2018 CCDC July E-Newsletter: This summer we are all about Health Equity and touring the State Listening to You

THE DISPATCH
July 2018 Issue

Letter from the Executive Director

Dear Members:

By the time you get this newsletter, we will be in the middle of a busy summer of activity. Before I share our extensive summer activities, I have to talk about the holiday last week. The day we all have off is July 4^th, but our independence day is July 26^th. This is the day that the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) became the law of the land. No law is meaningful without enforcement, which is why CCDC has had a legal program for 20 years enforcing the ADA.

We are working with friends across the country to fiercely defend attacks against this law. The law is going to be 28 years old. A 28-year-old person is usually able to travel independently, and enjoy public accommodations. Our litigation has made the same true for many people with disabilities. We can now ride buses and trains, use hotels, eat at restaurants and thanks to a great team of legal advocates, even get tickets at Red Rocks. Like many 28-year-old's, we have not completely figured out the employment thing…we need to do more.

We need to change the collective expectations about employment and poverty. We must make sure the ADA includes all of us. This means we cannot allow our Deaf brothers and sisters to be held in jail without interpreters. This means we cannot allow criminalization of our brothers and sisters who are without housing. This means we do not accept institutionalization of our brothers and sisters who live with mental illness. This means we must demand safe and decent housing for our brothers and sisters with intellectual disabilities so that not one more person dies in a preventable fire.

The ADA anniversary is a time to celebrate all that has been accomplished…and we have accomplished a lot. We just passed another anniversary of the Olmstead Decision, which says that state and local governments MUST provide services in the most integrated settings appropriate to the needs of the individual with a disability unless to do so would be a fundamental alteration of the program, benefit or service. That is a high bar and we will be working to shore up expectations about Olmstead with an incoming Colorado Governor.

The world is a very different place than it was 28 years ago; it is different than it was 18 or even ten years ago. We must continue to move forward and remember to celebrate even in difficult times. Speaking of moving forward – our summer activities include:

1) Listening Tour: We are going around the state to listen to you, our members and others who may not know about us yet to get a sense of the most important issues in our community. If you want information or want to get one scheduled in your community, please contact Karyn Renae Anderson via email at kranderson@ccdconline.org

2) #Vote4Medicaid is our newest Public Education project where we are organizing all organizations and their constituents who benefit from Medicaid to use consistent messaging to educate our collective members/clients/constituents/patients about the importance of Medicaid and what it is. For more information or to sign on your organization, here is the form. If you have questions, contact CCDC Community Organizer Lucinda Rowe at lrowe@ccdconline.org. We are happy to send someone to speak to your group.

3) We are working with two allies –The Colorado Center on Law and Policy and the Colorado Consumer Health Initiative to increase client engagement in the policy and operations of the Regional Accountable Entities. We are focusing on Regions 4 (Pueblo and surrounding areas) and 6 (Jefferson and Boulder counties). We want to have a level of involvement like we have in Region 1 (entire Western Slope and Larimer County). We are selecting a relatively small group of Medicaid clients who will receive significant support and training to participate. For more information contact CCDC staff person Shannon Secrest at ssecrest@ccdconline.org

4) Our summer advocacy class is underway and if you missed it, do not fret, there is one more class (in person and online) left this year that will start in the fall. Contact CCDC Training Manager Angela Nevin at anevin@ccdconline.org if you are interested.

5) Our community organizing is going hot and heavy with our advocates involved in Health Equity through our Health Equity Advocacy cohort work with the Colorado Trust, numerous issues affecting Medicaid clients with disabilities, housing (affordability and tenant rights issues), safety net defense, transportation and Get Out The Vote. Contact CCDC Lead Community Organizer Dawn Howard at dhoward@ccdconline.org if you want to get involved.

6) We continue to provide individual advocacy for those in need and if you or someone you know needs our help, please contact our coordinator, Michelle McHenry-Edrington at advocacy@ccdconline.org. If we are not the right organization, she will find out who is and help you get connected.

7) We are happy that we continue to work internally on racial equity, staff will be doing work at a training on August 2^nd and our staff committee led by Legal Program Attorney Andrew Montoya is plugging along. We know they will bring us great recommendations for changes that we must make.

8) We are thrilled to welcome a new member to our Board of Directors. Dr. Phil Mitchell is a founder of Dispatch Health. He will bring wisdom about both health care and how to expand programs to our organization. Listen to this Ted Talk to hear how awesome he is!

9) We want to congratulate Chris Brock, the managing attorney of Probate Power on his upcoming wedding. He is getting married in July and will have a short honeymoon after which he will return to his growing practice. He still has room to see more clients, so please check out Probate Power and share this resource. Probate Power is our Social Enterprise. The goal is to earn money to invest back into CCDC while providing a needed legal service to our community.

We always want to hear from you, our members, donors, friends, and allies. Feel free to reach out to me directly at any time. I cannot always respond immediately, but I always respond. You are the lifeblood of this amazing, growing organization that will never stop until there is true social justice for every single person with a disability.

Thank you for your support.

Respectfully,
Julie Reiskin
Executive Director

P.S. Save the Date for our annual ADA Access Awards Luncheon coming up on October 3rd at Mile High Station.

(Pictured here is the logo of Colorado Cross-Disability Coalition ADA Access Awards)

CCDC Summer 2018 Statewide Listening Tour News

In July, save the dates of July 16 in Lamar, July 19 in Sterling and July 21 in Pueblo to also celebrate the 27th Anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA)!

Come join us at the upcoming stops of our free Colorado Cross-Disability Coalition Statewide Listening Tour! Free lunch with a reservation will be provided at each of the three July stops.

CCDC is conducting a Summer 2018 Statewide Listening Tour. It’s taking place in communities around the state and CCDC wants to hear from YOU!

During this tour, CCDC Executive Director Julie Reiskin will be available to provide the most up to date, accurate information on what has and has not changed at the Federal level regarding disability policy, what has and has not changed at the state level, and how you can make sure that your voice is heard.

We want to hear from people with disabilities (PWD) and our allies around the state about the most common issues that affect them in their communities. When possible, we want to help find possible solutions. CCDC will be revising Its strategic plan in 2019 and we want to ensure we focus on those issues most important to Coloradans with Disabilities. ‬‬

To visit the Facebook Event page of the July 16 Lamar stop, click here. For Sterling on July 19, click here. And for Pueblo details for July 21, click here.

CONTACT: Please contact Karyn ReNae Anderson at kranderson@ccdconline.org - 970-393-0170 if you
need any accommodations to participate as soon as possible but at least by (one week before events).

Mark your Calendars and spread the word for the Listening Tour Stops scheduled to date for August 2018:
- Fort Collins on August 14 11:00 to 1:00 at Harmony Libary
- Steamboat Springs on August 17 10:00 to noon at Bud Werner Memorial Library
- Greeley on August 18 11:00 to 1:00 at the DoubleTree Hotel
- Glenwood Springs on August 28 12:30 to 2:30 at Glenwood Public Library
- Grand Junction on August 29 10:30 to 12:30 at Mesa County Workforce Center

Colorado Trust 2018-19 Health Equity Learning Series events from CCDC

Great news, CCDC is fortunate to have once again received a grant in 2018 from The Colorado Trust to support health equity learning in Prowers County through the Trust's Health Equity Learning Series.

CCDC and other leaders in health care, education, human services, and government from across the county will be attending live presentations of The Colorado Trust’s Health Equity Learning Series, followed by facilitated discussions about health equity in our communities. An educational program of The Colorado Trust, the Health Equity Learning Series aims to increase knowledge and awareness of health equity through presentations from experts discussing factors that increase disparities and solutions that advance health equity. The learning series brings experts from across different disciplines to discuss factors that increase disparities and solutions that advance health equity.

The Colorado Trust's Health Equity Learning Series (HELS) resumed again in May. You can see more information about HELS here. The first presentation featured Harriet A. Washington on May 22nd in Denver.

Washington is a science writer, editor and ethicist who has been a research fellow in medical ethics at Harvard Medical School, visiting fellow at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, a visiting scholar at DePaul University College of Law and a senior research scholar at the National Center for Bioethics at Tuskegee University. She has also held fellowships at Stanford University, holds a degree in English from the University of Rochester, a M.A. in journalism from Columbia University and in 2016 was elected a fellow of the New York Academy of Medicine. She teaches a bioethics course at Columbia University. At the presentation, Washington will discuss health inequities from the lens of structural racism, including an examination of medical experimentation on people of color, gene patenting and other topics.

Harriet A. Washington has written several books, including Infectious Madness: The Surprising Science of How We "Catch" Mental Illness (while the 2015-1 6Miriam Shearing Fellow at the University of Nevada's Black Mountain Institute), and Medical Apartheid: The Dark History of Experimentation from Colonial Times to the Present, which won a National Book Critics Circle Award, the PEN/Oakland Award and the American Library Association Black Caucus Nonfiction Award. She has written for popular and science publications and has also been published in refereed books and journals such as Nature,JAMA and The American Journal of Public Health.

The first CCDC HELS event featuring a fully-accessible closed caption video (see links below) was held on July 9 in Lamar, Colorado. Our thanks to CCDC certified non-attorney Advocate Kenny Maestas for managing this project and arranging the evening in Lamar this month.

Video Trailer:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ygpML4QjEG0&feature=youtu.be

English subtitles:
http://www.coloradotrust.org/race-todays-medicine-science-history-and-myth

Spanish subtitles:
http://www.coloradotrust.org/es/la-raza-en-la-medicina-actual-ciencia-historia-y-mito

To learn more about how you can get more involved in disability and health equity advocacy in Prowers County, please email Kenny Maestas at kmaestas@ccdconline.org today.

Picture of Harriet A. Washington, courtesy of the Colorado Trust website.

CCDC New Employee Spotlight

Lucinda Rowe

Photo of new CCDC part-time community organizer Lucinda Rowe

(Picture of new CCDC part-time Community Organizer Lucinda Rowe.)

We are pleased to announce the addition of Lucinda Rowe to our CCDC team. A 2017 graduate of our CCDC Basic Advocacy Course, Lucinda for the past year has been a Certified Non-Attorney Advocate who assists with outreach. In May 2018, she accepted the position of part-time community organizer spearheading our new Public Education Project, #Vote4Medicaid.

This mother of three is also a full-time CNA for her 20-year-old daughter, Estrealla, who lives in their home, with severe Cerebral Palsy. PASCO Home Health employs Lucinda as well part-time to not only care for Estrealla, but also to work as a Family Liaison where she regularly attends community events to spread the word of the opportunities available to families with children, adults, and elderly with disabilities, as well as sharing about the benefits of becoming a free Member of CCDC.

Lucinda’s passion for advocacy for the disability community has also led her to become a Parent Advocate through a Children's Hospital training program. She recently attended PolicyLink's Equity Conference 2018 in Chicago in April with CCDC Lead Community Organizer Dawn Howard, CCDC Individual Advocacy Director Donna Sablan and CCDC Director of Evaluation & Development Laura Gabbay. Lucinda continues to follow in her grandfather Juan Haro’s footsteps, who was a prominent community organizer in the Latino community during the 1970's.

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Upcoming Community Events (additional listed below)

The Summer 2018 9-week CCDC Basic Advocacy Course started on June 5th and is chugging along! Now it's offered online and live at the University of Denver.

BECOME A CCDC PEER ADVOCATE, WORKING ONE-ON-ONE WITH INDIVIDUALS WHO ASK FOR ASSISTANCE IN ISSUE AREAS FROM MEDICAID TO HOUSING TO SERVICE ANIMAL QUESTIONS OR GET INVOLVED IN OUR SYSTEMS ADVOCACY AND POLICY WORK. Our next session is offered this fall.

INTERESTED? YOU CAN ALSO CLICK HERE TO VISIT OUR WEBSITE.

Focus will be on the following topics:

CCDC History, What about CCDC and General Advocacy
Advocates navigating Local, State, and Federal Benefit Systems
Disability Determination-Social Security (SSI and SSDI)
Medicaid – Disability Eligibility & Determination - The Affordable Care Act and Health Equity
Due Process and the Appeals Process for Benefits
Community and Grass Roots Organizing, Nonprofit and Regulatory Boards, The Legislative Process, and Rule Application
Employment, Housing and Transportation
Effective Communication, Requesting Reasonable Accommodation (ADA)

Email Angela Nevin at anevin@ccdconline.org for more information.

Save the Date: the 2018 CCDC ADA Access Awards Luncheon will be held on Wednesday, October 3rd at Mile High Station.

Sponsorships are now available and start at $500 each. To see who generously sponsored our annual luncheon last fall, click here. To learn more, email Laura Gabbay at lgabbay@ccdconline.org

Our fantastic keynote speaker this fall will be Lisa Duran. Lisa has worked for over 30 years in the nonprofit sector and grassroots social justice work. Tickets are $45 each and are on sale. To buy yours, click here.

Picture of CCDC Annual ADA Access Awards Luncheon 2018 Keynote Speaker Lisa Duran.

(Pictured here is CCDC Annual ADA Access Awards Luncheon 2018 Keynote Speaker Lisa Duran.

About the Colorado Cross-Disability Coalition

The mission of CCDC is to advocate for Social Justice for people with all types of disabilities. We are a membership-driven 501 (c) (3) nonprofit organization and over 2,000 Members today.

DONATE ONLINE TODAY TO CCDC (Click below and visit our COLORADOGIVES.ORG PAGE)

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FOUNDATION SUPPORTER SPOTLIGHT: Caring for Colorado

(Pictured here is the Caring for Colorado Foundation Board of Directors and staff in September 2017. Photo courtesy of the Caring for Colorado Foundation website.)

Caring for Colorado (CFC) is a grantmaking foundation dedicated to listening to, learning from, and providing support for communities and organizations that share our vision of a healthy Colorado. We strive to remove barriers to health that result from policies, environments, and systems that perpetuate inequities and direct our resources toward community-generated solutions addressing the most pressing health needs in our state. Guided by our mission to promote and improve health statewide, and in recognition of the importance of partnership in achieving our aims, CFC develops strong relationships across diverse communities and organizations to inform our work. CCDC represents an organization aligned with the CFC mission and goals, and we strongly value our partnership and shared commitment to health equity and access to quality, affordable health care for all Coloradans.

Here above the board of directors and staff is pictured in September 2017 when they all traveled to Leadville and Salida for a three-day retreat to learn more about Lake, Chaffee and Fremont counties.

CFC has supported CCDC to provide critical advocacy for Coloradans with disabilities facing complex barriers to care, to continue pursuing policy solutions to address inequities faced by the disability community and to build an online platform to reach advocates in every part of the state. CCDC represents the disability community and ensures the voices of those with disabilities inform decision-making that impacts the health of Coloradans. Through widely-recognized health policy expertise and strong dedicated staff and leadership, CCDC works to create a healthier Colorado for everyone and moves all of us closer to the realization of our goals.

“CCDC has the credibility and unique understanding of the impact of national, state, and local policy on the community to be a very effective disability advocate. We are proud to partner with them and to support people living with disabilities in Colorado.” Chris Wiant, President and CEO, Caring for Colorado Foundation.

We are grateful for long-standing and incredibly generous philanthropic support of CFC. To learn more about the Caring for Colorado Foundation, visit their website.

(Pictured is the logo of the Caring for Colorado Foundation with the words below: A Health Grantmaker)

Save the Date for 2018 Colorado Gives Day on December 4th!

Logo artwork that reads: COMMUNITY FIRST FOUNDATION COLORADO GIVES DAY 12.04.18 with 1st Bank logo and the words Corporate Partner

(Pictured here is logo artwork that reads: COMMUNITY FIRST FOUNDATION COLORADO GIVES DAY 12.04.18 with 1st Bank logo and the words Corporate Partner)

More Upcoming Community Events

Our 2018 Statewide Listening Tour with Julie Reiskin is underway! Stops across beautiful Colorado are still being scheduled. To see what is already on the calendar for July and August, see the article under Julie's Letter to the Members on the left hand side of this newsletter. For more information on the tour itself, please contact our Listening Tour Coordinator, Karyn ReNae Anderson at kranderson@ccdconline.org or call her at 970-393-0170.
THINK+change, in partnership with Realm of Caring, is presenting a conference on the intersection between disability and nutrition called "Finding Health" on July 28 and 29. There are 14 full scholarships still available for Denverites who would like to participate for FREE! Qualifications include living in the City and County of Denver, and being a person with an IDD or who provides care for a person with an IDD. In some cases, caregivers who do not live in the City and County of Denver but provide care for someone who does might qualify. Folks interested in confirming that they are scholarship eligible and getting registered for the July 28-29 conference should call Jean Solis at The Arc of Aurora|THINK+change ASAP at 720-213-1420.
Headed up to Red Rocks this summer? Our CCDC non-attorney certified Advocate Randy Kilbourn recommends this web page. Here is what he found: Red Rocks Amphitheatre operates shuttle vehicles to transport guests with disabilities or mobility impairments that possess tickets for the front section of the amphitheater. Shuttles will begin transporting guests 30 minutes prior to door time from the paved section of the Upper South Accessible parking lot. Guests who require the use of a wheelchair will be asked to present a Row 1 ticket to gain access to the shuttle. All other guests utilizing wheelchairs will be directed to park in the Top Circle Lot with access to Row 70. From the Upper South parking lot, guests will be transported to the South Gate, the same location that those who use the South ramp will arrive. From the shuttle drop off, a ramp approximately 275 feet long will lead guests to Row 1. If guests have tickets that are located in a row other than Row 1, they will navigate to their ticketed seats from this location. During and after the show, the shuttle will pick up from South Gate, the same location guests are dropped off at prior to the show, and will continue operating until all patrons requiring the shuttle have returned to their vehicles.
This summer there are also two VA Mental Health Summits open to the general public. To best meet the mental health needs of Veterans, communities across the country are strengthening networks of support by building new connections and sharing resources. The Department of Veterans Affairs, Eastern Colorado Health Care System is committed to advancing these partnerships and will be hosting a day-long Summit to further that vision. Save the Date: Wednesday, August 29, 2018 from 7:30 am-4:00 pm at the Penrose House, 1661 Mesa Ave in Colorado Springs. There will also be one held in Aurora, Colorado at Anschutz Medical Campus on August 15. To learn more, below is the link to both the Denver/Aurora and Colorado Springs 2018 VA/Community Mental Health Summits:
https://einvitations.afit.edu/inv/anim.cfm?i=405840&k=066147017F57

Become a CCDC Member today!

Membership in CCDC is free! To sign up for our Member Alerts and to learn more about how you and your friends can get involved, click here.

Now when you become a Member, you can sign up for Email Alerts that are specifically tailored to the topic or issue that interests YOU. Questions? Email Dawn Howard at dhoward@ccdconline.org

Pictured here is CCDC IT Manager and certified non-attorney Advocate Jose Torres-Vega at the 2018 Tribute to the Gang of 19 at the State Capitol in May 2018. Photo courtesy of Atlantis ADAPT

(Pictured here is IT Manager and certified non-attorney Advocate Jose Torres-Vega at the 2018 Tribute to the Gang of 19 at the State Capitol in May 2018. Photo courtesy of Atlantis ADAPT)

Pictured here are CCDC Community Organizer Lucinda Rowe (right) with her daughter (center) and the Broncos mascot at the PASCO Picnic in June 2018.

(Pictured here are CCDC Community Organizer Lucinda Rowe (right) with her daughter (center) and the Broncos mascot at the PASCO Picnic in June 2018.)

Spotlight on CCDC's new Public Education Project, #VoteforMedicaid

Sign on today to our pledge to bring awareness to all Coloradans about Medicaid

We invite you to join the newest CCDC Public Education Project, #Vote4Medicaid. This effort focuses on spreading the word to all Coloradans about the importance of Medicaid and what it means to our community. We are asking all organizations and businesses that benefit from Medicaid in any way, and allies that benefit indirectly by having a healthy community, to sign our pledge to bring awareness to the importance of Medicaid. Medicaid funding helps many Coloradans live healthy, quality lives within their communities. To date, 44 organizations have signed on. Our thanks to them for supporting this project! We also would like to thank the volunteer Steering Committee leading this project this summer and fall.

CCDC has hired two new community organizers to work on the #Vote4Medicaid-A Public Education Project. They are Lucinda Rowe and Stacy Yusim. Lucinda is introduced in our New Employee Spotlight on the right. Stacy, who is a woman with a disability, has a background in developing and providing educational programs about the ADA and disability rights. Stacy recently moved to Colorado from Illinois. She will coordinate a public education event later this year. Both Lucinda and Stacy have taken CCDC’s 9-week Basic Advocacy Training.

Those of us who live with and benefit from Medicaid know how important it is and what exactly it is. Yet many of our fellow Coloradans agree that our state need these health care and Long-Term Supports and Services (LTSS) assistance to live independently as people with disabilities but do not know it is “Medicaid.” So CCDC is seeking some outside expertise to learn how to best communicate the importance of Medicaid, not just to people with disabilities but all of the people for whom Medicaid keeps us healthy, to people outside of the disability and health care communities.

CCDC also is fortunate enough to have recently received grant funds from the Rapid Response program of the Colorado Health Foundation and the Strategic Advocacy Fund that is part of Phase 3 of the Health Equity Advocacy Program of the Colorado Trust for this project. These funds are enabling CCDC to hire BBC Research to test the messages that best resonate with the general public about Medicaid because polling CCDC conducted last fall shows that voters support what Medicaid does, but do not understand that the services they support are Medicaid. We will also have funds to bring in the Colorado Fiscal Institute in for consulting and to hire a public relations expert with whom we worked in 2016 to create the resources found on the terrific website mentioned below in order to this year develop new and improved tools for media (traditional and social) to enhance our existing Medicaid Messaging that is on the website www.medicaidhelpscolorado.org

If you are an organization who would like to learn more about how to sign onto the #Vote4Medicaid coalition or an individual interested in volunteer opportunities during this campaign, please contact CCDC #Vote4Medicaid Community Organizer Lucinda Rowe at lrowe@ccdconline.org or call her at 303-421-5170.

Pictured here above are disability rights advocates at the 2018 Gang of 19 Vigil at Colfax and Broadway on July 5, 2018. Photo courtesy of Women's Lobby of Colorado.