Advocacy Monitor

Help People with Disabilities Live Independently!

Congress is reconciling the Fiscal Year 2023 appropriation requests from the House and Senate. Funding for Independent Living has been recommended at these levels:

• Senate appropriation – $127 million
• House of Representatives appropriation – $140 million

We are asking the Senate and House Appropriation Committees to support the House number of $140 million.

• Call your Senators and Representative: Call the Capitol Switchboard at (202) 224-3121 (voice) or (202) 224-3091 (TTY). Ask to be connected to your Senators or Representative.
• You can find your Senators’ phone numbers and websites at senate.gov and your Representative’s phone number and website at house.gov/representatives. If you don’t know who your Representative is, you can find out at house.gov/representatives/find-your-representative.
• You can use Resistbot to turn texts into faxes, mail, or hand-delivered letters by texting “RESIST” to 50409.

Sample Script (please feel free to personalize):

Hi, my name is [YOUR FULL NAME], and I’m from [CITY, STATE].

I am [calling / writing] to urge Congress to reaffirm its commitment to 61 million disabled Americans by increasing funding for the Independent Living Program and accepting the House of Representative’s appropriations request of $140 million dollars in the Departments of Labor, Health, and Human Services, And Education, And Related Agencies Appropriations Bill, 2023. We are asking for the $140 million because there is an increasing need for services from Centers for Independent Living, which are cross-disability, non-residential, community-based, nonprofit organizations run by and for people with all types of disabilities.

Centers for Independent Living help people live independently in their communities by providing a variety of services, including helping people to get out of nursing homes!

I hope you will support your disabled constituents and accept the higher number requested by the House of Representatives of $140 million for the Independent Living Program for FY 2023.

Thank you for your time.

[Your name]

Tips:

• You can add a personal story about what your CIL does or how your CIL has helped you!
• If leaving a voicemail or emailing, please leave your full street address and zip code. This will ensure your call or email is tallied.
• Read the IL Appropriations Background Sheet and view NCIL’s original request (https://bit.ly/3RZgo2J).

Prepare to empower people with disabilities in making health insurance choices!

The American Association on Health and Disability (AAHD) and our partners, ILRU IL NET T&TA Center for Independent Living, National Council on Independent Living (NCIL), and the Association of Programs for Rural Independent Living (APRIL), are recruiting CIL Staff volunteers to pilot a training curriculum that teaches CIL Staff how to assist people with disabilities in making health insurance choices.

The training will be open from November 1 to December 31, 2022. This training will be conducted using the Course Avenue platform that will provide participants with learning modules and evaluation surveys at their own learning pace.

There are 4 Modules in the training curriculum – Introduction to Health Insurance, Types of Health Insurance, Choosing Health Insurance, and Hurdles to Using Health Insurance.

The purpose of this pilot is to get YOUR feedback on the training’s effectiveness at preparing CIL Staff to assist people with disabilities choose and use health insurance.

The National Council on Independent Living (NCIL) is currently seeking an Executive Director to succeed the Interim Executive Director, Darrell Lynn Jones, with a target start date of January 1, 2023. NCIL encourages all qualified applicants to apply for this exciting opportunity to lead one of the nation’s premiere organizations for disability rights and independent living.

Celebrating its 40^th anniversary, NCIL is the longest-running, national, cross-disability, grassroots organization run by and for people with disabilities. Founded in 1982, NCIL represents Centers for Independent Living (CILs), Statewide Independent Living Councils (SILCs), other organizations that advocate for the human and civil rights of people with disabilities, and individuals with disabilities throughout the United States.

The Executive Director will lead a complex grassroots organization that is led by a Governing Board and informed by its membership. The ability to work with a mission-driven board, members, and grassroots stakeholders is key. The Executive Director will also direct a dedicated, passionate staff of seven and administer an annual budget of nearly $2M. NCIL’s revenue comes from a variety of sources, including membership dues, conference registrations, donations, and grants and contracts. Ensuring NCIL’s continued success with advocacy and policy, resource development, and operating high-quality, accessible programs and events will be critical.

This year, NCIL hosted our first hybrid conference, which included over 35 hours of content spread out over seven days.

In addition to onsite participation, the 2022 Annual Conference on Independent Living included livestreams, recordings, and virtual components. Virtual content will be available for all registrants through the end of 2022.

We had approximately 400 in-person participants and 300 virtual participants. First-time attendees comprised 55% according to evaluation data. Seventy-five percent of respondents evaluated the experience as good, very good, or excellent.

The excitement of reuniting as a community was on display throughout the event and we were thrilled to see so many new faces.

NCIL thanks our dedicated members, volunteers, staff and board members, presenters, speakers, exhibitors, advertisers, and all conference participants for creating a truly memorable conference experience.

We are especially thankful for the members who scheduled and met with elected officials to advocate for Independent Living priorities. Together, we will create a world in which people with disabilities are truly valued equally and participate fully.

• Read the full conference wrap-up, which includes photos, awards, election results, and a special thank you to our sponsors.

August 23, 2022; 3:00 – 4:30 p.m. Eastern

Register online or reach out to jenny@ncil.org for more information.

The IL-NET National Training & Technical Assistance (T&TA) Center operated by ILRU in collaboration with NCIL, APRIL, and the University of Montana Rural Institute and RTC: Rural, supports CILs and SILCs in building capacity to run strong, effective organizations. This webinar will be a discussion highlighting the importance of monitoring and assessing a CIL’s performance using self-assessment tools and how these tools can best be utilized within a CIL to improve program performance. It will feature three speakers, Paula McElwee from Independent Living Research Utilization (ILRU), Annetta Johnson from Northern West Virginia Center for Independent Living, and Kyle Kleist from Center for Independent Living for Western Wisconsin.

Please join us for this complimentary webinar and learn more about use of self and peer monitoring as management tools within CILs.