Wednesday, March 11th

In Olympia, Disability Awareness Day will be celebrated with
the Independent Living Day Rally.
Rally starts at 11:00 a.m.
on the capitol steps.

Bright blue scarves with "Develop Abilities" buttons will be provided for attendees to show support of funding services and supports in the community for those with developmental disabilities.

Please invite everyone you know.

For more information call 888-754-8798 (toll-free).

Free workshop present by Jackie Chotiner, PhD.

This session focuses on learning how to turn functional assessments into individualized support plans for people with challenging behavior.

Strategies will be presented for breaking down a functional assessment into manageable units of intervention development.

Target Audiences:

• care providers in residential, vocational and recreational programs
• parents
• educators
• DDD case resource managers
• mental health specialists

Tuesday April 14
12:30 - 4:30 p.m.
DDD Region 3 Office
840 N. Broadway, Suite 100, Room 103
Everett, WA 98201
There is free parking in front of and behind DSHS buildings in DSHS-designated parking spaces.

Registration:
Kristin Ihrig by e-mail ihrigkr@dshs.wa.gov
or phone (425) 339-4828.
Give the title of the workshop(s), your name, agency, phone number, and number of people in your party. Once you have registered, assume that you are enrolled unless you receive a message to the contrary.

4th Annual Spokane Conference for people with developmental disabilities or special needs and their families.

Keynote speaker Don Meyer is the director of the Sibling Support Project.

Don is probably best known for creating Sibshops, a lively program just for brothers and sisters of kids with special needs and is a leading national trainer and educator on sibling support

There will be morning and afternoon breakout sessions.

The Commons Building
Mukogawa Fort Wright Institute
4000 W. Randolph Road
Spokane, WA 99224

Saturday, April 18
8:30 a.m. - 4:30 p.m.
For more information contact :
The Arc Of Spokane at: 509-328-6326

Upcoming Advocacy Days in Olympia

• March 18 - Employment/ Working Age Adult Policy
• March 25 - Housing/Endowment Trust Fund
• April 1 - Birth to Three
• April 8 - Waiver/ Medicaid Changes
• April 15 - Session Wrap-up

The United Churches
110 Eleventh Avenue SE
Olympia, WA 98501

If you need assistance, call
1-888-754-8798, X 105 or go to:
http://www.arcwa.org/advocacy_day.htm

Bill Status:
March 2 was the cut -off day for bills to be out of the Finance Committee of the house they originate in.
If a bill moved out of Finance, it will go to the other house for consideration. If it did not move out of Finance, that is the end of the bill.

Follow the link below to check the status of Bills of Interest to the Developmental Disability community.
See which ones are still moving through the Legislature and need community support.

To find your senators' and representative's phone numbers, you may use a searchable online congressional directory or call the U.S. Capitol Switchboard at (202)224-3121 and ask for your senators' and/or representative's office.

Remember that telephone calls are usually taken by a staff member, not the member of Congress. Ask to speak with the aide who handles the issue about which you wish to comment.