ROUGHLY EDITED COPY
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A National Onsite Two-in-One Training Opportunity
CIL‑NET Training
Expanding Housing Options 
   for People with Disabilities  
Renaissance Chicago Downtown Hotel
One West Wacker Drive 
Chicago, Illinois
Friday, August 10, 2012
8:45 a.m. ‑ 2:45 p.m.

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This text is being provided in a rough draft format.  Communication Access Realtime Translation (CART) is provided in order to facilitate communication accessibility and may not be a totally verbatim record of the proceedings.   
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>> ADAM BALLARD:  So I think the first thing that we want to do in this wrap‑up session is to ‑‑
>> AMBER SMOCK:  So we wanted to check in with you guys, first of all, if there were any things that you came here to this conference to learn about that we didn't talk about.
>> ADAM BALLARD:  Any loose ends?
Also keeping in mind, I mean, we definitely have a little bit of time to talk about it now, but also we're going to have follow up through the Wiki, through contacts we can contact each other, but if there's something you wanted to know in this room now, this is your last chance. 
>> AMBER SMOCK:  Well, it looks like we might have scraped the bottom of the barrel.  So, I mean, if there are questions, I think, as NICL continues ‑‑ did you ‑‑ well, as NICL and ILRU thinks about how to support people training and offering them suggestions this is going to be really, really helpful.  I know there's been a ton of information avalanching over the last four days if you want to run with that for a while, that's totally cool.  But so I guess with that being said, the thing that we wanted to do was, of course, usually these wrap up sessions we want to ask people to think of at one thing that you plan to do for furthering housing opportunities, expanding housing opportunities for people that you serve back in your home state.
And so we were wondering if anybody has had any ideas, and let's talk about some of those ideas and what they might be, and I'd really like to hear from ‑‑ let's see if we can hear from three or four people.  That would be really awesome because you might have different ideas in mind and so forth.  Does anybody have any ideas based on this training what they think they might want to pursue when they go back to their home state?  And at this table back over here, we have one idea.  Thank you, sir. 
>> AUDIENCE MEMBER:  I figured I'd at least try to participate. With my background in basically remodeling of homes and what not, I think ‑‑ and I forgot to add that I currently am working for a real estate company, kind of like on a part‑time basis, and so the lady that's my friend is also my boss.  I'm basically going to tell her about some of these programs and hope that she can better educate the builders with the potential programs like, you know, was it living choice I think, things of that nature, to see if that might be a different avenue to get some more accessible housing.
>> ADAM BALLARD:  Great.  So reaching out and educating the people that you work with back home.  That's great concrete steps.  That's what we're look for, exactly that.  Concrete steps.  Phone calls you're going to make, meetings you're going to call for, things you're going to do when you get back home to try to advance this agenda a little bit. 
>> AUDIENCE MEMBER:  Yeah, I ‑‑ I'm going to see if I can meet with our home builders association and see if there's some way that the president of the home builders association can meet with a bunch of the home builders and see if they can put a minimum policy in place of accessibility or push that to them in the homes that they build in general, because I know some homes are specific to individuals, how they want their home designed, but there are several builders that are associated with our home builders association, and they do try building.  So I'm going to see if I can meet with our HBA and the president and see if they will push minimum accessibility in X amount of homes, 5% or whatever of those new constructed homes, see if they will get that moving forward. 
>> AMBER SMOCK:  That's cool.  And so I think the presentations that we heard this afternoon for both of you guys that just spoke, you know, the Chicago Housing Authority and the City of Chicago, they may have resources for training or for policies that you may want to show these people and say, hey, this is what you should be doing, so definitely lean back on them for any assistance.  I think that's great.  
Does anybody else have an idea of what they might want to push through when you go back to their home state based on what they learned at this training? 
>> ADAM BALLARD:  I see some people that are thinking about it.  Come on, follow through.
>> AUDIENCE MEMBER: I think ‑‑ (inaudible) getting to know the HUD regional administrators, develop those relationships with HUD.
>> ADAM BALLARD:  Yeah, absolutely.  I think I mentioned this yesterday in front of everybody or I said it to someone privately, but whatever, I'm going to say it again.  That's where the money is, right?  And if we're going to get this done, we need a lot more money.  So in response to that, I see two maybe avenues, definitely get to know your HUD people, build those relationships.  But also advocate with HUD.  I think it's really important that even now in the midst of this austerity business we're in, to start pushing back.  HUD's budget is cutting cut every single year and across the board, except for Housing Choice Vouchers, which are great, right?  We learned a lot about Housing Choice Vouchers and they're great, but they're not going to house all our people, they're just not.  So we need to see the resource being put back into public housing and everything else.  I mean, all those great programs that CHA runs, those slides that Amanda showed us, that's happening in public housing.  If it can happen here, it can happen anywhere.  So we need to start fighting for the funding to be put back into public housing, our public based programs as well as vouchers, so build those relationships with HUD and work with HUD.  Advocate for their budget.  It's really important.
>> AMBER SMOCK:  Okay.  Does anybody else have any further ideas based on this training, what you think you might want to do back in your home state that you haven't tried before?  We've had a few good ideas.  Uh‑huh.  Sure. 
>> AUDIENCE MEMBER:  I have a couple of ideas, and I think they're connected.
I would like to ‑‑ and I was talking to Adam about this the other day, but I would like to give some thought to involving people who are experiencing housing issues and how to get them more engaged in the advocacy process with our CIL, and also how to engage people that are currently doing construction and renovation through public works and things like that in staying updated and staying involved with the idea regulations and the other standards that are out there.
>> AMBER SMOCK:  I think that's good.  Yeah.  I mean, a lot of times partnerships just start out with, as you know, a phone call to a company and say, hey, we'd like to meet up with you guys and learn about your company and share a little bit about disability access, and just start a conversation, and then you never know where things are going to go.  I'll tell you like we started a ‑‑ it's easier to start a relationship than like whacking them with a protest, but a lot of times starting off with that phone call, it will take you a lot of places.  
Any other ideas what you think you might want to do once you recover this weekend and get back to work next week on housing?
Okay.  I think ‑‑ I think that's good.  I wanted to make sure that people had an opportunity to air what they had in mind, and so everybody else could kind of hear what everybody thinking they're going to do.  I hope this training has been productive and useful for people here, that you learned something, at least one thing that you didn't know before.  I know that there's been a lot of information.  It's going to take a few days of sleeping on it to maybe process a little bit.  And I just hope that this is seen as helping to grow opportunities back home.  I mean, that's the biggest thing that we really wanted to see happen.  Adam had something I think you wanted to add.
>> ADAM BALLARD:  I think Amanda has covered most of it but since we're way ahead of schedule, I'll talk.  The second part of the training at least was about advocacy, about taking a systems approach to making things happen, and like I said yesterday, I know that there is so much on your plate, but find a way, find a way to do advocacy.  And find a way ‑‑ I'm going to pull out my organizer hat.  I have to.  Find a way to organize some people.  Again, it doesn't have to be you doing the majority of the work.  Find a way to inspire a leader or two from your consumer base, from your volunteers, whoever, to get on this, to reach out, to get some other people together who are upset about the fact that they aren't living where they want to live, and so few of our people are, and help them understand that it's possible.  It's possible to make real change.  It might come a little bit at a time, but we take one win at a time.  That's fine.  Because over the years, it adds up, and again, what we have been able to accomplish so far in Chicago took 20 to 30 years.  It did.  I mean, you know, 30 years ago, we were in the same boat as almost all of you.  None of this was happening.  So it takes time.  It takes patience.  But start now.  The longer you put off starting, the longer it's going to take to have success.  So find a way to start this work back home now, because you'll see it bear fruit down the road, and hopefully sooner than later.  But you won't see anything if you don't start, so, please, please start.
>> AMBER SMOCK:  One of the nicest things I just heard from Maryland, the executive director from there told me that she booked sometime during the next month on her calendar to work on housing issues.  So that's a very simple step, is to open up your organizer, look at your calendar, see if you have some time over the next month to just meet with some people, talk with your staff, whoever you want to talk with, have a lunch and talk about, oh, well, this is what I learned at this housing retreat thing and maybe we should look at doing some things down the read.  So if you schedule some time in the next month, that was a really great action step.  Just start there and see where things go.  I mean, maybe it will happen or maybe it's not.  Maybe you are already doing it all day long, maybe you're not.  If you're not doing it all day long as part of your regular practice, think about scheduling some time.  
So what I want to do is just to wrap up really thank you all for coming from all your various states, and I know traveling takes a long time.  And how many people are leaving today?
(Showing of hands.) 
>> AMBER SMOCK:  Okay.  How many people are leaving tomorrow?
(Showing of hands.) 
>> AMBER SMOCK:  Okay.  If you have time to hang out tonight, please enjoy the City of Chicago.  This is a great place to just have some fun, not be lectured at, not have to talk about housing, go take a night off.  So I just want to thank you all, and I know Adam was really excited also about having everybody come.  And thank you to the NICL and ILRU organizers for making this happen really under your insight.  Richard today, when you were talking about the ‑‑ appreciating what Ken said about the long game and wanting to be encouraging with everybody here, I really appreciated hearing the message today.  Thank you for that.  
First of all, give yourselves a hand.  We made it, yay.
(Applause.)
>> AMBER SMOCK:  And I'd like to go ahead and turn the mike over to Tim, who I think has some housekeeping details to handle.
>> TIM FUCHS:  Yeah.  Before I do that, I want to thank Adam and Amber for an excellent presentation and for coordinating all the panelists, the speakers these last two days.  So thanks very much.
(Applause.)