Advocacy Monitor

Prepare to empower people with disabilities in making health insurance choices!

The American Association on Health and Disability (AAHD) and our partners, ILRU IL NET T&TA Center for Independent Living, National Council on Independent Living (NCIL), and the Association of Programs for Rural Independent Living (APRIL), are recruiting CIL Staff volunteers to pilot a training curriculum that teaches CIL Staff how to assist people with disabilities in making health insurance choices.

The training will be open from November 1 to December 31, 2022. This training will be conducted using the Course Avenue platform that will provide participants with learning modules and evaluation surveys at their own learning pace.

There are 4 Modules in the training curriculum – Introduction to Health Insurance, Types of Health Insurance, Choosing Health Insurance, and Hurdles to Using Health Insurance.

The purpose of this pilot is to get YOUR feedback on the training’s effectiveness at preparing CIL Staff to assist people with disabilities choose and use health insurance.

This year, NCIL hosted our first hybrid conference, which included over 35 hours of content spread out over seven days.

In addition to onsite participation, the 2022 Annual Conference on Independent Living included livestreams, recordings, and virtual components. Virtual content will be available for all registrants through the end of 2022.

We had approximately 400 in-person participants and 300 virtual participants. First-time attendees comprised 55% according to evaluation data. Seventy-five percent of respondents evaluated the experience as good, very good, or excellent.

The excitement of reuniting as a community was on display throughout the event and we were thrilled to see so many new faces.

NCIL thanks our dedicated members, volunteers, staff and board members, presenters, speakers, exhibitors, advertisers, and all conference participants for creating a truly memorable conference experience.

We are especially thankful for the members who scheduled and met with elected officials to advocate for Independent Living priorities. Together, we will create a world in which people with disabilities are truly valued equally and participate fully.

• Read the full conference wrap-up, which includes photos, awards, election results, and a special thank you to our sponsors.

August 23, 2022; 3:00 – 4:30 p.m. Eastern

Register online or reach out to [email protected] for more information.

The IL-NET National Training & Technical Assistance (T&TA) Center operated by ILRU in collaboration with NCIL, APRIL, and the University of Montana Rural Institute and RTC: Rural, supports CILs and SILCs in building capacity to run strong, effective organizations. This webinar will be a discussion highlighting the importance of monitoring and assessing a CIL’s performance using self-assessment tools and how these tools can best be utilized within a CIL to improve program performance. It will feature three speakers, Paula McElwee from Independent Living Research Utilization (ILRU), Annetta Johnson from Northern West Virginia Center for Independent Living, and Kyle Kleist from Center for Independent Living for Western Wisconsin.

Please join us for this complimentary webinar and learn more about use of self and peer monitoring as management tools within CILs.

A Virtual Training Opportunity for CIL and SILC Administrators, Staff, and Board Members

September 7-9, 2022

A panel of independent living peers will address consumer control, leadership development, and building a disability community.

The Program for NCIL’s 2022 Annual Conference on Independent Living is now available at ncil.org and at the conference website.

• Conference Program – PDF (https://bit.ly/3NsKtEA)
• Conference Program – alternate formats (https://bit.ly/3A5RlF0)

Use this document to help plan your conference experience and, if you are attending in person, to prepare for your visit to DC.

There’s still time to register for the Annual Conference. Registrants are encouraged to complete their registration by July 18, but registration will remain open throughout the conference and can also be processed onsite.

We look forward to welcoming you to the 2022 Annual Conference on Independent Living!