2015, 10-21, Committee on People with Disabilities Minutes

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The rest is State, which includes the parking lot. The lot was old and predated ADA and they probably didn’t have a plan for improving it. Jesse brought up contacting DCAB and Pauline said to just write a letter to DCAB. They are very diligent about addressing letters from people. ANNOUNCEMENTS K. Alameida stated that he spoke to Farah Gomes with the University of Hawai‘i regarding disaster preparedness for people with disabilities and said that there is an opportunity for a one day training by Carl Kings, the Executive Director of the National Disaster Preparedness Training Center. It is targeted for senior citizens with disabilities, but mostly for their caregivers, and it’s for anybody who is vulnerable to natural disasters, have factors like physical limitations, mental illness, medications management, diabetes, insulin shots, keeping it refrigerated. She’s asking if we can get 25 participants then it’s on and it’s for free here at the ADRC Training Room. It will be the beginning of December (4, 5, 7 or 8.) Kimo will keep the committee informed. J. Floyd attended the meeting for Affordable Housing on Friday at the County Office of Housing and a group from the Hawai‘i Economic Development Finance Corporation. They are in charge of dispersing a Holton grant and there are other funds that businesses or private individuals can access for funding. Kimo stated that he was at a Workforce Solution meeting where employers spoke about people with disabilities and vocational rehab. The Office of Aging is mentoring Gail Wung who is with ARC. Kimo wanted to send a message to all the employers that people with disabilities make good workers for several reasons - they have empathy because they know what it is like to be marginalized so they’re always paying attention to the underdog. And that’s great for customer service. And they have perseverance, they work hard. So just give them a chance. Jesse gave an update on the legislative forum that he had. The number one concern with them was education. The second most pressing by far was housing and then transportation. Employment for whatever reason was not too much their concern. I think it had to do with people’s fear of losing benefits for family members. Laura informed everybody that the statewide independent living council is having a forum on November 30 at the ADRC Training Room from 10:00 a.m. to 12 noon. The purpose of this forum is to gather information from people receiving services and agencies regarding independent living needs and services. So if I get any more information, I will shoot it out to the committee members and let you know. But it is scheduled to November 30. Jesse stated that the next five year plan meeting here for the State DD Council is going to be on November 19, Thursday at 3:00 – 5:00. It’s going to be people’s input about what goals, accessibility, transportation, housing, employment, types of services, objectives and activities, in order to maximize the work for people that are independent. 4