2015, 02-18, Committee on People with Disabilities Minutes

Home

ANNOUNCEMENTS J. Floyd announced that the State Council on Developmental Disabilities is going to have its annual day at the Capitol in March. That’s an annual event where they meet with Legislators for Hawai‘i Island. Second thing is they are in the planning stages with the University of Hilo and the Department of Health for a legislative forum for persons with disabilities. It will be held after the Primary Election in August and you meet with the legislators and discuss issues relevant to Hawai‘i Island. Third thing is October is National Disability Employment Month. Posters of persons with disabilities that are employed are displayed at the Capitol. It’s very rewarding. NEXT MEETING The next meeting will be on March 18, 10:00 a.m. here at the ADRC Training Room. Paige spoke about what the committee can accomplish this year, about new members and meetings in Kona. Sam and Gena will be sworn in. Meetings in Kona was brought up. Besides going to Kona, maybe doing video conferencing. Problems with that would be with sign interpretation and technical problems. Telephone conferencing was mentioned. But it would have to be a public place not their homes. There is no representation from Kona. Most of the time it was hard for them to come to Hilo and to get the time off from employment. James won’t be able to make the next meeting. Jesse would like to have discussion about the lava flow, the County response on what went well, what they see were the barriers, what were the issues that they discovered, what are the averages that they permitted to help with disabilities. Alisa would like someone from Research and Development come in and speak about grant writing. Gena would like discussion regarding the difference between service animals and comfort animals. It was decided that these were some of the things the committee would discuss and revisit at various meetings. ADJOURNMENT Meeting adjourned at 11:40 a.m. Transcribed by: Sandra Arriola -4-