Coordination of SILC Activities
Presented by Larry Wanger
September 15, 2016 

>> TIM FUCHS: All right.  Hi, everyone.  Thanks for joining is this on‑demand presentation.  I'm Tim Fuchs with the National Council on Independent Living and want to welcome you to this latest SILC on‑demand Coordination of SILC Activities.  This presentation is brought to you by the is SILC Training and Technical Assistance Center, NCIL, in Washington, D.C, and APRIL in Little Rock, Arkansas.  Support for the Center is provided by the Administration on Community Living at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.  
Before we begin today I just want to mention that we are holding a live Q&A call for this and our other SILC topics on September 28th, 2016, at 2:00 eastern.  So if you're checking out this on‑demand presentation before that time you can go to NCIL's website www.nicl.org.  Go to trainings and conferences and you'll see it listed there and you can sign up for that Q&A call.  That's free.  If you're listening to this I hope you'll check out the other on demand presentations as well and join us on the 28th.  
With that I'm going to turn it over to our presenter for today to get us started.  Larry Wanger is here from the Arizona SILC.  Larry, thanks for being with us and putting this together.  I'll turn it over to you and go to slide 3.

>> LARRY WANGER: All right, Tim, thanks for getting things started here, and hello to everyone who is listening and I hope that you find this to be a worthwhile investment of your time and it provides you with some good information here.  So thanks again tuning in.
To get started here, I want to kind of review a little about what you're going to learn, some of the target objectives that we have.  So we're going to first talk about regulatory requirements for SILCs and IL partners to coordinate activities in federal and state funding with other entities in your state.  We're going to talk about key concepts that will help you connect those regulatory requirements to actual day‑to‑day practice.  And then we'll talk about examples of how we here in Arizona try to accomplish these things and hopefully you'll find those examples to be helpful and informational.  So that's kind of our objective and agenda for the day.  So with that we'll get started.
So when we go next slide here and first look at the first regulatory requirement, that's 704I, I think of this as kind of the broad 10,000‑foot view here of coordinating activities and coordinating efforts with other entities.  The additional two or three other requirements we're going to talk about fit well within this but this is kind of the broad scope.
So 704 (I) has to do with cooperation, coordination and working relationships among various entities.  So the plan ‑‑ the ‑‑ basically the language here states that the plan shall set forth the steps that will be taken to maximize the cooperation, coordination and working relationships among the Statewide Independent Living Council, Centers for Independent Living and then on the next slide here we continue with the designated state entity, other state agencies, entities represented on the council.  So those would be ‑‑ if you have folks from other organizations, state government or private organizations, nonprofits, whatever that serve on your council.  And then other councils that address the needs and issues of specific disability populations.  And then other private and public entities determined to be appropriate by the council.  So that's a long list, but overall, again, you're to have coordinated activities and cooperate and have good working relationships with all those folks.
So again, kind of the 10,000‑foot overview.
Some of the key concepts that come out of that, first of all, that language encouraging ‑‑ sorry, the language used in the regulations, you know, having to do with cooperation and coordination and strong working relationships is common throughout the regulations.  So it's really important as you look at the ‑‑ you know, still the proposed regulations and even what we had before, but more so the proposed regulations, that this is important and that it needs to be a focus of your SILC.
Part II, Section 1.5 of the SPIL specifically requires you to identify he entities that you're going to cooperate and coordinate with.  So, you know, if there's other organizations in your state, government agencies, et cetera, that you regularly work with or that are going to be new for you in terms of working with them in the next SPIL cycle, you would have listed them there.  So we'll cite the state plan that you just completed quite frequently during this presentation and I encourage you to go back and look at that to refresh your memory of what you wrote there, because it will provide you with some additional guidance.
Just again, I have already said this, but cooperation and coordination is essential.  We already talked about that, and that the language really stresses that.  You know, to successfully coordinate activities and successfully implement cooperation and these types of things, it really requires strong working relationships, as I said, and these require efforts ‑‑ I know sometimes it's challenging to work with maybe your DSE or with some of the other folks, but again, this is essential and it's important that we do so.
The plan, I mentioned the state plan earlier, and how you're going to accomplish these things, steps you're going to take to make this happen in terms of cooperation and coordination needs to be explained in the state plan.  So we'll talk through some examples here on the next slide.
Some suggestions or examples of how you might do this, IL partners should meet regularly to discuss the SPIL, statewide concerns and other issues important to your network and state centers, SILC, DSE and other folks.  So meeting frequently is one way to maintain the relationships.  It's also one way to make sure that you're coordinating activities and cooperating with your partners in the state.  So it's a real great way to do it.
Further, you could have opportunities on your agenda for your SILC meetings so you could have time on your agenda during your SILC meeting to have opportunities and presentations speakers from folks who ‑‑ they may be SPIL partners and folks you regularly work with, but you should also focus on bringing in folks you don't necessarily work with on a regular basis to learn about initiatives and programs that they might have under way.
The next slide, some additional examples.  SILC staff and councilmembers should attend meetings of other councils.  That's kind of a no‑brainer, but it's again a way of being aware of what's happening in your state.  Members of other councils and then service providers in your state shrewd serve on your council as appropriate.  They can offer input to help you maintain that cooperation and coordination.  Identifying appropriate partners does require that you as the SILC, SILC staff and councilmembers be engaged across the state in the disability community.  Need to be visible and active in the community and attending activities of other organizations on a regular basis to maintain that visibility and maintain awareness of what's happening. 
On the next slide here we'll move on to coordination of services, and that's 704 (J).  So this states that the plan shall describe how services funded under this chapter shall be coordinated with and complement other services in order to prevent unnecessary duplication, whether federal or state ‑‑ and programs I should say.  So here we're talking about ensuring we're not duplicating programs that already exist and that our efforts complement those of other organizations.  So some of the key concepts that come out of that language, ensuring that IL ‑‑ ensuring that IL and SPIL‑related activities complement other programs and services is essential.  We kind of said that already.  The language used in the regulations is very clear that we as SILCs and the IL network are supposed to be partnering with other organizations that provide IL services or services that support Independent Living. 
Continuing with key concepts on the next slide, Part II, Section 1.6 on the SPIL addresses Coordination of Services.  So, again, you can go back and look at how you responded to that question in the plan you just wrote to refresh your memory, but the plan requires an explanation of this.
Kind of moving to the next slide here,, here are some examples how you might successfully do this.  Again, as I said, it's important to be aware of initiatives, programs and activities of organizations, councils and coalitions in your state.  Maintaining that awareness allows you to go one step further and actually ensure that what you're doing complements what they're doing and vice versa.  So maximizing the benefit to those living in your state who need IL related services.  Council members, CIL directors and other people in your state can be helpful sources of information about what's happening in your state.  Many of us come from larger states with diverse populations in terms of culturally, geography that may range from urban to extremely rural and it's difficult to be aware of everything that's happening, pretty much impossible.  So having other folks from your council and other CIL directors and other folks who can help you maintain aware of what's happening is a great way to ensure you're coordinating the activities complement what they're doing.
More examples on the next slide.  During the SPIL development process, it's a great opportunity and it's necessary, really, to gather information about the services that are available in your state and what's not available, and then in developing the state plan you can ensure that while you may have limited resources that what you're doing is actually supporting and complementing IL services, IL‑related services that are already available.  So that's pretty important, to be able to know what's not available and not working also requires you to know what is.  Surveying and meeting with service providers during the SPIL development process is a great way to gather that information.  Further having many of those folks involved in the SPIL development process from across your state, whether it's on your committee that develops the state plan or in focus groups and/or getting their feedback before the plan is submitted can also help to ensure you are aware of what's happening and help coordinate activities.
Then attendance, we talked about this, but attending, having your staff or your councilmembers attend other council meetings and other important meetings in your state, again, a great way to maintain that awareness.  So you see some common themes as we work through these examples for each of the regulatory requirements.
Then I kind of also, in thinking about this again, reading newsletters and other material from other organize stations is a great way to be aware of what's happening, and I like to tell people that good coordination and ensuring that you're really activity working to ensure your activities and efforts complement those of other organizations it requires you to get out of the normal what might be think of ‑‑ thought every that as normal IL sphere of influence.  Get out there and find out what's happening in your state with other organizations outside the typical Independent Living world, if you will.
So we'll go back to regulatory and talk about, on the next slide here, talk about coordination between federal and state funding sources, and this is very important as well.  704 (K), and it specifically states the plan shall describe efforts to coordinate federal and state funding for Centers for Independent Living and Independent Living Services.  So that's the language.  We want to look at some of the key concepts that come out of that on the next slide.  Again, as I said earlier, the language in the regulations is just essential that you make sure you're coordinating these federal and state funds.  This really requires a lot of discussion and planning, especially if your centers and/or the SILC receives stated funding, obviously, in addition to the federal funds that come to your state.  It's important to coordinate how those dollars are going to be spent ensuring that you're maximizing the benefit that comes from those dollars, and also there's a direct impact on reporting.  So your function as a SILC to monitor and report on the SPIL and the progress of implementation, but also for your centers and the reporting that they do and for determining how you're going to do the federal 704 report in addition to any reports that your state funders might require of you in exchange for those dollars.  So there's a lot of planning that needs to go on.
Part II, Section 1.3 B (2) requires explanation of how you're going to coordinate federal and state dollars.  You will provide some information and I'll refer you back to your SPIL to see how you indicated it would be done and if you have any concerns or questions, one of the things I would suggest is certainly talking to your colleagues in other states and seeing how they manage this process in their SPIL, but it's a pretty significant part of the process.  So we'll go to the next slide and look at the last piece of the regulatory language, and this is about coordination with other entities.  It's 704 (E) and it basically says as appropriate coordinate activities with other entities in the state that provide services similar to or complementary to Independent Living Services, entities that facilitate the provision ‑‑ entities that facilitate the provision or actually provide long‑term community‑based services and support.  So there's ‑‑ that's a pretty big mouthful there.  Again, more language in the regulations that's pushing you, as I said earlier, to maybe go a little further in terms of looking at entities in your state that you can coordinate activities with that are outside of the normal ‑‑ what you might think of ‑‑ outside of your centers and outside some of the councils.  You're really being encouraged to expand beyond that.
So um R some of the key concepts that come out of that, the language, as I just said, it really encourages greater coordination and collaboration with entities.  Partnerships are really important.  So looking at some of those agencies and entities in your state that you can partner with to achieve SPIL activities or, you know, bring about greater support for your centers and their activities.  Continuing on the next slide with key concepts, when you look at your state plan, again, you accounted for this, how you're going to approach this in your state plan, Part II, Section 1.6 specifically asks about Coordination of Services and asks you to talk about how you're doing that in your state.
So we'll go to the next slide here and talk about some examples, and we look at some entities that you might be able to partner with as some examples here.  Departments or programs within state government.  So we hear a lot about centers working ‑‑ trying to work with the aging population.  So you might have a department of aging ‑‑ adult and aging services.  Department of Education.  Some of those types of entities that they're out there and ‑‑ as part of what they do they provide services for folks who have disabilities.  Other organizations that provide services for people who have disabilities that align with Independent Living, principles, philosophy, maybe have some coalitions in your state that work on disability issues or maybe indirectly with work on disability issues as part of what they do otherwise.  And then other councils in your state who provide services ‑‑ sorry ‑‑ who work on policy and issues affecting people who have disabilities.  Really, when you think about coordinating with these entities expands the reach of the IL Network in your state and it provides an opportunity for all parties involved to learn from one another and to strengthen services available in your state.  So it's really a win for everyone.  And these entities could either be directly responsible for carrying out SPIL activities or they might be, as I said earlier, entities that really just support the Independent Living programs in your state from the centers.  So there's different ways to look at that.
So we'll move on here.  We're kind of finished with the regulatory language, but I kind of want to reference the proposed standards and indicators for SILCs that have been presented by ACL that a number of the SILCs across the country have worked on and folks have had an opportunity to comment on.  Because also within these standards and indicators there there's also some requirements and indicators that are going to be looked at in terms of how SILCs are doing in terms of this coordination of activities and funding, et cetera.  So the standards and indicators call for documentation of how your SILC goes about coordinating activities, and they also ‑‑ you know, you're going to document that, I'm sorry, in the SPIL and in other places.  So the 704 you might document it as well and certainly in other reports that you do, but the indicator basically is looking for documentation, you know, you're documenting in the SPIL and elsewhere how you're coordinating activities and accomplishing these regulatory requirements.  And that's specifically the language in Indicator 3.1.  The SILC identifies ‑‑ let me start over again.  Indicator 3.1, the SILC identifies entities with which activities are coordinated.  So they're going to look, at least in the standards and indicators as proposed, you can expect that you'll be required to actually indicate some of those partners that you're working with and coordinating with.  And you'll need to document that. 
So that's really the language within the standards and indicators.
On the next slide I want to kind of spend some talking about how we do some of this in Arizona, and, again, these are examples of how we do it, and if it's helpful to you, that's great.  Certainly if this generates questions about how we Dee this, I'm happy to those in the Q&A call or elsewhere down the road.  But this is ‑‑ this isn't the right way, it's just how we do it here.  First of all, when we look at the SILC here in Arizona, obviously we meet the requirements that the feds put in place in terms of having a center director attend the meetings ‑‑ be represented ‑‑ sorry ‑‑ representing the CILs on the council but we also have other center directors who regularly attend our council meetings, and so, again, they're providing input through public comment or discussions about what's happening in their communities and their areas and also educating councilmembers about what's happening at their centers.  So by bringing all that information to the meetings it helps the council be more aware much what's happening in communities across the state furthering opportunities for coordination of efforts and activities with entities in those communities.  The council provides time for organizations, and that might be other councils, that might be state government agencies, private nonprofits, or even businesses as appropriate to come in and give presentations for multiple reasons.  It provides opportunities for the council to learn about service providers and what's available in the state.  We might also hear from those providers about what's not available and needs that are in their community.  So it goes both ways there.  But it provides a real opportunity, again, for the councilmembers to learn as they do from the center directors about what's happening in the state and ways to coordinate.
On the next slide here we have a number of councilmembers who attend other council meetings, meetings of other councils, I should say, meetings of coalitions who work for other organizations and, therefore, attend a number of meetings, and they often share that information or are able to update councilmembers on progress of any number of things happening in our state and thus again going back to this maintaining awareness of what's happening, and when we develop the SPIL and/or when we have meetings with center directors, et cetera, just making it more ‑‑ providing a better opportunity to make sure that our activities are done in a way that complement what others are doing. 
That's also true with council staff.  So myself and other staff here often attend other meetings and we bring that information to the council, to committee meetings or just use that information in our planning efforts.  So some of those meetings we might attend would include, you know, something like the State Rehabilitation Council, Council On Blindness and Visual Impairment, those are Governor's councils, developmental disabilities planning council, we participate in the Arizona Community of Practice, and that's a number of agencies that come ‑‑ and organizations that come together to work on transition issues for high school‑age folks and young people.  And then Arizona Disability Coalition which is a number of different ‑‑ it's open to individuals and organizations, and we do ‑‑ that coalition does education and advocacy.  So it might be legislative training.  It might be any number of other things that coalition does.  And then object Lisa number of other private nonprofits, their meetings, help them with initiatives that that are going on across the state and then very active with our centers.  So we do all these things again to try to maintain awareness of what's happening in our state, making a better opportunity for us to coordinate and complement what they're doing.
On the next slide we'll kind of continue here.  Staff and councilmembers are also ‑‑ because of the expertise we maintain ‑‑ sought out to be presenters, speakers and participants at a number of other coalitions and meetings.  So then we'll move on to the next slide.  Then I want to also talk about our ‑‑ we refer to our Arizona IL Network, and this is another way that we help the centers and other IL partners and the SILC to be responsive and active in the state.  So the IL Network in our state meets at least quarterly if not more often than that to share information, to strategize and plan activities and efforts in a number of areas.  So, for example, some much those things we worked on and continue to work on are state funding and getting other funding sources for increasing transition services to do fifth core services.  Those are some examples.  Providing a forum and helping our other centers who are smaller and have limited resources in terms of how to maximize what they're doing, and identify partners in their communities.  So any number of things, our five centers and the SILC and the other folks get together to do that.  So the network, as I started to say, includes center directors from the five centers, it includes representation from the SILC, our DSE, which is state Vocational Rehabilitation services, and then we bring in other partners as appropriate.  So that might be folks who can bring expertise to specific issues that we're working on, that kind of thing.  As I said, it's a forum for strategic development, program development, coordination, sharing information and support.  So kind of already said.  And the ‑‑ this forum, the IL Network meetings ask a place we also use for SPIL development and I report regularly to them about progress on the state plan.
We'll go to the next slide here and talk more about coordination within the Arizona IL Network.  I already kind of mentioned this, but we do bring in representatives from other government organizations and other entities to bring expertise to issues that we're working on to the IL Network meetings.  These might include folks from programs and services that support Independent Living philosophy and principles, individuals ‑‑ individuals with expertise that can help us to achieve our goals and objectives, and I talked about some of those examples already.
Then continuing on to the next slide, more along the lines of preventing duplication of services.  I kind of already described a number of efforts through kind of the examples that were suggested as ways you can implement processes to help prevent duplication and coordinate and complement what others are doing, and we do those things here.  So I kind of already mentioned some of what we do.  In terms of surveying staff from other organizations to help us be more informed about needs and what services are already being provided.  You know, those types of things.
Going to the next slide, continuing examples, we have service providers that participate in community forums during the SPIL development, and they share a great amount of information that's helpful to us.  And then as I talked about in examples earlier, and we do this here, the SPIL available to folks for ‑‑ beyond the minimum 30‑day window.  It's available longer than that for service providers and other folks across the state to review and comment on and we'll deliberately reach out to service providers to get their input, especially in communities where we might be planning certain activities and initiatives.
So we'll go on to the next slide.  Coordination of federal and state funding.  Currently the IL Network in Arizona does not receive any state funding.  So we rely on our federal funding.  And then obviously whatever funding the individual centers are able to bring in.  Obviously we're working on that issue, and objective related to the goal of obtaining state funding is included in the new state plan, and we've already planned out how we will use those dollars to complement existing services, existing funding, et cetera, to make sure that we're maximizing those dollars.  So in some areas that's, you know, going to be used to add on additional IL services to where services are minimal and not well available, underserved, if you will, and in other areas that's really expanding IL services into areas where currently there's no services.  It might be outreach specifically to specific populations in the urban core.  So there's some things that we've done in terms of planning that we'll implement that will help us to ensure that we're maximizing these dollars. 
Some of the folks that we work with ‑‑ we talked earlier about coordinating with other entities in the state that provide services related to IL and supporting IL and that that coordination is important.  So some of the entities that we work with, or will be working with in the next SPIL cycle, we'll be expanding more and working closer with the developmental disabilities planning council in our state, the UCEDD, and that's the university centers for excellence in developmental disabilities, we'll become more active with them around employment first and a number of other transition related initiatives.  And then other organizations serving youth and families.  So those are just some examples of the types of organizations that we're really expanding.  You can kind of hear a theme here that we're trying to build a lot of capacity and momentum around transition services that fit core service and get that off the ground and support our centers as they do that more effectively.
So ‑‑ and this is a direct result of effective outreach coordination and planning with entities across the state as we develop the state plan.  So folks said, hey, we want to be part of what you're doing, and we said we want you to be part of that, and so as we develop the new SPIL in 2015 and early 2016 we specifically identified organizations that could help us as we develop the initiatives we'd be working on. 
So continuing on to the next slide, we make sure to ‑‑ more along the lines of ensuring coordination with other entities.  We really work to have a diverse SPIL development committee inclusive of other IL ‑‑ of IL partners and then those from outside of the centers, as I've talked about, and deliberately seeking from ‑‑ input from partners and possible collaborators on an ongoing basis, not just touring the SPIL development process, is important.  So we do surveys and do ongoing efforts to continue to gather information about what's happening in the state on an ongoing basis so that we can fine tune and change how we approach things if needed so that we're coordinating and cooperating with existing providers.
And then again, I talked about how we use our council meetings and have speakers come in and our IL Network meetings.  So, again, I want to stress that that's an important way to maintain that dialogue. 
So the next slide is simply my contact information, and I'll wrap up with that, and just encourage you that if you have questions or want to reach out beyond the Q&A call, I'm certainly happy to provide any support and information that I can to folks across the country around these issues.  So thanks for the opportunity to talk with you today and I'll turn it back over to Tim.
>> TIM FUCHS: Perfect.  Thank you, Larry.  I will offer ‑‑ make the same offer.  My email isn't on the slide but it's very simple, it's just Tim@NCIL.org.  And here at the ‑‑ as part of the SILC T&TA center and also in our role in the IL NET and just NCIL itself, we're happy to field questions from SILCs, the things that you struggle with day to day, in fact, it's a big part of our job.  So let us know how we can help.  And like Larry said, and I mentioned at the beginning of the call, we will have that live Q&A call on September 28th.  If you're listening to this on demand before then, I hope you'll join us.  That's free and you can shrine up on NCIL.org.  You will see this live link to our evaluation for today's presentation.  Please let us know what you thought, what you liked, what we could maybe take better.  We take those evaluation results very seriously, and it's short, it's easy to complete.  So I hope you will do that.  Larry, thanks so much.  I really appreciate you taking the time to put this together to share with SILCs around the country how you all have worked through coordination of SILC activities and cooperation with other agencies in Arizona, and I can't thank you enough for doing that for us.  To all of you, let us know how we can help and what questions remain and I hope to see you join us on the 28th.  Thanks, everyone.  Bye‑bye.