In February, several staff went down to Madison for the annual Independent Living or IL Days. This is a yearly opportunity for staff from all eight Independent Living Centers (ILC’s) to come together for a day of sessions on addressing issues and providing IL services in Wisconsin.
Several CILWW staff participated in the training sessions this year.
- Jenesis Lindbo presented with a group on Adaptive Gaming
- Ashley Lien participated in a discussion on providing Youth Services
- Jacki Bremer and Chris Richardson presented on working with persons in the criminal justice system and discussing the Jail to Community Reentry program with Dunn County.
The following day staff from the eight ILC’s went to the State Capital to meet with their area legislators on issues affecting persons with disabilities and IL services.
This year’s legislative talking points included:
- Support for Senate and Assembly bills to increase annual IL funding by nearly 2.4 million dollars.
- What a great investment ILC’s are in Wisconsin and the number or consumers were served last year in our 5 core services.
- Health care issues such as increasing the State personal care reimbursement rate, accessing federal dollars to increase access to Medicaid, and downsizing the Central and Southern State run institutions.
It was very productive two days with CILWW staff getting to network with staff from the other ILC’s and having the opportunity to meet with legislators or their staff.
