will assist at least 30 people with transitioning from nursing homes. Home and Community-Based funding will increase each year.
: These outcomes will be achieved by 9/30/04.
Assist Concrete Change with fund raising efforts. Serve on the steering committee for the Department of Community Affairs’ initiative to expand affordable/accessible housing. Serve on the steering committee for the Easy Living Home Seal of Approval program.
At least $30,000 additional funding for Concrete Change. At least 10 Georgia builders building with basic access. A more comprehensive state housing plan that identifies housing issues for the disability community.
These outcomes will be achieved by 9/30/04.
Serve on the Department of Community Health’s Task Advisory group on the Medicaid Buy In and development of the Personal Care Option. Provide learning opportunities at quarterly board/contractor meetings on the Benefits Counseling grants. Provide training to National Service Corporation sites and to people with disabilities on the opportunities for each to serve the other.
A Medicaid Buy In program that serves at least 100 Georgians. A 10% increase in the number of Georgians utilizing work incentives. A 10% increase in the number of National Service Programs recruiting within the disability community.
These outcomes will be achieved by 9/30/04.
Invite education advocates (e.g. G-CARE) to provide educational sessions at quarterly board/contractor meetings. Collect information from educational systems on their use of electronic/alternate format textbooks.
At least one CIL assisting local parents/students with the development of Individual Education Plans. At least 6 CIL staff/volunteers participating in local education improvement activity. An increase in the number of educational systems providing alternate format textbooks.
Time Line: These outcomes will be achieved by 9/30/04.
Seek funding to produce Voter Guide for statewide elections. Assist CILs with research on CIL consumers who report that they are “not interested” in registering to vote. Provide scholarships to workshops, conferences, Youth Leadership Forum ,etc. Serve on the board of the DLPC.
A Voter Guide. A report giving reasons that CIL consumers are “not interested” in voting. At least 10 people with disabilities attending workshops, conferences, Youth Leadership Forum.
These outcomes will be achieved by 9/30/04.
Attend DCH Board meetings. Provide CILs and board members with regular updates on DCH policy initiatives, health insurance products and budget initiatives. Secure and disseminate Foundation grant applications.
At least one new health insurance product. At least one Foundation grant to the IL Network.
These outcomes will be achieved by 9/30/04.
These outcomes will be achieved by 9/30/04.
Provide letters of support and matching dollars for Tools for Life or GAPD grant applications. Continue seeking Foundation funding for AT/AE for the Centers.
At least $100,000 in new funding for AT/AE. Expanded services to CIL consumers.
These outcomes will be achieved by 9/30/04.
Provide travel funds for board members to training and development events. Continue seeking grant funding for SILC objectives.
An informed, competent board of directors. At least $100,000 in additional funding for SPIL goals and objectives.
These outcomes will be achieved by 9/30/04.
Meet with members of the General Assembly regarding the IL Act. Assist local programs with preparing fact sheets and with developing advocacy strategies and skills. Meet with VR Director on quarterly basis until MOU is developed and refined.
Legislation defining CILs and IL. New state dollars for locals CILs. A better working relationship between VR and IL. A CIL for Northwest Georgia that is located inside the state boundaries.
These outcomes will be achieved by 9/30/04.
It is the policy of the DSU to provide most IL services through private, nonprofit, consumer-controlled organizations. Over the past five years, the Division of Rehabilitation Services, has transitioned all Title VII, Part B funded services to SILC management. The SILC, in turn, contracts with local consumer-controlled, non-profits to deliver direct IL services. In FY ’00, nine local IL programs delivered 3672 services to 868 people with Title VII, Part B funds (along with some state dollars). In addition, five Part C funded Centers for Independent Living served 1,288 Georgians with significant disabilities through the Part C program.
The Chapter 2 (Older Blind IL) services are administered and coordinated by the DSU. The DSU contracts with five local programs--including the CIL in Augusta—that provided 1,758 services to 466 older blind people in FY 2000. The Chapter 2 Programs future goals are to
Even though both Title VII B and Chapter 2 services have expanded significantly, Title VII programs touch only a small fraction of people with significant disabilities. Assuming that the percentage of persons with severe disabilities is 9.9% (McNeil National Study, 1994-5), there are 810,459 Georgians in this category. Because of these enormous numbers, it is essential for people in the IL Network to advocate with the state systems that affect the lives of people with significant disabilities. It is for this reason that many of our goals and objectives include advocating for disability-friendly policy on the part of state departments such as Education, Transportation, Community Health, Human Resources, Community Affairs, Labor, etc.
The CILs and the SILC coordinate their efforts in a variety of ways. Most CILs attend the quarterly SILC board meetings. The SILC board has two CIL directors – one nominated by the CILs and an additional one. CILs are working collaboratively with one another and with the SILC in grant applications such as the National Service Corporation grant and the Social Security Benefits Counseling grants. Email lists have enhanced our communication with one another as well as with advocacy networks such as the Unlock the Waiting Lists! Campaign, ADAPT, GCARE, etc.
The SILC and the DSU work together by participating in one another’s Councils. The DSU has a representative on the SILC and the SILC director serves on the State Rehabilitation Council along with a member of the SILC board. In addition, the DSU coordinator of services for people with sensory disabilities includes CILs on her email list and invites CILs to training sessions.
In addition to coordinating with the DSU, the SILC and CILs work collaboratively with relevant state and local agencies. For example, DisAbility Link and Disability Connections partnered with the Shepherd Center in applying for a Benefits Counseling grant. In addition, BAIN and TRAC are partnering with Rehabilitation Services in a Benefits Counseling grant from the Social Security Administration. All the CILs joined with the SILC in applying for a National Service Corporation grant to include people with disabilities in stream of service programs. DisAbility Link is joining with the University of Georgia’s Institute on Human Development and Disability to apply for an advocacy project funded by the Developmental Disabilities Council.
The SILC and the DD Council are partners on several projects. The two largest projects are the Unlock the Waiting List! Campaign and access to affordable, accessible housing.
It is safe to say that all of Georgia is underserved when one considers the pool of potential IL consumers. As stated earlier, there are more than 800,000 Georgians who report that they have “significant disabilities”. There are more than 400,000 non-institutionalized Georgians between the ages of 16 and 64 who report that they are “unable to work” an account of disability. Part B and C dollars along with the Chapter 2 program served 2,322 people—slightly less than .003% of those with significant disabilities! But out of the people who are served, the demographics (age, race, gender) of the CIL consumer approximates that of the Georgia population as indicated by the chart that follows.
SILC Consumer Georgia Population
SILC Consumers: 42.4% Male and 57.6% Female.
Georgia Population:
48.7% Male and 51.3% Female.
SILC Consumers: 58.9% White, Georgia Population: 66.7%
White
SILC Consumers: 36.9% African American, Georgia
Population: 28.5% African American
SILC Consumers: 1.6% Asian
American, Georgia Population: 2.0% Asian American
SILC
Consumers: 2.3% Latino, Georgia Population: 2.9%
Latino
SILC Consumers: 0.3% Native American, Georgia
Population: 0.2% Native American
The types of disabilities served by CILs include
It appears as though persons with mobility limitations are over-represented although we do not have good data to show the proportion of people in each disability category. Out of the more than 800,000 Georgians who report significant disabilities, the percentage of those with hearing disabilities or cognitive disabilities is not known. Therefore, it is difficult to decide which disability category is “underserved”. Moreover, not all disability categories need IL services equally. Some disability groups, such as people with mental illness, have a recognized and developed service delivery system. (Even though many of these service delivery systems may be inadequate, at least there is a recognized service system!) Other disability groups, such as persons with brain injury or those with multiple disabilities (such as deafness combined with mental illness), there is virtually no service delivery system. The same is true for people with significant physical disabilities. Unless such a person has a clear vocational goal, there is no recognized service delivery system. As a result, it is all too common to encounter a young person with Cerebral Palsy in a nursing home. It is therefore, important for the CILs and the SILC to
Even though the SILC remains uncertain about what is meant by unserved and underserved, the CILs have established outreach goals as a part of their work plans.
Therefore, the SILC will support the efforts of the CILs to meet their goals, which include the following activities:
In order to enhance the perspective of people with sensory disabilities, the SILC will include as an ex officio, non-voting member, the DSU’s coordinator of blind, deaf and deaf-blind services.
The SILC includes a member of the Muskogee Tribe, a recent recipient of a Section 121 Rehabilitation grant for Native Americans with disabilities.
Georgia has four Title VII, Part C funded CILs in the following areas:
DisAbility Link serving 12 counties around Metro Atlanta
Walton Options
for Independent Living serving 19 counties in East Georgia (Augusta)
Living
Independence for Everyone serving 14 counties in Southeast Georgia
(Savannah)
Disability Connections serving 11 counties in central Georgia
(Macon)
In addition, the SILC contracts with Tri-State Resource & Advocacy Corporation, a CIL in Chattanooga, Tennessee to serve the 15 counties in Northwest Georgia. At some point over the past three years, three of these five CILs were on “at risk” status with RSA. But at the present time, all three programs have dramatically improved and appear to be stable, competent sources for IL services.
The SILC and state dollars also fund CILs in Bainbridge, Gainesville, Fort Oglethorpe, a satellite center in Warrenton as well as two home modification/adaptive equipment programs—one in Atlanta and one in Brunswick. The map in Appendix I provides a graphic of the current IL Network. A Text version is in Appendix II.
Beginning in FY ’02, there will be $277,708 in additional Part C
funds to be distributed as follows:
Additional resources to Disability Link are for the purpose of serving consumers in the 14 County Gainesville region. Additional resources to Disability Connections are for the purpose of serving consumers in the 8 county area around Bainbridge. Additional resources allow Walton Options to serve 5 counties in the western part of the center's large, rural service area. The long-range plan is to develop fully operational CILs in each of these areas with the current CILs serving as mentors to the small but developing CILs in Gainesville, Bainbridge and Warrenton.
Not all of the programs the SILC funds are interested in developing into fully operational CILs. For example, FODAC in Metro Atlanta and BCDE in Southeast Georgia provide home modifications and adaptive equipment (FODAC and BCDE) or transportation (BCDE). Because these services are very needed, the SILC will continue to contract with programs that provide specific, tangible IL services. However, public education materials will clearly state that such programs are NOT Centers for Independent Living but rather service-specific IL programs that complement the work of the CILs.
There are currently two programs serving Northwest Georgia—TRAC and Bridges. TRAC has held a contract to provide services to Georgians since ’96 and Bridges came on line in ’01. The Northwest Georgia region is the second most populated region after Atlanta. With an estimated 60,000 people with significant disabilities, there is an abundance of work to be done. Moreover, the Bridges program is concentrating their work in particular areas—education advocacy for children, transportation development and assistive technology. In addition, the two programs are regularly coordinating their efforts. There is, however, potential for confusion. Over the next three years, the SILCs of Georgia and Tennessee will consider (1) asking TRAC to concentrate its efforts in Tennessee and (2) funding a CIL within Georgia’s borders.
The SILC and the CILs are considering changing the way current contracts are executed. At the present time, SILC contracts are for specific services for a specific number of people. This contracting method is problematic for the CILs and for the SILC in the following ways:
If the contracts with CILs are changed to allow funding for general operations, this contracting method will be used only for those programs that are Part C funded and therefore, required to complete an Annual Report to the Rehabilitation Services Administration (referred to as “the 704 Report”). Programs that are Part B and/or state funded will continue monthly demographic and service statistics that the SILC will compile for its annual 704 Report.
As previously stated, the goal for the Part B funded programs in Gainesville, Bainbridge and Warrenton is to develop these programs into fully functional, free-standing CILs. It is our intent to accomplish this task during the next three years.
In addition, the SILC will continue the process of CIL development by annually offering mini-grants of $3000 to assist consumer organizations with incorporation costs, securing their non-profit status and conducting study tours to learn about CIL operations. Depending on funding, the SILC may continue offering challenge grants of up to $40,000 for those programs that successfully secure local in-kind or cash investments. The areas of the state that are targeted for CIL development are Columbus, Newnan, Albany, Athens, Valdosta and Dublin. These areas are listed in order of priority based on the most to the least populated.
The SILC and the CILs will continue to work for increased funding in the following ways:
Even with all these approaches, the community capacity to develop a CIL may or may not exist. Developing a CIL requires interested, focused and skilled people with disabilities. The SILC will continue to search for, and offer learning opportunities to, any consumer group requesting its assistance.