PAULA MCELWEE: so let's take a little bit of time to brainstorm all together this time on some of the things that, some of the places where you are thinking, oh, wow, we really need to have a Community Leadership Academy graduate go onto this board or this council.

Who do you already know in your community where you think this impact would be really useful?

So think about that and let's all share with one another about where will you put these placements?

How do you make good placements?

Start with who you know; right?

So who do you know and what are you already thinking of?

Anybody?

Go ahead.

The mic's right there, but we need to turn it for you.

Hold on.

You got it.

AUDIENCE MEMBER: I think of first of all, all the, this is Ken, by the way, all the places that kind of we think of as areas that people with disabilities that need support.

So I start with transportation, local transportation agency.

Housing.

Labor.

Education.

And then I go, let's see, work, health.

Housing, transportation, health, work, education.

That's five.

That's it.

PAULA MCELWEE: those are all areas where they've not come along as far as they need to in order for there to be true community accessibility.

So what a perfect place for someone to bring the disability voice to those key areas.

I have never been to a meeting where housing and transportation don't come up.

I mean, they continue to be very difficult.

Yeah.

AUDIENCE MEMBER: more specifically, just kind of feeding off what Ken said, I'm on the board of an association of neighborhood associations and I was just sitting here thinking that I am typically the person who asks the disability-related questions and I would think that those neighborhood associations would be asking them before they get up to us.

So those neighborhood associations where I know that there are people with disabilities living.

PAULA MCELWEE: so it would be excellent for them to be more active in their neighborhood association and bring those.

I think by virtue of living there, you're a member, right?

So sometimes it's just learning those skills for how to be a part of that.

Yeah.

AUDIENCE MEMBER: two things I haven't heard mentioned yet.

One kind of piggy backs off the neighborhood association.

We have a huge problem in our area with homeowners associations not being very accommodating to people with disabilities who need exceptions to their many and numerous bylaws and regulations.

But also Southwest Pennsylvania is 10 months away from the rollout of managed care in long-term services.

So I've had it in my head that that will sort of be the focus of our first Leadership Academy is getting people prepared to serve on the consumer advisory committees for the managed care organizations that will be in our area.

PAULA MCELWEE: it's very timely to be thinking about that for sure.

What else are you thinking of in your communities?

What do you think would work well?

We have a list of questions.

We'll have to pull some more out.

Do you have contacts?

Do you have contacts with other organizations in your communities that you're already, I hope you're making a list because tomorrow we're going to help you make a plan.

So, you know, make that list of all those boards because you want to invite them as speakers, you want to invite them to the graduation.

You want to make sure that they're engaged with your academy as much as possible from the beginning.

Get the mic, please.

AUDIENCE MEMBER: we talked about partnering with our League of Women Voters we already have relationships with as being a community not for profit good citizenship group that would love to have graduates.

I know our local League of Women Voters is very small and we're always, always trying to reach out to especially young people.

PAULA MCELWEE: and that's an area that's not specifically disability related, but certainly getting out the vote is a disability issue.

And so being participant in that League of Women Voters has a lot of value.

Yeah.

Go ahead.

AUDIENCE MEMBER: I'm ready to hit the ground running with this because I have a list of consumers that when I think of these boards and, you know, commissions, I can see them, you know, right before my very eyes being on these boards, you know.

Our city of Beckley, you know, no one wants to step up to the plate for the Civil Rights Commission and I'm just like after, you know, this kind of retreat, I'm like I can think of three people right now that I would love to prime and get them ready and just send them out ready to go.

And, you know, at first I was very concerned about the funding and once everybody started talking, I'm like I know where the money is.

I know how I can get the funding.

I know, you know, my first class, I've already got seats filled and they don't even know that they're showing up yet.

So I'm very excited to get this started in my area.

PAULA MCELWEE: excellent.

And that's very much the way to do it.

While you've got the impetus and memory of being here, you know, to get out there and get something going is a very exciting way to hit the ground.

AUDIENCE MEMBER: I have my first degree in interior design actually and we had to do an entire year on ADA compliance in design requirements and also aging in place.

And so people may not know this, but reaching out to your local designers and architects might also be a good resource because they have clients who they have to design accommodations for.

And there's also conventions and stuff in your towns and in your states for design to where, you know, our CLA graduates could be involved in those design and architecture conventions to help be a voice there as well.

PAULA MCELWEE: what an interesting area.

That's great.

Yeah.

I like it when we have such a nice diverse group here that everybody has a little different way of seeing it and a little different idea, and that's part of the strength of this.

Anybody else?

Do you have a lot of councils that are not specific to disabilities?

Think about that while you answer the question.

Yeah.

AUDIENCE MEMBER: two came to mind for me.

The Florida Association of Realtors.

Jim said you probably have to be a realtor to get on that, but maybe someone is a realtor or would like to be.

And then I used to be a member of the Tallahassee Society of Association Executives.

They also have one for the state of Florida and there's huge network there of every type of association you can think of.

PAULA MCELWEE: and probably some you wouldn't think of if you weren't involved with them, right?

AUDIENCE MEMBER: right.

PAULA MCELWEE: because you just don't even realize how many are out there until you have a chance to know that.

So non-profits that might not be related to disability issues directly, but have an impact on them would be great.

Yeah.

AUDIENCE MEMBER: in Florida they have the Commission on Disability Issues that all of the county commissioners have an organization that helps with and I think this would be extremely helpful for individuals serving on that committee.

PAULA MCELWEE: excellent.

So it's specific to that state, they have a mechanism to be able to give the county's input.

Where do you give most of your input?

How many of you give most of your input at the city level?

Most of it at the county level?

How about state levels?

See, I think most of us are used to working mostly at the state level.

But those other levels are also very important, aren't they?

And then the national level I know we've got some of you who are advocates at that level.

But very much let's look at those cities and counties too, yeah.

Other observations or ideas about how to get those great placements?

Yeah, go ahead.

AUDIENCE MEMBER: it might be a little too ambitious, but I know we have a lot of trade schools in our area that aren't used to accommodating students with disabilities, so maybe we need to get some advocates on their boards to help them understand that making those accommodations is not, (audio cutting out) PAULA MCELWEE: so when you mentioned education earlier, education certainly at every level they have boards in places where you can have an impact.

And employment continues to be a major barrier for people with disabilities.

So anything that's going to impact employers and help them to understand better.

Chambers of Commerce certainly would be part of that.

Certainly any associations of associations is going to be part of that.

You're going to connect with potential employers and help change their preconceptions a little bit.

ROBERT HAND: and the for the trade, not necessarily the associations themselves, but a lot of the community colleges and some of the universities have classes in that or even degrees in that and you can perhaps start including at that level because most of them have advisory councils besides their board of regents.

But they'll have advisory councils on that.

So if you can get on them and affect the way they are being trained in the schools, then that could move on to the trade association.

PAULA MCELWEE: so the description of what the designers get in training for ADA, that's new to me, but it makes sense.

And I bet an advocate was involved in that in some way.

Or more than one advocate, so that is fantastic to hear.

AUDIENCE MEMBER: yes, we're doing that with our local community college and they have several business advisory career committees.

So we're going to, I'll be starting to participate in that and I say that as an area where we can affect training like you said.

And also I was thinking too as, what was your name in the orange?

Brittany was talking, so we have an arts council in our area that we actually have had some of our folks from our independent living center be on their grants review board.

So they put out a lot of money every year and local agencies and individuals compete for the money and we're able to be part of approving grants and then giving comments on hey, you know, this one doesn't, you know, fulfill the requirements that are needed for individuals with disabilities to come see the sculpture, to come see the installation, to be part of it and it really gives us a chance to have an influence.

AUDIENCE MEMBER: I was thinking perhaps trade associations for the media, for newspapers, radio, television, and it serves the dual purpose of, you know, in addition to being involved in the association, you can get them to do a story about the Leadership Academy.

PAULA MCELWEE: and I think that definitely that's part of your rollout is going to be some kind of a campaign to get that information out for sure.

AUDIENCE MEMBER: we have to remember the obvious, their local CILs and/or their Statewide Independent Living Council.

PAULA MCELWEE: and I was very impressed by the fact that the RICV's last five board members came from the Community Leadership Academy because that has not always been the case.

And it's not that you can't find other board members, but to have those trained board members be the ones to apply and be elected is really impressive.

I think you're right.

The CILs and the SILCs, of course, are going to be places that are good to look at.

AUDIENCE MEMBER: kind of what Donna was saying and then going back to the design perspective, there's also scholarships and competitions among design students.

I would say that Universal Design is a hot topic right now because baby boomers are retiring and purchasing their final homes and aging in place.

So from a design perspective you have to accommodate for their future disabilities.

But I think if the independent living movement can infiltrate that on a universal design level, then we can think of it as a here and now and not a futuristic thing.

And then being on those scholarship and competition boardsto help students be more aware of universal design for people with disabilities but not just for retirees.

PAULA MCELWEE: for all people.

AUDIENCE MEMBER: so in Sacramento County, the county gave away its responsibility to the Community of Care.

It was taken over by a nonprofit that has a board and many, many committees, and they are adverse to having anybody with lived experience from homelessness on any of the committees or anything.

And many of those people have disabilities.

So it would be great to reach out to that population and train them so that they can participate in their own lives and how it affects them.

PAULA MCELWEE: excellent new thought there.

Other comments or questions?

Did I miss a hand?

Somebody had one up Bob says.

No?

I thought you were waving because you wanted to say something.

ROBERT HAND: well, I'm going to say something, but not yet.

PAULA MCELWEE: (laughing) okay.

Not yet.

All right.

Do you have any contacts with those non-profits that aren't in the disability field?

We mentioned a couple of those.

But if you're not working with them now, why not?

What are those other non-profits in your community?

If you think about your association of non-profits, there's often one in the bigger cities, and think about the wide variety of non-profits, some of them faith-based, some of them based on a mission to a certain either group of people or animals or whatever.

You know, we've got an animal rescue group for every major breed, not just a general one, and there are three of those, but for every different kind of animal.

So, you know, you kind of start thinking about what is the scope of the non-profits?

And it's a huge scope.

So what are the barriers to participating with and finding ways for people to participate on those boards?

Why don't you know them if you don't?

If you do know them, how did you do that?

How did you connect with those non-profits that are not disability related specifically?

Comments?

Grab a microphone, please.

I hear a little rustling.

Yeah, go ahead.

AUDIENCE MEMBER: we all have lives and we all have things that we're interested in outside of work and that's how I link up with people.

PAULA MCELWEE: and if you pull your supporters, whoever it is in your center, your board members, your consumers and your staff, and say what non-profits are you a part of or what boards are you on, you know, you may find a lot of things you don't know about otherwise.

Yeah.

AUDIENCE MEMBER: in Puerto Rico, because of this funding issue that most non-profits are going through nowadays with the limited funding, there's actually been a movement within the past year where we incorporated an organization that encompasses all type of nonprofit organizations.

So we have like, we went through the whole incorporation process and we have quarterly meetings and we reach out to each other, we make collaborations, and that's really helped us to get to know each other.

PAULA MCELWEE: a wonderful connecting point then with all of those wide range of interests that are represented in the nonprofit sector.

So that's excellent to see.

So when you're contacting these entities in the community, how do you sell the idea that graduates from this academy who are mostly people with disabilities are valuable potential board members for them?

How do you sell that?

What are your talking points?

Can you give her a hand here with the microphone?

AUDIENCE MEMBER: I think everybody is a unique individual and everyone has their own point of view, and I think being a person with a disability only adds to your wisdom that you've gained over the years.

And I think that anytime someone can apply things that they've learned in their life to their situation, they can help other people.

PAULA MCELWEE: excellent.

That's a good way to say it.

So your life experiences are going to be an important component of what you bring to these boards.

What are some other things that you would say to kind of sell the idea to these other boards?

Yeah, go ahead.

AUDIENCE MEMBER: I remember seeing a video about New York City subways and how they had spent so much money on the elevators for people with disabilities and found that it helped moms with either a lot of children or a stroller, or helped older people who do not consider themselves disabled in certain ways, just aging.

I think this idea that most of the time what's good for one is good for all and the idea that when you have segregated a community or a population away from you that you have no idea what you're missing and you can't know what that is until you at least allow that door to be opened.

PAULA MCELWEE: when we talk about access, sometimes I ask people if they remember when no one wheeled their suitcases, everybody carried them with a handle like this.

Well, we didn't have ramps, so we couldn't wheel our suitcases, but now we do.

Yeah, Larry.

AUDIENCE MEMBER: I didn't realize they were going to shove the mic at me.

So listen.

This is pretty simple for me.

We said earlier the point of this program is to develop community leaders who happen to be people who have disabilities.

So I'm not talking about their disability.

I'm talking about the fact, sure, our program might direct our efforts towards folks with disabilities, but when I'm talking to non-profits and folks in my community, these are the principles and skills and attributes that we taught the folks in our program and this is their background, and I'm recommending they be a great board member, period.

PAULA MCELWEE: yeah, and then it has to do with what they know as a result of the academy.

Excellent.

Excellent.

Anybody else?

What are you going to say to these potential partners?

What do you think, guys?

What are you going to say to these potential partners?

ROBERT HAND: well, of course, for us it's something we've been doing for a long time now.

But I think Larry, from my standpoint, had the same idea.

When you do job placement, you do the same thing.

We never place somebody saying, well, because of this person's disability, you should take them on the job or something.

We say here's the job we've looked at.

Here's the skills you need.

This person has them.

That's it.

And so that's what we do in our placement for the Leadership Academy.

And quite frankly, that's why it's been so successful is because rarely do they have anybody applying who has these skills.

When you think about it, yes, they may be getting somebody who has money that they want on the board.

They may be getting somebody who has influence.

But how many people go apply for a board or a council and they say, yeah, I know all about parliamentary procedure and open meeting laws.

You know, I know how to work with a group and I've been taught about conflict resolution and all of this.

They just don't get applicants like that.

So that's really to me the outstanding selling point.

KIMBERLY TISSOT: and again, strong boards, I mean, they want qualified individuals to be board members and they do want a diverse board, looking at all of that, and we do just happen to have disabilities that we bring, skills and uniqueness that others do not bring because of CLA.

ROBERT HAND: okay.

Shall I step up on this?

Okay.

We're a little bit ahead of time and I know nothing you guys want more than to stay here even late because of your enthusiasm for it.

But we are enough ahead, I think you're still going to get out early, but I wanted to hit just a couple of other things that either have come up or we didn't talk about particularly.

But in your manuals I've said that, again, these are copyrighted by RICV, not me, and they have it, but it's always been the acceptance for this that the things in the blue category, which are things like evaluation forms, photo release forms, the application, the certificate, any of that that you want to copy, you're welcome to use that exactly as is.

Now, many of those cases you're going to want to modify it anyway.

You might say, yeah, this has some good things I want, but I want to change it a little, and you can do that.

But I did just want to make the point that it's always been the acceptance that those things are there for that very purpose so that people who are starting academies won't have to take the time, if you don't want to, to redesign a certificate or redesign a photo release.

And Kimberly had made the point this has photo release and we typically use it for our participants, but if you're going to be having speakers or other people there that you're taking their picture as well, it should be for getting a release for anybody who's going to be a part of that.

And then one other slightly off topic thing, but it came up earlier and I thought this might be a good time just to spend just a couple of minutes talking about it.

Somebody within the process had mentioned that this might be a good tool they could use as a fund-raiser to teach other boards.

And I just wanted to mention, because I do board trainings as well, that this could be a good tool that you could develop a board training from.

I think we need to understand this isn't a board training.

This isn't a training that you take to somebody's board and say I'm going to train you using this.

This is a training to teach people to be on boards.

Now, a lot of the things in it, if you're going to do a board training, you might train on.

Parliamentary procedures, understanding what articles and bylaws are and stuff.

So you could certainly use this to put it together.

But if you're going to do very specific training for nonprofit boards, it's a little bit different and you would want to look at that.

And, in fact, you want to tailor it to specific boards, to the degree that you can do that.

But I just wanted to mention that if you want to use it for that purpose, you're welcome to do it.

You're really going to need to take out the parts that are appropriate and modify them specifically for board training for that.

Okay?

PAULA MCELWEE: well, let's talk about a couple of things.

Remember those sticky notes in the middle of the table?

We haven't gotten very many for tomorrow, so make sure, we didn't pick them all up it looks like, but make sure you leave us some so we can address your questions first thing in the morning before we start.

And sharpen your pencils because we're going to be doing your actual plan tomorrow.

So we're going to walk through with you the steps to develop the plan for your CLA and making it specific to your organization.

So we're going to work on that tomorrow.

So come fresh and ready to do that as well.

Do you have any questions for the presenters before we let you go?

I know I never should say it that way because everybody just wants to go.

Any questions?

See you tomorrow at 9