Developmental Disabilities Newsletter
November 2004 Volume 7; Issue 5
"Consult not your fears but your hopes and your dreams. Think
not about your frustrations, but about your unfulfilled potential.
Concern yourself not with what you tried and failed in, but with what
it is still possible for you to do." - Pope John XXIII
In This Issue:
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$160 million in New Crants
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Domestic Violence Awareness Month
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President's Committee for People w/Intellectual
Disabilities
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Tribal Croups to Provide Mentors for Children
of Prisoners
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Region VI DD Newsletter Satisfaction Checklist
Homelessness
Who is Homeless?
An estimated 842,000 adults and children are homeless in a given
week, with that number swelling to as many as 3.5 million over the
course of a year. People who are homeless are the poorest of the poor.
While almost half (44%) of people who are homeless work at least part-time,
their monthly income averages only $367 compared to the median income
for U.S. households of $2,840. Those who have disabilities and are
unable to work can find it nearly impossible to secure affordable
housing in virtually every major housing market in the country.
The majority are unaccompanied adults, but the number of homeless
families is growing:
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66% are single adults, and of these 3/4 are men
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11% are parents with children, 84'Yo of whom
are single women
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23% are children under 28 with a parent, 42%
of whom are under 5 years of age
Racial and ethnic minorities, particularly African-Americans, are
over-represented:
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41% are non-Hispanic whites (compared to 75%
of the general population)
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40% are African-American (compared with 11% of
the general population)
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11% are Hispanic (compared to 9% of the general
population)
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8% are Native Americans (compared to 1% of the
general population)
Homelessness continues to be a largely urban phenomenon:
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71 % are in central cities
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People who are homeless frequently report health problems:
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66% report either substance abuse and/or mental
health issues
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39% report some form of mental health problems
(20-25% meet criteria for serious mental illness)
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46% report chronic health conditions such as
high blood pressure, diabetes, or cancer
People who are homeless have high rates of other background characteristics:
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23% are veterans (compared to 13% of the general
population)
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25% were physically or sexually abused as children
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27% were in foster care or institutions as children
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21% were homeless as children
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54% were incarcerated at some point of their
lives
Taken From National Resource Center on Homelessness
and Mental Illness
The Center for Mental Health Services
HHS/SAMHSA
President's Committee for People with Intellectual Disabilities
A reappointment of twelve members to the President's Committee for
People with Intellectual Disabilities was made. The members will serve
for the remainder of two year terms which expires on May 11, 2006.
The President's Committee for People with Intellectual Disabilities
(PCPID) is a federal advisory committee, established by executive
order to advise the President of the United States and the Secretary
of The Department of Health and Human Services on issues concerning
citizens with intellectual disabilities. Under the leadership of the
Executive Director, the Committee coordinates activities between different
federal agencies and assesses the impact of their policies upon the
lives of citizens with intellectual disabilities and their families.
The New Freedom Initiative is designed to help Americans with disabilities
by increasing access to assistive technologies, expanding educational
opportunities, increasing the ability of Americans with disabilities
to integrate into the workforce, and promoting increased access into
daily community life.
Taken from: ACF Messenger
September 2004
Mental Illness Awareness Week
October 3 - 9, 2004
The goal of Mental Illness Awareness Week was to educate individuals
about mental illness and to reduce the stereotypes about individuals
with mental illness. This observance encouraged people with mental
illness and families to seek treatment for mental health problems
with the same urgency as the treatment for physical health problems.
It provided a national platform to educate providers and the general
public about mental illness.
Mental illness is any diagnosable mental, behavioral, or emotional
disorder that interferes with or limits a person's ability to live,
work, learn, and participate fully in his or her community. Mental
illness includes disorders such as depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia,
panic disorder, obsessive compulsive disorder, post-traumatic stress
disorder, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, autism, and Alzheimer's
disease. Mental illness involves the body, mood, and thoughts. It
affects the way a person thinks, eats, sleeps, and feels about him-
or herself. Mental illness is not a sign of personal weakness or lack
of willpower. People with a mental illness cannot simply overcome
it and get better on their own.
Taken From SAMSHSA's National Mental Health Information
Center
Research in Disabilities Education (RDE)
The Research in Disabilities Education (RDE) program supports efforts
to increase the participation and achievement of persons with disabilities
in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education
and careers. Meritorious projects from a diversity of institutions
are supported via the RDE Demonstration, Enrichment, and Information
Dissemination (RDE-DEI) program track. Promising research efforts
are also developed further via awards under the Focused-Research Initiatives
(RDE-FRI) program track. In the third program track, broadly applicable
methods and products are disseminated for widespread use, commercialization,
or inclusion in the activities of program-sponsored Regional Alliances
for persons with disabilities in STEM education (RDE-RAD).
RDE Alliances serve to inform the public, government, and industry
about proven-good practices in the classroom, promote broader awareness
of disabi Ii ties issues, and define specific areas of accessibility
and human learning in need of further attention by educators and the
research community.
Link to Full Announcement: NSF Publication 04610
Administration for Children and Families Region VI
2005 Mid-Winter Leadership Training Conference
January 25 - 27, 2005 in Dallas, Texas
Adams's Mark Hotel
400 Olive St.
Dallas, TX 75201
214-922-8000
ONLINE REGISTRATION COMING SOON at www.midwinter.org
Over $160 Million in Homelessness Grants
On September 29, 2004, more than $160 million in additional Federal
resources targeted to preventing and ending chronic homelessness was
announced as follows:
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Department of Veterans Affairs Secretary announced
$31 million of new resources to serve homeless veterans, including
$18 million to 39 organizations in 17 states and D.C. for Special
Needs Grants (including assistance to people with chronic mental
illness, frail, elderly and women veterans), and additional investments
in technical assistance, and fire and safety improvements to facilities
for homeless veterans.
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Department of Labor Secretary announced new funding
of $2 million to help five states to help teens aging out of foster
care to become employed and self-sufficient, thus reducing their
risk of homelessness, and $1.5 million to provide three years of
intensive employmentrelated technical assistance to grantees under
the HUD-DOL Ending Chronic Homelessness through Employment and Housing
Initiative, which is part of the President's New Freedom Initiative.
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Department of Health & Human Services Secretary
announced 34 grant awards for the Treatment for the Homeless Projects
program, totaling $67.6 million over five years in awards to 34
grantees. Each grantee will receive up to $400,000 annually over
a five year period in this competitive grant program awarded to
community providers to enable communities to expand and strengthen
their treatment services for homeless individuals with substance
abuse disorders, mental illness, or with co-occurring substance
abuse disorders and mental illness. In addition, HHS will be funding
over $400,000 in new research projects on homelessness this year.
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Department of Education Secretary announced a
total of $58.5 million to state educational agencies to assist with
school enrollment and retention of homeless students. The funding
will come through the McKinney-Vento Education and Homeless Children
& Youth program.
Taken From: U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness
September 29, 2004
Congress established the Interagency Council on Homelessness in 1987
with the passage of the Stewart B. McKinney Homeless Assistance Act.
The Council is responsible for providing Federal leadership for activities
to assist homeless families and individuals.
Tribal Groups to Provide Mentors for Children of Prisoners
HHS’ Administration for Children and Families announced grants
to five tribal organizations to train adult volunteers as mentors
to children whose parents are incarcerated. The grants are to provide
mentors for disadvantaged youth to help them as they grow into adulthood.
With no tribal grantees in the initial year of the program, HHS set
aside five percent of the total available funds from the Mentoring
Children of Prisoners program for tribes and tribal consortia. The
grantee organizations will receive referrals from parents, caretakers,
schools, courts, social services agencies or religious organizations.
They will train and match mentors with children from age four to 15.
They will also screen all potential mentors for child and domestic
abuse and other criminal history.
Mentors will be required to make at least a one-year commitment and
to meet at least once weekly with their child. The grantees will monitor
and assist the mentors on an ongoing basis. The following are the
list of grantees and the amount of their awards:
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The Navajo Nation, Window Rock, AZ, $740,000
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Dry Creek Rancheria of Poma Indians of California,
Geyserville, CA, $34,000
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Blackfeet Tribal Business Council, Browning,
MT, $354,000
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Wakanyeja Pawicayapi, Inc., Porcupine, SD, $500,000
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Menominee Indian Tribe of Wisconsin, Keshena,
WI, $61,000
Taken from the: ACF Messenger
July 20, 2004
New Laws Impacting Nonprofits
The National Council of Nonprofit Associations has a simple one page
document on its web site for organizations wanting to comply with
new document retention policies, mandated by the SarbanesOxley Act.
The new laws concern the destruction of business records and documents
and turns intentional document destruction into a process that must
be carefully monitored. Nonprofit organizations should have a written,
mandatory document retention and periodic destruction policy. Policies
such as this will eliminate accidental or innocent destruction. In
addition, it is important for administrative personnel to know the
length of time records should be retained to be in compliance.
For form go to:
http://www.ncna.org/index.cfm?fuseaction= Page.viewPage&pageID=429#q6
Change to the ADD’s Reporting System
The FY 2004 Program Performance Reports (PPRs) and Protection and
Advocacy's (P&A's) FY 2005 Statements of Goals and Priorities
(SGPs) are due on/by Jan 1, 2005.
The P&A's will be using EDS reports in a new and improved ACF
system platform. Under the ACF's new on-line Data Collection (OLDC)
system, PPR and SGP report contents will remain the same but the functionality
and look of the forms are vastly improved.
Details regarding the new system including the list of major enhancements
are forthcoming.
For content questions and inquiries, please contact your ADD regional
liaison and for technical inquiries, please contact Syed Rafiuddin
at srafiuddin@acf.hhs.gov.
Audit Reports
Please remember that a copy of your agencies' audit report must be
sent to the Federal Audit Clearinghouse at the following address:
Federal Audit Clearinghouse
1201 East 10th Street
Jeffersonville, Indiana 47132
In addition, this office requests that you send a copy of the audit
report to the following address:
Region VI ACF
1301 Young Street, Room 945
Dallas, Texas 75202-5433
Attn: Janice D. Davis
Valuing Donated Services
OMB Circular A-I22 (Cost Principles for Non-Profit Organizations)
Fair market value of donated services shall be computed as follows:
(a) Rates for volunteer services. Rates for volunteers shall be
consistent with those regular rates paid for similar work in other
activities of the organization. In cases where the kinds of skills
involved are not found in other activities of the organization,
the rates shall be consistent with those paid for similar work in
the labor market in which the organization competes for such skills.
(b) Services donated by other organizations. When
an employer donates the services for example, these services shall
be valued at the employee's regular rate of pay (exclusive of fringe
benefits and indirect costs), provided the services are in the same
skill for which the employee is normally paid. If the services are
not in the same skill for which the employee is normally paid, fair
market value shall be computed in accordance with (a) above.
ACF REGION VI HOT-LINE
A hot-line number has been established for State Agencies and Grantees
to contact the ACF Region VI Office as a result of a disaster situation.
The number is for the officials and representatives of programs funded
by ACF to provide status of operations, request guidance, and/or to
request emergency program assistance to provide needed services or
to restore operations. This number is not for use by the general public.
All life-threatening emergencies should be reported through 911 or
the local operator.
Program officials can call this number and leave the following information:
1) Name and phone number where you can be reached
2) Program or operation represented
3) Status report, question, and/or request for emergency program assistance.
The message machine will be checked frequently and your message will
be returned as soon as it is received.
ACF Region VI Emergency Hot-line number is 1-800-742-1237.
AmeriCorps Announces $122 Million Awards Package
The Corporation for National and Community Service today announced
AmeriCorps grants to 401 organizations across the country that will
support 12,127 AmeriCorps members. More than $83 million will go in
direct grants to the 401 organizations and, if all members complete
their service, an additional $39 million will go to providing them
with educational opportunities.
The awards announced today are the results of the State Formula competitions,
which are held by the nation's 50 state service commissions. By law,
one-third of AmeriCorps grant funds are distributed on a formula basis
to the commissions, which then determine local needs and award "sub-grants"
on a competitive basis to nonprofit groups in their states.
AmeriCorps members serve with nonprofit groups, public agencies,
and faith-based organizations throughout the country meet community
needs in education, the environment, public safety, and other areas.
They tutor and mentor at-risk children, clean parks and trails, build
low-income housing, and mobilize community volunteers to meet the
needs of nonprofit groups, among many other activities.
In return for their service, AmeriCorps members receive an education
award voucher that they can redeem to pay for college or graduate
school or to pay back qualified student loans. The award for those
who complete a year of full-time service - 1,700 hours - is $4,725;
those who serve less than full time receive awards on a "prorated"
basis.
More information can be found at: www.americorps.org
Grant Awards for Individuals with Disabilities and Older Adults
HHS Secretary announced $31 million in grants to 31 states to help
people with disabilities or long-term illnesses live in their homes
and participate fully in community life. The grants are a part of
President Bush's "New Freedom Initiative," which promotes
the goal of community living for individuals with disabilities and
long-term illnesses. Under this initiative, which began in 2001, 10
federal agencies work with states and community organizations to remove
barriers to community living. A total of 52 grants were awarded in
nine categories:
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Quality assurance: Approximately $4.3 million
to nine states (VT, NJ, NE, AR, AZ, FL, NH, MA, AK) to support quality
assurance and quality improvement in home-and community-based services.
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Integrating housing needs with other support
systems: Approximately $6.7 million to eight states (NH, OR, PA,
NC, DC, MS, VT, AR) to help coordinate housing with other long-term
support needs.
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Screening, assessment and transition from children's
services to adult services: A total of $1 million to Nebraska and
the District of Columbia to support innovative practices in home-
and community-based services.
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Reform of long-term support systems: A total
of $7.6 million to support Wisconsin and Vermont's efforts to further
reform their long-term support systems.
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Mental health systems reform: Approximately
$3.3 million to 11 states (MA, NH, OR, MN, OK, NC, ME, VA, DE, PA,
OH) to support consumer-directed, evidence-based practices such
as illness management and recovery, assertive community treatment,
and peer support programs.
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Rebalancing initiative: Approximately $2 million
to seven states (IL, LA, ND, NC, MS, VA, TN) to help states prevent
and correct inappropriate placement of individuals in institutions.
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Living with Independence, Freedom, and Equality
(LIFE) account feasibility and demonstration: Approximately $200,000
to Wisconsin and New Hampshire to study the feasibility of establishing
a savings program for children and adults to control their own Medicaid-funded
community-based services.
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Family-to-family health care information and
education centers: Approximately $1.5 million to private, not-for-profit
entities in 10 states (NY, AZ, NC, MA, UT, WV, LA, KY, NM, ND) to
develop and implement an information and referral network for parents
of children with special health care needs.
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National State-to-State Technical Assistance
Program for Community Living: Approximately $4 million to the Independent
Living Research Utilization program in Texas to continue a program
of individualized technical assistance to all grantees as well as
resource development and information dissemination to benefit all
grantees under the New Freedom Initiative.
Additional information is available at http://www.cms.hhs.gov/newfreedom/accomplish2.pdf.
Grant to Help Ex-Offenders Transition to Community Life and Employment
A $10 million grant had been announced for Public/Private Ventures
(P/PV) to help ex-offenders ages 18 to 34 make a successful transition
to community life and long-term employment. The grant is part of a
$54.6 million effort to assist returning inmates and their families.
Aimed at reducing crime and recidivism rates and providing lasting
employment among ex-prisoners, P/PV has been administering the Ready4Work
Initiative in 14 cities across the nation. With this additional grant,
P/PV will attempt to coordinate a variety of other federal, state
and local funds including the Food Stamp Employment and Training Program,
in order to provide more comprehensive services to ex-offenders.
Adult Sites (funded by the Department of Labor)
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Jacksonville, Florida (Operation New Hope)
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Memphis, Tennessee (Mayor's Office Second Chance
Ex-Felon Program)
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New York City / East Harlem (Exodus Transitional
Communities)
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Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (Search for Common
Ground)
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Washington, D.C. (East of the River Clergy Policy
Community Partnership
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Houston, Texas (Brentwood Baptist Church)
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Chicago, Illinois (Safer Foundation)
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Los Angeles, California (Union Rescue Mission)
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Oakland, California (Allen Temple Baptist Church
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Juvenile Sites (funded by the Department of Justice)
Taken from: U.S. Department of Labor’s Web
Site
Region VI Developmental Disabilities Newsletter
2004 Satisfaction Checklist (Optional)
Please Complete Form and Mail To:
Sharon Butler
Region VI Administration for Children & Families
1301 Young Street, Room 945 (ACF-3)
Dallas, Texas 75202-5433
Or Fax To:
Sharon Butler: FAX #: 214-767-8124
On a Scale of 1 to 5:
[1 = strongly disagree; 2 = slightly disagree; 3 = agree; 4-slightly
agree; 5-strongly agree]
1. The information presented in the Newsletter has been useful:
_______
2. The frequency of the Newsletter (6 times a year) is adequate: _______
3. The topics presented in the newsletter have been appropriately
varied: ______
4. The Regional Office should continue production of the Newsletter:
______
Please note any topics or items you would like the Newsletter to
include on a regular basis:
____________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________
Please note any strengths or areas for improvement of the Newsletter:
____________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________
2005 DD Team Workplan
Please note any work areas that you would like the DD Team to concentrate:
____________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________
The Region VI Developmental Disabilities Newsletter is issued 6
times a year by the Region VI Administration for Children and Families
Look for the next Newsletter January 2005
Your Input is Requested!
The DD Team is interested in your thoughts concerning this Newsletter
and is seeking your input in the development of their 2005 work plan.
Please take time to complete the optional checklist found in this
Newsletter.
U.S. Dept. of Health & Human Services
Administration for Children & Families
1301 Young Street,
Room 945 / ACF-3
Dallas, Texas 75202-5433
Administration for Children & Families - Region VI
Leon R. McCowan
Regional Administrator
Developmental Disabilities Team
Fax: 214-767-8124
Janice Davis, Team Leader
(214) 767-8075
jdavis@act.hhs.gov
Sharon Butler, Program Specialist
(214) 767-8093
sbutler@acf.hhs.gov
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