Disability Advisory Committee - Regular Meeting

Just a heads up. So I wasn't at the January meeting. So I need to on those minutes because it wasn't here. Okay. We still got Yeah. So we would be good either way with as far as the corn. So that's Yeah, we'll just make a note somewhere on wherever they're at. And I will have to leave at 5:30. We This should be short and sweet because we I mean like literally just have like three updates. There's really no new new stuff because um when we come in May, we would discuss the founders day that's coming up. So we wouldn't even have to worry about that today. Okay. So yeah.

Can we review the meeting dates because I didn't they're the odd months second Monday. So a year. Yes. Unless we have something special going on, but it's the odd months. Second Monday 5:00 p.m. Okay. Unless we have a special circumstance. Thank you.

Okay. You ready? Y. We on.

Yep. Hello. Welcome everybody. Today is Monday, March 9th. We are uh 5:01 p.m. Welcome to the disability advisory committee for the city of Charles Town. The meeting is being liver spring live streamed by under production multimedia. Let's uh begin with the pledge of allegiance. Pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America. to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

All right. Let the record show all the committee members are present with the exception of Cindy Perkins. Correct. Yes. Okay. We have agenda that's been provided by uh Secretary Andrea Frasier. I need a motion to approve the agenda. Motion to approve. All right. And can I get a second? Second. All right. Christina and Cindy number two.

All right. Let's take a vote. All in favor say I.

Anybody? No. No. Okay. Motion approved. All right. Um, let's see. All right. Let me get uh see also we have the meeting notes that have been provided by Secretary Andrea Frasier. Um, does anybody have any corrections to those? She sent those out. Nope. Nobody. All right. If I can get a motion to approve. All in favor say I. Approve. Anyone?

I. Okay. Motion to approve. Say I. All right. That motion is approved. Christina Gilkkey. Need a second. Oh, I'm sorry. That's okay. Thank you very much. Can I get a second, please? I'm losing my mind already. Been a long day. Anybody want a second? No, I'll second.

I was skipping ahead to Christina saying that she was not here for the meeting last time. So, she would be refraining from the vote. Okay. So, now can we get an eye for all those in favor? All right. Now, we're good. one extension and one is two.

And you weren't here either. That's right. Oh, I'm sorry. I forgot all about that. Yeah. Okay. So, we'll make a note on here. I apologize, Ashley. All right. I'll pass this around so everybody can sign while we go on with the meeting. Okay. At this time, I will open it up for public comment. Uh we do not have anybody that has signed in for public comment. So, you want to make a note of that. Um Andrew. Oh,

okay. Um, and before we get started with the um, old business, I just wanted to um, kind of talk about just something real fast, just for anybody that's watching and then and then for kind of everybody that's here, we've had some comments about kind of like where people think we've kind of been a little bit um, informal when we've had our um, our meetings. Um, and I just kind of wanted to clear up a little bit um, for that. Um, we are considered obviously a disability advisory committee. We are not a board or a council. So being that we are a committee, we are appointed. We're volunteers and our main jobs um no matter what kind of committee it is, but for us specifically, we are here to review plans, review um tasks that are given by um either um Mayor Ta or one of the council members or uh our parks department, uh water, sewer, any any department we have. um or any issues that um there may be having with any of the events um any events coming up, any events we've had in the past. Um we focus on analysis of things and we recommend we are we do not get paid. We do not have any money and we cannot technically have money. There's no account set aside uh for us. Um whereas a council they're elected, they're paid, they're governing, they're responsible for policies, they're responsible for decisions, and they have authority and

um they in turn they do have money to spend. So, you know, so our meetings um sometimes we do kind of go off a little bit uh on things because we are talking about um ways that we can improve things or or ideas that we have. So, you know, I just want to kind of clear that up, uh, you know, for people that listen to us and and just for ourselves so that you don't feel like that you guys are doing anything wrong if you're hearing any of the comments that have been made in the in the past about the committee. Um, I think that everyone is doing a good job. We've had some great ideas. Um, anything in government is slow. There's never anything fast. Um, sometimes people don't understand that. Um, but you know, sometimes it takes years for one simple plan to actually be seen. One one mayor may approve it and get the funding and it may be the next mayor that gets to um, you know, grand open it, you know. So, it's it's kind of the same with us. We have done a lot of uh, great feedback for um, events that have made a lot of improvement. Um, and we uh take advantage of that firsthand obviously because we are the ones that um deal with disabilities every day. We are the ones that need the handicap spots. We are the ones that need a shorter walking spots and and quiet places and and things that we have been helping to uh give ideals to provide to the other um employees and staff and and and and so um you know there has been some great things done um just like the switchback that's going across the square there. Um

if you ride by you can see where they have dug into the dirt. They're actually you know you can actually see headway today um if you know the plans over there. So I was excited to see that and um I think they're still on uh their goal of being open uh for this summer. So that that's a great thing. So um if anybody had anything they wanted to add to that or make sense. Okay, then we will move on to our old business. Um, Hannah from the parks department is here to give us an update on the Easter event. Hello all. Hi.

Um, so we are doing things a little differently for Easter this year. So, we were wanting feedback from you all. We are not doing the egg hunt. Um, just with our budget cuts and everything, we unfortunately had to scrap it. So, what we are doing instead will be April 4th. That's a Saturday morning. We are having a pancake breakfast on our dining room side at the A&E building. And then on the sanctuary side, we will have vendors in there that will be passing out eggs and candy and such to children sort of trunk or treat style is that's how I've been describing it. Um, we will have our meeting room in the arts and enrichment building open as a sensory friendly area. So that way, you know, children with disabilities can dine in there or if they need to take a break, they can head in there and it'll be quieter. But we didn't know if there was anything else that you all might contribute that would make it more appropriate and accommodating. Anybody have any ideas? Ashley,

I think that's a good idea. I didn't think about that. Okay. Thank you. Uh, we did also want to invite you all. So, if the board or not the board, sorry, the committee wants to set up there, you all are more than welcome to join us. I'll have Carrie send an email or myself will tomorrow morning. So, yeah, sounds good. Yeah. Is that it? So, we're having a trunker hunt. Sort of trunk. The formal name for it is our bunny breakfast bash because we'll have the Easter bunny there and stuff. So, what what are the times? Um, the first time slot, because we're doing two, just so that way we can keep a decent number of people in there, not over capacitate the building. The first one will be at 8:00 a.m. and the second one starts at 9:45. I love that thing. It's a creative alternative.

We're really looking forward to it. Well, thank you all. Thank you. Thank you. Sounds good. That means that D is no longer doing the the breakfast part. Yeah, they kind of took that idea and Yeah. Okay. which was good. That's it went on with a way to come up with something that was a better solution with having to give up the Easter egg hunt. Yeah. It's the same person and they were here um Christmas time. I didn't get to go. I was working, but I watched some video of it. Was pretty neat. I think the kids will like it. It's good for the kids.

Yeah. And the vendor. It's good for the vendors because um you know they've been kind of cooped up all winter and you know it starts getting everybody out in the you know in the community and so yeah I think it'll be a good idea and it's been it's posted all over Facebook as well so you can go I think you have to sign up for it for one of those slots just so they have a regist like a link on there. Good idea. Otherwise might be have like two people at that and then everybody else trying to show up. Exactly.

Yeah. Exactly. Yeah. Yeah. There was there is a link on Facebook on the uh it's on the city page and then I but I think they have shared it to like all the informal city pages as well. Carrie I think I seen Carrie doing or Hannah could have but I I did see a bunch of it shared the other day. It all came across like my whole timeline. It was one one after another. Um I'm going to try. I I definitely won't make the 8:00. I'm going to sign up to go to the 9:45. Um the uh another thing for the update for the old business, we talked about the parent support group that Andrea is heading up over at the A&E Center. It is the second Wednesday of every month. um 5 to 6 pm. Um and it is this Wednesday, March 11th. Um and anybody is welcome to attend whether even if they're just a parent with a typical child. It's it's not required. It's just it's literally just um just what it is. parent support group, but whether it's caregiver, parents, uh grandparents, anybody that just needs any kind of type of uh support. Definitely not therapy, but support. We can offer it.

Five to six. Five to six. Yeah. As it gets built up, we hope to have it like two, you know, up to two hours. We have the space for two hours. So, but while it's just, you know, few here coming. It's just an hour for right now. But it's interesting. It's a very informal. A you can bring kids. Bring your kids if you need to. Yeah. Okay. Do you guys have a a subject matter for this month? Not really.

Sometime I mean sometimes we do, sometimes we don't. Sometimes it's because we've had kind of I feel like each meeting we've had kind of new person and we've had it anywhere from like parent caregiver to spouse caregiver to a grandparent. So we've had a wide range. Um so sometimes it's hard to have a topic and then you have new people that they don't know and so yeah we just kind of we kind of cover them all.

Yeah. Because whatever we kind of talked about the month before, sometimes if that person's come back, they may say what they did to get done whatever they needed support with or if it was a resource or or just, you know, anything we've had. So, we we kind of just cover it all because I think we are so talked out like we know each other's situations and we're kind of just talked out. So when it's like when a new person comes, we want to hear the new person's story and want to see what what information they've got because they may have something we don't have, you know? So we've kind of we just kind of I think come at it like that, don't you think?

Yeah. And a lot of times some of our newer members will come in like with an idea of something maybe they even want really want to talk about or need help with. So we kind of let the people drive it. Um, it's nice to have topics though because sometimes if we get to know each other too much then we know everything, right? We just haven't got there yet.

There's always someone new or two or three or whatever. It's always something new or a different and they have a different obviously a different situation, you know, than what what we've had. And that's that's been nice so far, you know. Um, we hope that within maybe a year that we can get enough people coming that we can actually have like speakers come from different places that can actually, you know, provide information that we we even don't have at this point or that we're going to need, you know, cuz we're still in two different positions. You know, she has a a older teenager and I have still have a little kid. So, I basically am doing going through what she's already went through. So, I use her for all my stuff. I know what's going to happen. you know what can happen you know where she really there's certain things adult-wise she's still got to go through you know I'm always gonna just be able to know what she you know I just know what she's had to do it you know so and I do have a list kind of a working list of people that I would like to come speak to our group but I just hesitate to do that until I know we have enough people that will kind of consistently come because a few of people that I know are from the Louisville area so I really don't want them travel on an evening, you know, in the middle of the winter to three of us, you know. So,

that's what we're kind of trying to just at this time build up that kind of that list of people that, you know, and it's hard because we're all, like I said, we all have either kids or different situations and it's hard to commit that time sometimes, but we're trying. That's once a month on the second Wednesday.

Yes. Thank you. All right. Does anybody have any new business that they would like to share? We do have founders day coming up, but I think um our next meeting is May 11th at 5:00 p.m. And I think that we probably um will hold off with with anything for that obviously because there's I don't think has even decided for that yet that event. So when we come back in May, we'll I'm sure either Hannah or Mayor TV will probably be here to discuss like some stuff and we'll get more information on it in between now and then so that if we have anything to add, you know, in the meantime, that'll come to us.

I do have a couple of suggestions for the Founders Day parade specifically. Um last year I think it started at 10 and by 11:30 it was cooking. Oh, it was hot last year. So hot. Um kids were sweating and red and like people who were you know walking in the parade. It was it was a hard day. So I was going to suggest like pay like maybe being prepared to move the time back maybe to nine o'lock if we know it's going to be a hot day. I will um reach out and her. She knows. And I love our police department. They're amazing. But they drove way too fast.

They was hurrying to get it over with. I mean, they probably were going like 3 miles an hour, four miles an hour. And for somebody who's walking Yeah. And you know, like that was a hard that was a hard hard um march. Yeah. Yeah. to to keep up with and to follow. People were getting left behind and lagged behind. And so those would be my only two sources of input. And that's just because I was there and I saw all of that. I will um she might need to know those things ahead of time.

Yeah. I will um reach out and ask her if they know that they're having one or if what their details will be on that parade. I I it it was pretty warm for that. It was a year when I think about that. Yeah. You don't know. But yeah, be better plan for it. I remember I was in it last year and now I can't sitting here thinking, well, I don't remember if I did it for the disability or what I did it for last summer. I got to go back and look on my notes. But yeah, I remember it being so hot.

It was like a run. But I was glad because I was like, "Let's get it. Let's get it." Um, yeah, we'll figure that out before now and then. Um, any any other comments or I wanted to share a couple events um that are coming up

that I saw in the disability community. Um, one being a disability town hall hosted by the Indiana Statewide Independent Living Council. That's going to be at IUS on March 31st from 5 to 7. Um, they have a a link to register uh ISO on Facebook. Okay. but they're going to have a couple of representatives there to talk about healthcare, transportation, and any other kind of issues that come up in in the talks. So, I thought that would be a good And that's on March 31st. March 31st at US. Okay.

Um and then on April 2nd, um there's a nonprofit called Disability Belongs. uh they are having a virtual event at 1:30 called words matter best practices for disability inclusive language um and I think that's a really important thing to consider going to uh a lot of us sometimes forget things or aren't as clued into other people's circumstances so we don't think about the words that we use so It's a It's a good thing if you've never sat through any kind of lecture about that kind of stuff. It's

where and that's uh that one's virtual uh I disability disability. That's on their web page.

Yeah. I mean even myself like I don't I mean I I don't know what words to use 99% of the time when I'm you know like it's hard if you don't know.

Yeah. But what's acceptable and what's not acceptable and it's different in your different age groups and you know like the things that my my mom or my dad will say you know not my mom so much but my dad I kind of have to kick you under the table and be like don't say that. Like you can't say that. You didn't know he can't say that. Like That's what was said when he was his whole life. He didn't have, you know, and you know, so yeah, it's kind of hard, but that that that's a good thing. I'm going to look into that. Thank you, Ashley. And March is I don't know the proper what is it? Uh the proper appreciate your social worker month.

It's it's months for everything. Like I think yesterday awareness month. Yes. And then like yesterday or the day before was like uh was it professional women's day or something? I seen somebody international women's day and you know going on in March I can't keep up. We we talked about that before about announcing the days or something and we were like there's so many we couldn't even pick like we were trying to just pick and and it was like okay we're not being very uh inclusive on our own because we are picking such random things you know but it's the month of uh March is um I disability awareness intellectual disability and awareness yeah something yeah

intellectual and developmental disab Okay. I knew it was some something wrong there, but yeah. And yeah, so every every month has about 10 different things and if you look them up, you're going to find one that's, you know, directly for you or to you or about you. But uh yeah, so um but yeah, I just wanted to say that about I know March is a lot. Okay. So, um, like I said, our next meeting is Monday, May 11th at 5:00 PM. Before you move on, I'm going to share one more thing. Oh, yeah. Sorry.

This is something I'm going to try to go to myself. So, Families for Effective Autism Treatment of Louisville. They are actually hosting a workshop. This is on March 24th from 6:00 to 7:30. I believe that's a Tuesday night. It is in Louisville. It is in St. Matthews, but um it's basically they're going to it's an attorney that's versed in benefits for 18 plus waiverss, guardianship, POA, and a road map by age with specific um advice that he has. Not something that you see all the time, but probably great information. And while it is across the river, there are some similarities. So, I'm going to try to go to it. Um, you do have to register, I believe. Yes, you do have to register. Um, and they are providing a light meal. So, there you go.

What was the name of the organization? Feet. Fe. It's their Facebook page. Um, that I'm on. And I think, let's see,

we can send these links. We can look up the if you have the links to yours if you can email those to me and I'll get the one from Andrea and then I can email it to um Brian and then he can like attach it to um I don't know wherever our stuff is at on there whether he has to attach it to the agenda but he can attach it or post it. I might even be able to make him he'll have enough time to make an actual post on um the Facebook page to um add the three links.

Okay. Yeah. This is supposed to kind of help with um to let you know what your long-term options are for care, which is I think something that not many people talk about. uh you get support when they're kids, but once they reach adulthood or even right before they reach adulthood, a lot of that can drop off. So, um my goal is to learn as much as I can so I can share it with you guys. Yeah, that's awesome.

Yeah, that's a great great thing because I'm sure a lot of people have, you know, I see a lot of posts sometimes on the parent support groups on social media about who's an attorney I can reach out to to talk about, you know, once their children around 15, 16 when they got to, you know, start doing the adult things. And u a lot of it there's a lot of information out there, but a lot of people don't talk about it. I mean, just when you get into guardianship alone, there are so many different forms of guardianship. Yeah. Um so, yeah, I think it's important and it's definitely something that you have to start on well before they turn 18,

not only for your own information, but through the court system. It's a process. Yeah. Yeah. That's most people start around 16 that I've experienced anything with getting all the paperwork and just the things you got to have because it's not only just filling out paperwork. You actually have to have medical records and all the stuff. And it can't just be like going to the doctor and just one doctor and getting, you know, like their primary doctor. You actually it's you got to go through the whole process of like every specialist, every physical therapist, speech therapist, everything

require you to have um actual testing done through an agency. I mean, which can be pricey sometimes too. Yeah. Depends on sometimes what your goal is in the end. Yeah. For a lot of intellectual disabilities, it requires an evaluation by a licensed psychologist, primary doctor. They can put it in the medical record. Yeah. It's like autism. Yes. Same with autism. You It doesn't matter. 100 doctors can write that, but you

Well, and an important thing like what she's mentioning too, there's not a plethora of companies out there that do the testing when it comes to that either. They're very specific. Actually, one of them over in Louisville just closed down one of their offices. Um, so yeah,

big demand for that then because more and more and more people are are needing those services. That's just like autism, the testing for autism. I mean, um, you know, it's a waiting list of in some places up to two years just for a um just an not even a true not even your assessment just for the um new new uh patient appointment to determine whether there's even going to be a uh assessment is is 18 months to two years for the waiting list. So, you know, um if you're if you're waiting on that, you know, I mean, it's you're having the complications. If they're in school, you're having complications. If you're an adult and you're trying to get those things done, you're you know, you got even more stress to add to your plate. Yeah. It's just it's gross. Okay. Okay. Well, does anybody else have any other events or any other comments that they would like to add or anything?

I'll just say that I know like talk about this probably another meeting, but uh I I'm continuing to think of ways that we can engage the community here more. Um because, you know, we've had a hard time filling positions on the or on the committee. Um, and I think it would be really great if we could get more feedback from the disabled community here. Um, so,

um, so we could have a vendor booth at um at the Easter thing if you guys are if anybody's interested in that. I if you all we talk about that uh, you know, we can on our group thing, we can figure out what everybody's scheduling is. We don't have to worry about that before leave here tonight. But if you guys want to think about that, um I can look at my schedule and see it. It may even be easier for me to just do that that whole morning rather than even trying to take uh you know, Carissa to the event. She really wouldn't, you know, that would be more for me than her, you know, really truly for that. She's she would you know, just because of the crowd and the people, you know, she wouldn't get, you know, as as much out of it, you know. So, I mean, um, I can reach out to the the girls at the parks department and and just have them mark us down for a table and then, um, uh, I'm sure that, um, I could talk to them and see if they could, um, if they had any extra candy. If not, I can, you know, I think it's a total of 250 people, so, you know, it's not like the trailer where you have to have 10,000 pieces of candy, you know. So, um I'm sure the candy thing wouldn't be an issue for the Easter event. We wouldn't have to get fancy and have eggs or anything like that. You know, we could just do uh stick to the throw it, you know, throw it in the basket kind of thing. But, I mean, if you guys are if you want to do that, um we could um I mean, I I would be fine with doing that,

having the vendor table and just Uh and then that that leaves us a few weeks to um get some material uh set up and if you wanted to do another thing like you did in the past where you did the QR code and um may even have enough time where we could

put it on e I could pick up some business card blank business cards and maybe put something out on a business card or on just on fourth sheets or something to where we could hand that out instead of just trying to talk to everybody might have more more luck to just stick it in the Easter baskets kind of thing. So I think a lot of people after they leave they'll probably go through because I know you know everybody at the vendor's tables will be giving out information you know and the adults will look at that stuff. So, um, that might be something that we could probably do. Yeah, we can we can push it out text. Yeah. And that'd be simple to I mean, just print it out. That's so much easier than something,

right? Right. So much easier. So much so much easier and way easier than toiletries because nobody's caring about looking at anything. They're just like, "Throw the candy in the basket. Let's move on." uh you know, by the time you're getting through there because that's that's a that's what has gotten so huge, especially on the pretty when we get a pretty and we've we've really the last few years gotten some pretty nights that that's got scheduled on. So, yeah. All right. Well, if no one else has anything to add, we will wrap this sucker up. It is 5:34. Can I get a motion to uh adjourn the meeting? Motion to adjurnn. All right, Ashley. Second.

Second, Christina. All right. All in favor say I. All right. Motion is motion is approved and meeting is adjourned.

Like this thing, right? My new little my fancy toy, ladies. Faint to