Happy New Year!

Happy New Year!

The CCDC Advocacy Program is off to a great start with lots of coals in the fire. To start, we have formed an Advocacy Reimbursement Committee to discuss and create a fair reimbursement policy for volunteer advocates.

Moving forward, the advocacy training program curriculum will be divided into two parts our efforts are with the goal of streamlining the trainings to allow potential advocates to choose their area of concentration. The two primary areas are individual advocacy and our systems advocacy. This will help clarify our certification process and allow people to choose their area of interest.

Our individual advocacy training includes trainings on:
• Ethics of Advocacy
• Rights and Responsibilities
• Disability Determination
• Appeals Process
• Medicaid
• The Americans With Disabilities Act
• The Fair Housing Act

Our systems advocacy training includes trainings on:
• Grass Roots Organizing
• Non-Profit Boards
• Regulatory Boards
• The Legislative Process
• The Americans With Disabilities Act

Any volunteer advocates needing initial or follow up training with our database CIL Suite, please email me to set up a time that we can do a specific training. For those of you currently using CIL, here are some tips to ensure that you are maximizing the data collection that you are gathering:

• Is the CCDC member registered to vote? If not, make sure you notify Jaime Lewis and he can email a voter registration form to you OR mail it to the member
• Is the case active?
• What are the goals of the individual? Have they been completed?
• Enter disability type
• Enter community activities that you’re participating in; e.g. grass roots organizing efforts OR meetings attended
• Be as clear as possible as to what type of service we are providing; e.g. Medicaid appeal OR Housing