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CCDC Logo: Colorado Cross-Disability Coalition

THE DISPATCH
Jan. 2019 Issue


(Pictured here is a graphic that reads THANK YOU Colorado!, with the logo of 2018 Colorado Gives Day in the upper right corner and at the bottom, the text reads: DONATE TUES., DEC. 4 ColoradoGivesDay.org
(Pictured here is a graphic that reads THANK YOU Colorado! with the logo for COMMUNITY FIRST FOUNDATION COLORADO GIVES DAY, 12.04.18, with the logo artwork of 1st Bank below and the text underneath the logo: Corporate Partner.  The bottom text reads: DONATE TUES., DEC. 4 ColoradoGivesDay.org)

Letter from the Executive Director

Dear Members:

Happy New Year!

I cannot believe that 2018 is already over and we are now in the last year of this tumultuous decade.  In one more year both CCDC and the ADA will turn 30.   We are taking ideas now for what we should do to celebrate this occasion.
I wrote in past editions that we conducted a Listening Tour around the state this summer.  If you want to read the report, please click here.

Based on the report, our 2019 legislative priorities will focus on housing and transportation, but we will continue to work on health care, especially mental health care, and other social justice issues.  The disability community presented our organizations and priorities to the new Joint Budget Committee on December 11, 2018.  To receive a copy of the handouts, please email me at JReiskin@ccdconline.org

So what is CCDC doing in 2019?  In addition to our ongoing work that includes our Civil Rights Enforcement Legal Program, Probate Power, Individual and Systems
Advocacy, our plans include:
  • We will continue our #Vote4Medicaid public education project
  • We are very excited to begin a four-year grant from The Colorado Health Access Fund of The Denver Foundation to dedicate important new resources to mental health policy advocacy, which we have always done and can now do better.  We continue to work with the Accountable Care Collaborative 2.0, especially the part about integrating mental health into the Regional Accountable Entities and promoting stronger client involvement in this important part of the health care infrastructure.
  • We were lucky to get a grant from the Adams County Foundation in fall 2018 to provide outreach and individual advocacy services to Adams County residents.  We reached over 450 people and hope to be able to get continued funding during 2019 to keep up this work now that we have made so many great contacts.  
  • We are excited to work with the Community Foundation of Boulder County, which we will feature in a Spotlight in our March edition of our E-Newsletter, to do some targeted outreach to underrepresented immigrants and refugees with disabilities in the greater Boulder area.
  • We will continue our very active engagement with the Health Equity Cohort of the Colorado Trust, ending the Phase Three and hope to work on a Phase Four of this important work that has the potential to make a long-term impact on health equity. 
  • We are excited to continue to grow and improve our advocacy training—the next class begins Feb. 5th and you can enroll here.  If you have questions, our Training Manager Angela Nevin will be happy to answer.  Our class is available online and in person.  We appreciate the support from Caring for Colorado Foundation for our advocacy class and to help us build more online tools…stay tuned for more on that during the next quarter. 
  • We are excited to improve our communications with a better database and improved strategies with social media thanks to a November 2018 grant from Rose Community Foundation. 
  • We could not be effective health advocates on many Medicaid policies and assure a client voice on Medicaid issues throughout the long-term services and state plan systems without the generous support of the Colorado Health Foundation.
We have many generous funders and cannot mention every supporter in each newsletter, but we know who you are and are grateful.  We are very appreciative for the many gifts we have received from Colorado Gives Day 2018 and your dozens of year-end donations.   Every one of them counts and your gifts help us make sure that we enforce policies that say every person matters.
 

Thank you for your support.

Respectfully,
Julie Reiskin
Executive Director

P.S. Save the Date please for our 2019 ADA Access Awards Luncheon: September 25th!  Our keynote speaker will be Dr. Phil Mitchell, CEO of Dispatch Health and CCDC volunteer board member.

Logo artwork of CCDC ADA Access Awards.(Pictured above is the logo artwork of CCDC ADA Access Awards.)

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

Great news, CCDC is fortunate to have once again received a 2018-19 grant from The Colorado Trust to support health equity learning in Prowers County through the Trust's Health Equity Learning Series.

Join CCDC and other leaders in health care, education, human services, and government from across the county to live screenings 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 invites you to attend its third Health Equity Learning Series presentation of 2018-19, featuring Taté Walker (they/them). When it comes to experiencing violence, Indigenous womxn* face extreme marginalization at the crossroads of several identities and social structures. The combination of identities and oppressions related to sex, gender and race, among other identity/social aspects, are deeply tied to and intensified by the history and ongoing impact of settler colonialism. This takes shape in many dire and underreported ways: The U.S. murder rate for Indigenous womxn in some tribal communities is 10 times the national average; one in three Indigenous womxn will be sexually assaulted in their lifetime; and domestic violence rates are seven times higher for Indigenous womxn than womxn from other demographics.
 
This presentation by Taté Walker provides critical context to these and other violent realities from cultural, historical, systemic and gender-based viewpoints. You will come away with an understanding of the health inequities experienced by Indigenous womxn due to sexism and colonization, as well as strategies to demand and achieve justice for Indigenous womxn and their communities.
 
Taté Walker is Lakota and a citizen of the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe of South Dakota. They are a banner-waving Two Spirit feminist and Indigenous rights activist, and a published and award-winning storyteller for outlets like Native People’s MagazineEveryday FeminismFeminist Humanist AllianceIndian Country Today and many more. Their work is also featured in the recently published anthology titled FIERCE: Essays by and About Dauntless Women. (Nauset Press, 2018). Armed with a master’s degree in administrative science from the University of South Dakota, a bachelor’s degree in English-communications from Fort Lewis College, and black coffee(!), Taté uses their 15 years of experience working for daily newspapers, social justice organizations and tribal education systems to organize students and professionals around issues of critical cultural competency, anti-racism/anti-bias and inclusive community building. Find out more at www.jtatewalker.com and connect with them on Twitter at @MissusTWalker
 
*"Womxn" is an intentionally-used alternative spelling that rejects patriarchy in language by removing "men" as the root of "women" and that proactively includes transgender womxn, female-assigned genderqueer/gender non-conforming people, as well as cisgender womxn.

Click here for additional details‪ on the 2019 Health Equity Learning Series.

The CCDC HELS event featuring a free fully-accessible closed caption video of the live January 10th event will be held in spring 2019 (date TBD) in Lamar, Colorado.  To receive a Save the Date for the Prowers County community event coming later this spring, please email Kenny Maestas at kmaestas@ccdconline.org to reserve your spot.

Pictured here is Tate Walker (they, them), the speaker for the Jan. 10 Health Equity Learning Series event at History Colorado in Denver.
(Pictured here above is Tate Walker (they, them), the speaker for the Jan. 10, 2019 Health Equity Learning Series event at History Colorado in Denver.)
 
Pictured here on the right of the CCDC marketing banner is Elia Trujillo of Prowers Medical Center at the Nov. 27, 2018 CCDC HELS community event.Pictured here on the right of the CCDC marketing banner is Elia Trujillo of Prowers Medical Center at the Nov. 27, 2018 CCDC HELS community event.

Pictured here are CCDC volunteer advocate Don Yoxsimer (center) with two Lamar residents at the Nov. 27, 2018 CCDC HELS community event.Pictured here are CCDC volunteer advocate Don Yoxsimer (center) with two Lamar residents at the Nov. 27, 2018 CCDC HELS community event.






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Upcoming Community Events (additional listed below)

The first CCDC Basic Advocacy Course of 2019 gets underway in early February! Registration is open now so hurry and reserve your spot! We are going to be having only two sessions this year - one beginning on February 5th and the second beginning on September 10th.  Now it's offered online and live. Because University of Denver couldn't offer us a room for the first session, the live class will be held on the same floor as CCDC at 1385 S. Colorado Blvd. for the first 4 classes on Tuesdays.
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. 

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.  You can sign up by clicking here.


Pictured here is CCDC Advocate Kristen Castor (on right) at Celebration-Grand Opening of new Pueblo-Colorado Springs Bustang event in Dec. 2018
(Pictured here is CCDC Advocate Kristen Castor (on right) at Celebration-Grand Opening of new Pueblo-Colorado Springs Bustang connection event in Dec. 2018.)




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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SPONSOR SPOTLIGHT: AOI Home Care

Pictured here is David Bolin, CEO of AOI Homecare (back right) with a few employees of AOI Homecare
(Pictured here above is David Bolin, CEO of AOI Homecare -- back right -- with a few employees of AOI Homecare.)
 
We were proud to honor AOI Homecare as one of our two "Champion for People with Disabilities" Level Sponsors for our 2018 ADA Access Awards Luncheon this past October.

AOI Home Care is dedicated to treating both our clients and our employees with honesty, empathy, integrity and respect.

Established in 1984, AOI operates under four basic beliefs:
  • Clients have the right to live independently in their homes. To receive quality care in home and avoid unnecessary institutionalization.
  • If the safety of a client is compromised or their situation is medically unsafe, AOI will seek intervention. Additional resources or facilitators may be utilized.
  • Employees and clients alike have the right to be treated with respect. AOI believes that each individual has innate worth, regardless or race, sex, sexual preference, religion, creed, national origin, age or disability.
  • AOI believes that the best quality of care comes from and to employees and clients who are allowed to exercise choices in the work they do and with whom.
AOI offers skilled nursing, in-home support, personal care provider, certified nursing, and homemaking services, as well as individualized services and support to adults and children who have intellectual and developmental disabilities.

David Bolin, President & CEO of AOI Homecare, says, "AOI Homecare contributes to the mission of CCDC because they advocate on behalf of the people that we serve with the Legislature, Medicaid and other entities that can affect the lives of the people we serve.  AOI Homecare believes that the people we serve have the right to self determination and to live independent lives in the community of their choice.  Partnering with CCDC furthers this belief!"

Once again, on behalf of all of us at CCDC, we are grateful for the support of and our partnership with AOI Homecare.  To learn more about this wonderful organization, visit its website at: http://www.aoihomecare.com/ 
 
Pictured is the logo of AOI Home Care
(Pictured is the logo of AOI Home Care.)

Pictured above is the exterior of the facility of AOI Homecare.(Pictured above is the exterior of the facility of AOI Homecare.)

Pictured above is the lobby of AOI Homecare.(Pictured above is the lobby of AOI Homecare.)


Save the Date for our 2019 ADA Access Awards fundraiser on September 25th at Broncos Stadium at Mile High! Click here to check out our generous 2018 sponsors who we thank for their important support!

Logo for Colorado Cross-Disability Coalition ADA Access Awards event
(Pictured here is the logo of Colorado Cross-Disability Coalition ADA Access Awards)
 
More Upcoming Community Events

The 2019 Legislative Session kicked off on Jan. 4th!

To keep up-to-date on the issues that mean the most to you, weekly you can check out the CCDC website's Programs tab for Legislative Session updates.

The 2019 Colorado Coalition for the Homeless Ignite Thought Incite Change Education Series: Can We Fix the Affordable Housing Crisis?
Wednesday, January 23 | 6:00 PM - 7:30 PM | Stout Street Health Center
To RSVP, click here.

#TransitEquityDay is Feb. 4th.

February 4th honors Rosa Parks birthday and her act of resistance by refusing to give up her seat on the bus in 1955 was a catalyst for the civil rights movement. Visit the website of Mile High Connects to learn more about what this vital partnership is doing to increase access to housing choices, good jobs, quality schools and essential services via public transit.

Colorado Consumer Health Initiative (CCHI) Health Care Day of Action is on Feb. 14th. 

To learn more about this great opportunity to show some love for the health care issues that are important to you at the State Capitol, click here.

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 (from left to right) are CCDC Board Members, Ashlee Lewis and David Henninger, with Julie Reiskin in the center at ADAPT Homecoming in November 2018 at Civic Center Park in Denver.















Pictured here (from left to right) are CCDC Board Members, Ashlee Lewis and David Henninger, with Julie Reiskin in the center at ADAPT Homecoming in November 2018 in Civic Center Park in Denver.)

News about CCDC's vital 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, more than 120 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 in 2018.

Here is one family's powerful story about why Medicaid is vital to protect:


“My 27-year-old son is sadly been struggling his entire life with high-functioning autism and since the age of 12 schizophrenia. He is able to live at home and not be institutionalized because he is on CDASS. Without it there is no way he could safely live at home. He has been hospitalized several times since the age of 15. The only treatment that his psychosis responds well to is ECT, electro convulsive therapy. He has been on 47 different medications since he was diagnosed 15 years ago. He is a bright, sweet, compliant, kind, empathetic young man. But due to the nature of his illness and the side effects of ECT his short-term memory has been impaired. He can't remember the names of his medications or dosages. He has to be watched to ensure he takes his medications because he will set it aside and forget to take it. I have found it in the cupboard or in his desk several times. He gets symptomatic very quickly if he doesn't take his medications on time and regularly. He's only able to live at home because of CDASS. Without it there would be no way that he would be safe other than in an institution. I am 49 and as long as I'm on this earth his health will be my priority. I am terrified of what will happen once I leave this earth. Who will step in and take over? Without CDASS a very bright young man whose never harmed a fly would be at great risk for deteriorating. He deserves to live at home with us his family for as long as possible. Not with a bunch of strangers who will never know him like his family does.”

Don't miss the project's new website and please share it widely!  Take action starting TODAY and use the powerful messaging tools you can find on the website.  The tagline is: People Are The Purpose.

https://www.vote4medicaid.org/
 
 

Pictured here is a young girl smiling. On the right side of the graphic text reads: PEOPLE ARE THE PURPOSE Medicaid means thousands of Colorado kids get health care. #Vote4Medicaid
(Pictured here is a young girl smiling. The graphic text reads: PEOPLE ARE THE PURPOSE Medicaid means thousands of kids get health care. #Vote4Medicaid)

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 Community Organizer Dawn Howard at dhoward@ccdconline.org


Pictured here is (left to right) are CCDC Systems Advocates PTISAWQUAH, Jose and Haven at the ADAPT Homecoming in November 2018 in Civic Center Park in Denver.Pictured here is (left to right) are CCDC Systems Advocates PTISAWQUAH, Jose and Haven at the ADAPT Homecoming in November 2018 in Civic Center Park in Denver. (Photo courtesy of CCDC Advocate Fran Maes.)






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1385 S. Colorado Blvd., Suite 610-A
Denver, CO  80222
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