*This text is being provided in a rough draft format . Communication Access Realtime Translation (CART) is provided in order to facilitate communication accessibility and may not be a totally verbatim record of the proceedings .*.

APRIL Welcome
Monday, October 18, 2021
10:00—11:00 A.m.
	»  Sierra: Hello, everybody, welcome to the conference.  We're going get started in just a minute or two.  So just jump on in the room and we'll get started in a bit.
	All right.  It's 1 past the hour, so we're going to go ahead and kick this thing off.  How exciting!
	So hello, everybody.  I am Sierra Royster, she/her pronouns.  I am the moderator for today's session.  Thank you for joining us for this welcome ceremony for the 2021 virtual APRIL conference, our community showing grace by staying in place.
	I just want to mention a couple of housekeeping items before we get started today.  First, you should find your menu bar at the bottom or the top of your screen when you scroll over it.  Depending on what device you are using, it may be hidden, so just keep looking for it.  That is also where you will find the closed captioning for today's session.  You can view the captioning by selecting the CC tab on that same menu bar.
	As for sign language interpreting today, we do have Jorge and Jennifer and they will be on screen.  You can find them right on here and when we share screen, there's an option in the middle of that screen that you can make them smaller or larger, however you prefer, by sliding that bar right or left.
	If you have technical issues, please use this —— please share that information if the chat feature to let us know and we can try to help you solve those.  If you would like to turn the chat feature off, you can do that by pressing Alt H.  For Q and A times, please note the Q and A box is on the menu bar, as well.  We are asking that you only submit questions there as they may get lost in the chat today.
	To ask a question or make a comment, you can also select the hand option on that menu bar.  That allows us to know that you have a question.  For those on the phone or using key strokes, we ask that you press star 9 or Alt Y on your key pad to raise your hand.  We will let you know when it's okay to unmute.
	Remember, if you join into the conversation today, please keep all background noise down as much as possible to allow us to hear you clearly and that is all the housekeeping stuff.  So I'm going to turn it over to get started to our executive director, Billy Altom
	»  Billy:  Thank you, thank you, so much, Sierra.  I appreciate that.  And can you believe it, here it is, another year has gone by and we're doing our second annual virtual conference.  I'm —— I hope that doesn't become a habit of having to say that all the time.  I have been looking forward to getting back in person with everybody.  Oh, man, I miss the opportunity to see and hear everyone and —— gosh, just the —— the comrade that we get to have when we're together and I so miss that.
	But this year's conference, I think, is aptly named and the youth conference, embrace the unexpected.  That's one of my favorite titles in a long time and it certainly sums up independent living.  Expect and embrace the unexpected.
	Gosh, we've been gone for so long, I am trying to think of where to start.  I guess one of the first things that I want to do is stick with tradition.  Sometimes tradition is a good thing.  So as has been tradition with APRIL for many, many years —— probably 20 or so —— we have always started our conference off with a native American blessing.  I'm proud to say that this year, America has caught up with was and we have a day in October.  So maybe APRIL has been ahead of the game for quite some time.  But today, I am thrilled to have Steven Morales with us.  He is the co—chair of the American Indian Center of Arkansas and man, it's been a long time that I've gotten to introduce somebody from Arkansas.  So I am thrilled that he is with us.  He is Cherokee and Sioux background.  Steven, if you would like to join me, I would love to turn the stage over to you.
	»  Steven:  Hello, everybody, how are you all doing?  I am honored to be here and also to the APRIL organization, just hearing how you had said that this organization has honored native Americans for the previous years before the U.S., so I want to say that that's a blessing and we greatly appreciate you.  You know, and in this world today, we live together, we all bleed red and so part of the song that I am going to sing later on is a four direction song and, in that song, it talks about how that the circle of life is infinity and also it divides into four directions, which also is separating the four primary ethnicities of the world, but they all meet in the middle showing that we are all one.
	I am a little random, I am a retired U.S. army staff sergeant veteran and purple heart recipient.  I was wounded in combat in 2006 and I am the current commander of the native American veteran affairs.
	Historically, our land here in Arkansas was home to several different tribes —— the Cherokee, the (inaudible) —— and any time, when any organization comes in and they give that honor to them, that's a real blessing because, here in Arkansas alone, there's now several casinos that are starting to come up where the tribes are starting to try to —— to start to stake their claim in the land and to try to grow.  And again, I am just so honored to be here, guys, and the first prayer, I want to do, I want to do a prayer That is going to be in Cherokee.  I speak both the Cherokee and my Lakota Sioux language.  So I am going to do a prayer for everybody and then I will do an English translation after wards.
	Join me in prayer and bow your heads.  (Praying in Cherokee) our father, which in heaven, we thank you for bringing us together today safely for all of us.  Amen.
	The song I'm going to sing to you guys today is that four directions song.  Now, the important thing about this song is that, at the start of all of our ceremonies, everything that we do, we start off giving prayers to the four directions and not the hokey way —— just trying to be funny —— but we do it in the same ways our ancestors did for hundreds of years.  Hundreds of years and generations, these songs are the same songs that were sung back then that we still keep today.  And so, if we're not carrying on these traditions and these cultures, they are lost.  So this song is a four direction song.
	One of the main choruses you are going to hear in it will be (singing) what is "hear our prayers today" so this is going to be a song that I want to do for all of us and for all of you, also, in this world, we have a pandemic going on.  We have the boarding school atrocities there being uncovered and all we can do today is come together and just pray.  So that's what this song is for.
	(Singing in Sioux)
	I appreciate everyone and I appreciate you all having me and, again, thank you guys.  Blessings.
	»  Billy:  Thank you so much, Steven, I appreciate that.  I look forward to our paths crossing some day.  So thank you all.  All right.
	Up next, let's do some of the important stuff, especially for those of us that are concerned with keeping the doors and lights on.  I would ask this morning and really do a sincere heartfelt thanks to all of our conference sponsors.  And of those, Anthem, the ADA National Network, Ability 360, the Idaho SILC.  The Austin resource center for independent living, the disability action center in Moscow, Idaho.  Also thank all of our sponsors, the vendors.  We have the ILU and the IL Net.  We also have —— I am struggling to read.  Thank gosh I have bifocals on these things.  The ADA national network, the RTC rural, the rural institute, K—9 and CIL.  So don't forget to visit those folks on the vendor tabs and learn more about all the opportunities that they have there for us.  We also have some really great news coming up in just a —— probably a matter of weeks.  We have been selected by the FORD Foundation and we will be receiving a grant from them to continue to grow and build our youth program.  I am so stoked about this! What this is going to do is it's going to allow us to hire a new youth position to head it up.  So keep your eyes open.  After the conference is over, we will be blasting out a lot of info for folks and we are looking forward to getting this thing fired up.
	All right! What else do I have on this list?  I see on my list it says what to expect from the conference online and that I would be assisted by Mary Willard in doing this section.  Mary, do you want to help me real quick with this because you know how I am, I need all the help I can freaking get
	»  Mary:  So thank you, Billy.  This is Mary Willard.  My preferred pronouns are she, her, shes.  I am thrilled to be here for yet another conference.  Like many of you, I wish we could see each other in person.  I could use the hugs.  But here we are in virtual land again and we are doing the very best that we can to make sure that we have a fun filled week ahead of us.
	So I am hoping Sierra, if possible, that you would share our website for folks.  Wonderful.  So again, this year, we will be virtual.  Right now, I have a screen up with the APRIL—world.org/conference website.  This is going to be your hub for all of this week's events.  Right here, on the home page, you'll log in and then you'll find access to all of our fun information.
	Right on the home page, you will see our executive director and our current board chair.  They have written some nice welcome letters for you.  Then on our next tab is where you will find our agenda.  So when you click on it, it will drop down and have options for each day this week.  We will be meeting Monday, October 18th, through Friday, October 22.  Then you can select the day you would like and it will have information for all of the week's events.
	So many of you were able to already log in and find the welcome ceremonies.  When you get into that page, you'll notice that there is a section for all your materials and that's where you can download any handouts that the presenters might mention.  You'll also notice that there's the Zoom log in info, so once this has already occurred, it will be replaced by a recording.  So never fear, if you have staff members that wanted to join but couldn't today, they can always come in and join via recording.
	If we go to the next tab, what you'll see is the youth agenda and I am only going to briefly touch on that because our youth chair will be following me with that information.  Then the next to be over is vendor booths.  Like Billy mentioned, we really appreciate everybody in the vendoring area for supporting the virtual APRIL conference.  Please feel free to go into any of our vendor booths and you'll find that they have extra resources that you may be interested in.  Also our highlighting —— if those vendors are also giving presentations.  And then many of our vendors actually will also be supporting a Zoom room booth.  You can pop in and say hello and ask questions.  For those vendors who have elected to not have a Zoom room booth, they have supplied contact info and have said please reach out, email, call, however is best for you.
	So then, of course, we have our awards and honors tab.  We're going to be honoring those folks in the closing ceremony.  Please feel free to read about our honored award winners this year.  Again, we do the Earl Walden and the Linda Gonzales award.  I don't want to spoil too much.  Check out the tab
	We also have our T—shirts for sale.  We really want to thank again our partners at 5518 designs.  They have been long time supporters of APRIL and they are heading up our T—shirt sales again this year.  They are, I believe, $20 a piece.  That includes shipping, so thanks for the great deal, John.  You can check out the T—shirts and order them there.
	The next tab is the attendees tab.  This year, we are using a slack channel and you can select the "connect online" and select the join link and come right into the channel and it's an opportunity for you all to connect.  It's definitely not the same of the lounge or the lobby of a hotel, but we really wanted to make sure that, if you wanted to, you could connect.
	Don't forget, there's also options to become a member and finding us on Facebook there.  On our sponsors tab, we have all the sponsors Billy mentioned and we could not do this without you.  So please make sure to take a peek at those folks again and if you see them around in the Slack chat rooms or anywhere else, please give them a space from us.
	It wouldn't be a conference that I didn't mention that our next tab is evaluations.  Please make sure that you are evaluating each session.  Every single day will have its own link and then there is an overall general session that will gather your information, your ideas to make us stronger, and the main keynotes and welcomes, as well.
	And then, of course, it takes a village, so our next tab is the "many thanks" tab and please feel free to read through all the people that it took to make this thing happen.  And then, last but not least, on the very last tab is our help section.  So again, this is going to have all the contacts that you need in order to get support that you might need in order to get through this week.  It will also have some information on our frequently asked questions and also some Zoom tips.  So if you are somebody that use shortcut links, we have added some of those onto our website.
	Whew! I think that about covers it.  And as always, if you have questions, please check out that contacts section and reach out to any of us.  We always love hearing from you.  So I'm going to go ahead and turn it over to Shikha and the youth and let them tell you about what the youth can expect before we get to our final keynote speaker for this morning.
	»  Shikha:  Hello, can you hear me?
	»  Mary:  We sure can
	»  Shikha:  Hey, I'm on the youth chair, I work at Disability link here in Atlanta, Georgia, in the tucker area.  I am the COVID—19 response supervisor and the independent waiver program manager.  I am here to tell you some information about our youth kick—off that we have this week for our conference.  We did a week long conference starting on Saturday, October 16th, from 4:00 p.m. eastern to 5:00 p.m. eastern.  Monday through Thursday is 4:00 p.m. eastern to 5:00 p.m. eastern, so come check us out.
	On Friday, it's going to be 3:00 p.m. eastern to 4:00 p.m. eastern.  Come back Saturday to do some fun wrap up and a fun Jeopardy game from 4:00 p.m. eastern to 5:00 p.m. eastern.
	Also, check out our T—shirt sales and congratulate all of the scholarship winners that we have this year.  The topics that we have this year —— the theme is "embrace the unexpected" like what Billy said.  My pronouns are she/hers.  And I'm really excited to be here.  We have great speakers for moving out, advocacy and I'm really excited to be here.  So thank you, everyone.  I would also like to thank my Director, Kim Gibson and also Sierra for helping us out.  Thank you.
	»  Billy:  Awesome! Thank you, Shikha! Usually, whenever I have the opportunity to have the may control phone, I might have a guitar or something else, but I want to do something different today.  Almost went with a costume to pull it off, but I want to the a poem.  Some rhythm word —— a little beat mix style, but I wanted to share something with you I've been thinking over the course of this COVID pandemic when we're all alone and having time to think and just wondering, what is wrong with people sometimes?  We all seem to be at wits end and I just wanted to take some time and reflect a little bit.  I call this story "cat in a hat."
	I've read a lot of stories that taught me this and that, but some of the best advice I ever got came from the cat in the hat.  There will always be something, I know this is true, cause right out of the box came thing 1 and thing 2.  You might not know where you're going, but don't forget where you've been because history repeats itself again and again.  Keep your eyes on the prize, the truth will always win, and do your best to be your best and be a good friend to the end.
	Today, you are you, and that is truer than true.  There's no one alive There is youer than you.  Now, always remember to follow the golden rule and live each day like it's the day that they'll remember you.  Now, you might not know where you're going, but don't forget where you've been because history repeats itself again and again.
	Now, keep your eyes on the prize, the truth will always win, and do your best to be your best, and be a good friend till the end.
	So thank you! I'm not sure where I'm going to go from there, but thank you all.  It's always weird whenever I don't have —— I don't see anybody, so boy, either that sucked or people liked it.  So I am just going to go out on a limb and go people loved it.  Yeah, good!
	Anyway, this morning we are going to have a —— our keynote this morning.  Has she joined us yet, Mary?  I think we're running a few minutes in advance.
	»  Sierra:  No, she hasn't joined us yet
	»  Billy:  All right.  Well, what else do we want to talk about, Mary?  What have you got?  I was going to sing a song.  Mary, would you like to enlighten us just a tad bit more on the FORD foundation stuff just to get people's juices flowing?  A I love it when I put her on the spot
	»  Mary:  Sorry, I was reaching out to Allison.  Actually, I would love it if Sierra would talk about it.  Do you want to talk a little bit about the FORD foundation and what folks can expect?
	»  Sierra:  So hello, again, everybody.  This is Sierra again.  So we are very excited that we were able to receive that support from FORD foundation.  We are really excited —— we've been doing some youth work for years now and we've had some brainstorms in the back that we've been putting together with many youth that have come through and have continued on.  A lot of them are leaders now with NIL and other parts of the community, as well.  We're excited to be putting those activities and programming pieces into action.  So we've been hearing your feedback for many years now and we're excited that we are going to bring on a new youth person to ensure that that position stays as a peer position and then continues on with carrying that out.  We're going to start asking —— you know, be checking out your emails.  Starting next year, we're going to start asking you what does the community need.  I know that there's a lot of skill based learning that still needs to take place and that youth still want to have interest in different areas or still want to learn in new places.  So that's somewhere where we're going to ask.  Tell us what you want to learn and we're going to figure out how we can plug those pieces in, how we're going to assist young people with continuing their leadership skills, and some of those pieces and key parts of the pie, if you would, places on how you can grow that maybe haven't been discussed about or haven't been a part of the IL skill workshops that you may have attended before or the leadership work forums.  We also are very excited to grow our conference in new ways.  We'll be expanding what we know as the youth conference.  Now, we're going to be expanding that.  For many years, we have heard that youth come again and again year after year.  I see someone new in the attendee list now that have been here before.  We want to help continuing you grow and sometimes that means the next step up.  We have the youth conference and if you are ready to jump into leadership and IL, fantastic.  We want to figure out ways to help you out in that position.  If you are not quite ready for that, we are also going to be spending some time on building some of those next level skills, if you would.  I know that I continue to knead new things as I continue to develop within this profession and this community, so that's what we're hoping to continue.
	But I'm excited that we are pulling in a whole new round of young people this year to add to those conversations, to add to those experiences.  We're going to be also pulling from young people that have been before and are really in that mentoring role and they will be able to really provide mentoring throughout the year for young people so that we're keeping people involved, but we're also learning and growing from each other.  That is what IL is based off of is peer support and peer mentoring and we really believe that in APRIL.  That's why we've changed so many of our conversations to presentations to conversations and ways to connect other people that are going through what we are going through.  So in that same spirit, that's what we're really hoping to do with the youth program is to continue to have some of those youth mentors guiding and supporting —— I guess is the best word —— supporting those young people that are coming up and that are new to IL or new to APRIL.  So we're really excited about that.  And without giving all the goods away, I think that's going to be all we will say for now, but please be on the look out.  That job announcement will be coming out next week and we really, really would love —— if you don't have somebody, if you are not interested, you could send that out and share that.  We want to see that as many people are interested in that.
	So I thank you for all that we are doing and welcome again and I will turn it back over to Mary or Billy
	»  Billy:  Perfect.  I will jump in there.  I believe that we have our keynote speaker with us this morning and, in true IL fashion, we —— you always have an agenda, but whether you stick to it is another story.  Sometimes time has no meaning, but I am going to get right to the heart of the matter now and introduce our keynote speaker.  One of the things that being the Director of APRIL and just being in IL, in general, one of the things that I love the most is the opportunity to work with so many different organizations, so many different businesses, universities, that we get to learn so much from all of these players and it's given me the opportunity to meet a lot of different players over the years and our next speaker is one of them.
	So I have known and respected our speak or for many, many —— well, I won't tell her age.  So many, many days that we've known each other.  And I have actually admired all of her work.  Her commitment to the ideals of independent living are evident throughout her career.  A couple of things that really jump out to me as I have watched her over the years has been her work in the realm of home and community based services.
	Also, she has a long list —— I can't read right there, I am just going to keep going.  She also has a long list of well deserved accolades and accomplishments and appointments.  But I believe the appointments she is serving in now may be the most prestigious yet.  So she was sworn into the deputy administrator on January 20, 2021 and is currently serving as the acting administrator for aging.  In this capacity, she provides executive direction, leadership, guidance and coordination for ACL programs nationwide and advises HHS secretary on issues affecting individuals with disabilities and older adults.  Wow, that's a mouth full.  But she wears a lot of hats and wears them incredibly well.  I am certainly proud to have her in my friend category, so I turn the floor over to you, Allison
	»  Allison:  Thank you, so much, Billy, for that introduction and for Mary Willard for inviting me to join today.  Let me start with a visual description.  I am a middle—aged white woman with medium length, curly brown hair.  I am wearing a blue blouse and a silver necklace and I have a white background with ACL logos.  My pronouns are she, her and hers.  I wish I would have had my camera on for that introduction from Billy, I was smiling and laughing the whole time.  So thank you, Billy, for that.
	As Billy mentioned, my name is Allison Barkoff and I am serving as the acting administrator and assistant secretary for aging at ACL.  We at ACL really, really appreciate our partnership with APRIL and the support and leadership that you provide to the independent living programs and your focus on people who are living in rural areas, which is so critical given that there are so many people with disabilities in rural areas and the unique barriers that folks in rural areas face.
	I'm really excited to be here speaking with you all today and want to share some priorities of the Biden—Harris administration and the way ACL is working with all of our partners to move forward on all of these priorities.
	For those that I don't know well, let me start by giving a little bit of my background.  As Billy mentioned, I was proud to join the ACL on inauguration day and I have been serving as the acting administrator at that time.  The mission of ACL which is to support community living if or all has been my own life's mission and I know it's a mission that I share with each one of you who are part of the independent living movement.  I have been involved around advocacy around disability rights and community living for literally all my life.  I joined as a sibling of a brother with intellectual disability when we were told that the only place for him was an institution.  At a time where there was no such thing as home and community based services and just a few years before school doors were open.  Advocating alongside disabled people, families, cross disability advocates across the country, I fought for community services to help disabled people live, work and fully participate in their communities and to make choices for themselves about the lives they want to live.  I have worked on policy change at the national and state levels and centers for independent living and the national organizations that represent the IL movement have always been key partners in my work.  My work is always centered on the principle that community living is possible for everyone, regardless of type of disability, level of support we need, or age.
	Community living is not only an important policy goal, I be I really approach it by the fact that it is a civil and human right and I have spent much of my career working to make this promise in trying to, in the ADA, which so many were a part of creating, to make the promise a reality.  One of the last times I was in federal government service was in the Obama administration when I was brought in to create and lead the Department of justices first program to enforce the civil rights of people with disabilities to live, work and play in the community using Olmstead, the Supreme Court's decision.  So much of the work we did together was about using legal tool to get people out of institution and other segregated settings and preventing them from going in in the first place.  And again, CILs have been such important partners in the litigation work that I have done.
	We have made a lot of progress over the last several decades.  As I mentioned, 40 years ago, there was nothing for really to support people with disabilities in the community.  Now, every single state offers home and community based services or HCBS.  That's why we are really seeing the transformation from people like my brother being told there's nowhere for you to go but an institution to, as an adult, living the life that he wants in an apartment with a roommate that he chose, a valued employee at a workplace with a great career, a girlfriend, an active social life and an active advocate in his own right.  Our work is far from complete with too many people who don't have those opportunities.  Hundreds of thousands of disabled people still in institutions or risk of entering one while they sit on waiting lists and many people who don't have the opportunity to have full choice and control over their lives.  They can't find accessible housing, they face barriers to employment or discrimination in accessing health care.  So we still have so much more work to do together.
	That's one of the reasons I was really honored to accept my appointment from President Biden because I think the work that we have to do before us to support all people to fully participate in their communities has never been so important.  Both because of the devastating impact that COVID—19 has had on our community, but also because of the incredible opportunity right before us to make big change.
	So before I jump into talking about ACL and administration priorities, I really just want to start by saying thank you.  I am so appreciative of all of the incredible work you do each and everyday to support the independent living of people with disabilities, particularly those in rural areas.  Not only the work you did before the pandemic, but the incredibly hard, tireless and important work that you have done during COVID and the work that you will do as we start turning to recovery from COVID.
	Truly working alongside so many CILs throughout the pandemic, both before I joined the government and after.  Your work has literally been a matter of life and death.  You have supported people living in —— all across the country, but particularly rural areas saving lives and people who are disabled and living in rural areas have been so hard hit by the pandemic.  Rural areas tend to have more people with disabilities, more people in congregate settings like nursing homes and prisons, the places with the highest risk of contracting and dying from COVID.
	We have seen the World health care infrastructure which is stretched and become overwhelmed by COVID—19 patients.  We have seen rationing of care and people having to travel distances to get treatment.  Again, witnessing the work of the CILs across this nation and the rural parts of this country has been incredible.  We all quickly pivoted to face the pandemic head on serving as a lifeline for so many.  Things like helping consumers access technology, hygiene items, P.P. E., food, transportation, in—home services, vaccines, or just being there to support people on the other end of the phone line while people were so isolated.
	You did incredible work keeping people out of institutions by paying rent or helping others transition out of institutions that were facing COVID outbreaks.  You've worked to help get equal access to COVID testing, care and treatment and now you are helping people get vaccinated.  So for all you do, thank you and I am so grateful.  I just want to say, we and ACL know the value and impact of your work and the huge unmet demand that exists now and will continue well beyond COVID.  That's one reason why one of the first things that I did when I got here and when I was working with the leadership team on putting Together President Biden's budget, we worked so hard for funding for the independent living programs.  Of course, we are still waiting for Congress to act on that budget, but I am really Hopeful that we will have more resources To help you do this incredible work
	I want to turn now to speak to you about a few of the major Biden—Harris priorities that impact people with disabilities.  I want to talk a little bit about what we're doing together to fight COVID and then our work to expand access to home and community based services or HCBS.  And then talk about our work to increase access through affordable, accessible housing and our work around competitive, integrated employment.  Then, finally, talk about the work we're doing to advance equity.
	Starting with COVID, it's absolutely been the priority for ACL and the administration from the day I arrived here.  I know I don't have to say to all of you how devastatingly impacted disabled people have been in every single way.  We make up the biggest group of people who have been at risk for infections and deaths.  We face barriers to accessing vaccines and have been socially isolated.  And literally, within the first few days of this administration, it was really —— I would say just so important and a testament to the advocacy of the disability communities advocacy that the President issued a national strategy for COVID and a set of executive orders that included a significant focus on so many of the major issues facing people with disabilities and older adults, such as access to P.P. E. and testing, preventing discrimination and accessing life saving treatment and addressing the needs of the direct care work force.  This has been in all of government effort and we at ACL have been working closely with the White House, the HHS COVID task force, the equity task force which includes representation from the disability community, the centers for disease control and others to ensure that the unique needs of disabled people and older adults are included in every single COVID response policy from this administration.
	One of the top priorities since I arrived has been ensuring that every single person with a disability and older adult who wants a vaccine can get one.  We know that too many people face barriers to getting a vaccine, whether that's because of inaccessible websites or sites that are physically inaccessible or lack of transportation.  Hopefully, you all saw a report that recently came out from the CDC showing that people with disabilities are more willing than non—disabled people to receive vaccinations, yet still remain less vaccinated than the U.S. population as a whole.  That clearly points to access as an ongoing problem.  Data from the research and training center on disability and rural communities have revealed that staff working in congregate settings, particularly those in communities are still vaccinated at alarmingly low rates.  All of this is why, in March, the President announced million dollars of funding from the CDC to the ACL to fund our disability and aging networks on the ground, including, of course, centers for independent living to assist with vaccine access.  That funding has helped you all do really great work, like helping people register, provide transportation or in—person supports at vaccination sites, identifying people who need in—home vaccinations and addressing vaccine hesitancy.  People in rural areas face additional access barriers and CILs have been playing a really critical role in ensuring that disabled people in rural areas can get vaccines.  Just to give one example, the northern regional center for independent living in up state New York collaborated with county legislatures to help people without internet access and without email addresses make and get transportation to vaccine appointments and they worked to develop vaccine clinics in rural parts of their service area.  In another example, a great collaboration between ACL's disability networks, in rural areas in North Carolina, CILs have been partnering with other ACL net works, including the protection and advocacy agency, disability rights North Carolina to do vaccine clinics targeted to people with disabilities, families and providers of in—home services.
	ACLU, the CDC funds not only to go directly to helping CILs and other networks provide this critical on the ground support, but we also set up a national hotline called DIAL, the disabilities information and assistance line, to help connect people with disabilities with local organizations who can help them with access to vaccines, as well as other need and community services.  And I truly want to thank APRIL for their partnership in helping us establish this line and ensure that it's meeting the needs of our disability community.
	DIAL staff have been fielding questions from over 300 people a week across the country and many of these referrals are going to CILs.  And while we are keeping our focus on making sure that every person who is willing will get vaccinated, we are, at the same time now, working with our colleagues at the CDC on boosters.  For —— I was one of the people yelling alongside you all from the rooftops that people with disabilities in a whole range of congregate settings are equally at risk.  It was incredibly frustrating early on in the pandemic that there was so much focus only on people with nursing homes without focusing on the whole range of congregate home and day settings where people with disabilities were at risk.
	In response to this incredibly strong advocacy by the disability community and by ACL, we have been working with the CDC to make sure that people in all types of congregate settings, Not just nursing homes, are eligible for boosters and those can participate in the pharmacy partnership program.  I hope you all have seen that in the recommendations for boosters that have come out so far, it is not only people in nursing homes, but the recommendation is for anyone who is in a long term care setting.  There's a whole list of the broad range of congregate settings that fall under that on ACL's web page or linked directly from the CDC's page.
	Just a couple of other things that I want to mention that we've been working on related to COVID and the disability community in addition to vaccine access.  We know that so many folks are concerned about COVID.  It may very well be the biggest growth that we face in the disability community since polio.  This summer, ACL contributed to a government—wide tool kit on long COVID ensuring that people experiencing limitations due to long COVID know how to access information, resources and services offered by ACL's disability networks and programs, including, of course, CILs.
	We have also worked closely with HHS office for civil rights to ensure that state and hospital policies do not discriminate against people with disabilities when they need life saving care.  This has been a particularly important issue as rural hospitals get stretched thin and have to make choices about rationing care.  We have also worked closely with the centers for medicare and medicaid services or CMS to make sure that when nursing homes put in place visitation policies tied to COVID outbreaks, that it does not prevent ACL's networks, including CILs, protection and advocacy agencies and Ombudsman to do the work you do in those setting, including helping transition people back to the community.  
	So that's just a touch of some of the work that we are doing and doing alongside you all related to COVID.
	A second priority for the administration and ACL is expanding access to home and community based services or HCBS.  COVID has absolutely laid bare the risks of institutions with more than a third of deaths in nursing homes and other institutions and it has created a national urgency like never before to strengthen and expand home and community based services.
	At ACL, we know that it was long before COVID that there was a need to expand community services.  Too many people are still in institutions, on waiting lists, or not receiving the level of support that they need.  And for so long, quality and access to services has been impacted by the long standing direct support work force crisis caused by incredibly high turnover rates because of the low pay and lack of benefits in these really important jobs.  It has been really incredible over The last several months seeing the administration and congress and everyone the broader public agreeing that the time is now to address these critical issues around supporting and expanding community services.  The administration and congress have already worked together to take some initial first steps to expand community services.  In large part, because of the non—stop advocacy throughout all of 2020 by the disability community, including APRIL and so many of y'all, congress working closely with the administration finally recognized the dire need to provide funding to help people with disabilities and older adults stay safe in the community throughout the pandemic and out of institutions where COVID was rampant.
	The American rescue plan signed by the President in March provided 12.7 billion —— that's billion with a B —— to states medicaid funded home and community based services to an increase in the federal match that the government pays.  And this money is so important.  It can be used to address a wide range of urgent and critical needs that I'm Sure you are all seeing in each of your states.  States can use this money to add new HCBS services.  They can provide services to people who are sitting on waiting lists and they can use this funding to help transition people from institutions back to the community.  This funding is really important in taking some initial steps to support the direct care work force and can be used for things like increasing pay or benefits, recruitment and training activities, or expanding self—direction programs.
	I know so many of you played an important role in shaping your state's initial proposals about how to use this additional funding and I encourage you stay engaged as this funding is getting implemented
	President Biden has been very clear that the funding in the American rescue plan was just a down payment on what we need to truly address the HCBS infrastructure in this country.  That's why the President's bill back better plan proposed 400 billion —— yes, that's B, again —— billion dollars investment in State's community service systems and the direct care work force.  This plan also proposes to permanently authorize the money follows the person program, which again, APRIL and the CILs have been so crucial in this advocacy and in implementing this program that helps transition people out of institutions to their communities.
	When the President —— what the President has been proposing in this plan would truly, truly be a game changer.  It would fundamentally change the institutional bias that exists in our long term care system and make community living a reality for so many people with disabilities after decades of, at best, slowly chipping away at this institutional bias.
	Congress is currently working —— literally, as we speak —— on legislation based on the bill back better plan through a process called reconciliation.  As you probably know, if you read the papers or watch the news, the final framework is still being negotiated.  So what is my one message to you?  Keep up your awesome work! Keep up the work that you're doing educating lawmakers and the public about the importance of home and community based services and keep sharing your stories.  Let people know what was it like sitting on a wait list while you were waiting for the services that you need.  If you are someone who was forced to live in a nursing home or other institution, talk about what that experience was like or how your life changed when you finally got access to community services.
	I want to also briefly mention —— and again, this is another important place where we would love to have more CIL engagement that the administration is committed to strong implementation of the HCBS settings rule.  This is a rule that, for the first time, set basic standards for community integration and inclusion in all home and community based services.  The goal is to ensure that everyone who receives HCBS gets the full benefits of community living.  It truly is about the basics, making sure people have access to the community, that they can make choices in their daily life, have the opportunities to work, get to choose when they eat, what they eat, who their roommate is, if they want a roommate and, again, I think that it's really important that we work together.  ACL is working very closely with CMS in implementing this rule and all of the states are in the process of implementing their state plans to bring their home and community based service systems into compliance with the rules requirements by next March.  Stakeholders play a crucial role in giving input to these state plans and we and ACL really want to work with you over the next year and a half as your states are, hopefully, making big systems change using this rule.
	I want to pivot now to touch on another top priority for ACL and the administration, which is expanding access to affordable, accessible housing.  This is often one of the biggest barriers to community living and a reason why people, oftentimes, get stuck in institutional settings.  Finding accessible, affordable housing is a struggle across the entire country, but I want to recognize that it is a particularly big problem in rural areas where there's both a higher concentration of people with disabilities and, oftentimes, less resources.  The stock of affordable housing units has been shrinking for so many years and competition for that limited supply of affordable rental units and rising rents is causing a huge problem.  A recent report found that there were only 37 affordable and available homes for every 100 extremely low income renter households nationwide and under 1% of the U.S. housing stock is wheelchair accessible and less than 35% can accommodate people who have moderate mobility disabilities making finding units that are both affordable and accessible a huge challenge.
	In some case, states are able to find the resources, the community services to help people transition from institutions like by using programs like money follows the person, but because medicaid can't pay for housing, the challenge of finding housing becomes the reason that these crucial transitions out of institutions either slow down or even don't happen.  So when we work together to coordinate affordable, accessible housing with increased access to home and community based services, that's how we can bring together the infrastructure to help people live independently in the community.
	Partnership is key to that coordination.  It requires partnership at federal, state and local levels between housing and service systems.  Again, we know that IL community is so important to that work.  At ACL, one of our most important partnerships right now is with the Department of Housing and Urban Development or HUD.  Within the first few weeks of the administration, leadership from ACL and HUD launched a working group to partner on coordinating services and housing resources.  We since pulled in the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid services and SAMHSA and others and we have now started working with the White House domestic policy council, which is really critical.  This effort is key to advancing priorities of the administration by expanding accessible, affordable housing, addressing homelessness, which is disproportionately made up of disabled people, expanding home and community based services and addressing the institutional bias in our long term care system.
	One of the first focus of this partnership has been helping states and communities take advantage of the opportunities and the American rescue plan, including both the investments I mentioned for home and community based services and behavioral health services and significant investments in housing assistance.  In July, ACL led, working with partners across HHS and HUD a joint fact sheet called advancing community living through coordination between housing and voluntary community services, explaining to stakeholders how to leverage these new funding opportunities.  We are working now to take our federal coordination and support to states and local partners to the next step.  Later this year, we will be launching a housing and services resource center focused only people with disability, older adults and people experiencing homelessness.  This resource center will be a centralized source of information, guidance and research about how to coordinate access to housing and services.  A forum for peer—to—peer sharing between states and communities and a hub for federal agencies to provide and align our technical assistance through webinars, fact sheets and other resources.  We are really looking forward to partnering across the board with state, tribal nations, local governments, with our disability and aging net works, disability, aging and homeless advocates, as well as homelessness continuums of care and public —— we are also working to address the lack of accessibility in housing by recognizing that there are, part of our housing stock, units that are modifiable, meaning that we can make them accessible.  So in partnership with our grantees, we have funded the development of the home modification information network, which is a state—by—state inventory of home modification policies, funding sources and programs.
	Next, I want to turn to our focus in ACL on competitive integrated employment.  I know I don't have to say to all of you all how crucial employment is to community living.  People with disabilities can and want to work, but they often experience significant barriers to employment.  And again, those barriers are compounded in rural areas.  Disabled employees are also the hardest hit during economic downturns and are typically the last to recover.  In fact, data has shown that people without disabilities have been almost twice as likely to rebound to pre—pandemic employment levels than people with disabilities.  At ACL, we know that when people with disabilities have careers, they not only are in the surest path to economic mobility and independence, but are also happier and healthier and that companies that engage and really outreach to and support the employment of people with disabilities have higher profits and better retention.  Again, CILs play such a crucial role in supporting people in finding and obtaining jobs.
	Based on the most recent data from CILs, you all provided vocational services to nearly 35 thousand consumers and almost 73 thousand consumers received skills training, life skills training that are important part of gaining and sustaining employment.
	CILs also play an important role around transition age youth.  And again, just to give another example, the CIL in Savannah, Georgia, living independent for everyone, Inc., has launched a program that prepares students with disabilities for post secondary lives and connecting them and their families with agencies and resources to assist in that important transition to adulthood.
	They offered classes and partnerships with three schools and three community sites, including throughout the pandemic which really just highlights a way of creating replicable models and for integrating into existing community organizations and efforts.  At ACL, we are also working to support improved employment outcomes for disabled workers.  This month we announced 7 projects for the community collaboration for employment program.  They focus on strengthening collaboration at the local level to facilitate transition of youth with intellectual and developmental disabilities as they seek competitive, integrated employment in independent living.
	We also are working with employers on strategies for recruiting and retaining workers with disabilities.  Just —— I think it's next week or later this week, we will be in the final stages of our inclusive business pipeline challenge where we are awarding prize money to ideas from employers that can be used, not only by them, but across the business sector.  For more than 50 proposals later this week, three will be competing for the grand prize and one of these companies is working with a CIL.  The three companies are Myntra, KBMG and Afala (phonetic) technologies who is working with the resource center for accessible living, a CIL in New York.
	We know that change happens at the state and local level and many of you are already partnering in your advocacy and systems change work around employment with other disable networks.  Our collective voice is making a difference.  I have watched, just closely over the last several year, going from zero states that have prohibited sub minimum wage to, with the announcement last week from California, 13 states and a number of local cities and localities that have prohibited sub minimum wage and are investing in expanding competitive, integrated employment.
	So through this progress and collaboration at the state and local level, ACL has established the disability employment TA center, which brings together all of the ACL's grantees, including CILs.  This TA center has already created learning collaboratives to share strategies and best practices from across the country on topics from state policy, activities, to how to work to transition people from sheltered workshops to real work for real pay and so much more.  If you haven't been in touch with the disability employment center, I really encourage you visit their website.  I was just looking at it over the weekend and there are so many resources targeted specifically to CILs and some great ideas and strategies there.
	I want to close out my remarks today by leaving you with a central message with one last priority from the Administration:  We are working to advance equity in every single thing that we do.  Starting with an executive order on advancing equity on day one, federal agencies have been building an equity lens into our work.  The Administration really importantly has defined equity with an intersectional focus, centering racial justice, but also calling out that people may have multiple identities and be multibly (sic) marginalized specifically referencing people living in rural areas as underserved communities.  So that means that our work must identify and address the different barriers that disabled people face, if they also are a person of color or LGBTQ, or speak a primary language other than English, or live in a rural area and on and on.
	At ACL, we are trying to look through an equity lens at everything that we Do:  At our programs, at our networks and the policy surrounding people with disabilities and older adults.  Our research institute is leading several initiatives and plans to launch several more focused on data, research, and knowledge translation on inequities and access to home and community based services.  In our administration on disabilities, we have done long standing work to support programs in being culturally confident and have strengthened their ability to work through an intersectional lens.  Again, we are really looking to how can we strength and expand that work.
	We have also recently been investing in projects focusing on health inequities, such as the work of the ACL funded center for dignity and health care for people with disabilities, projects focused on equitable access, to mental health services, and partnerships to address inequities on the data that we have on people with disabilities.  Equally as important as the work that we're doing inside of ACL is the work that we're doing across HHS and the broader government where we are working to ensure that disability is considered in all equity focused initiatives, particularly those focused on health disparities.  We are really looking forward to working with you lifting up and helping replicate the work that you all are doing, both APRIL and your individual CILs on equity issues and hearing from you your ideas about what further actions we can take in this area.
	So let me just end by saying I know I have thrown a lot at you in a short amount of time, but I truly feel like we have an unprecedented opportunity to work together before us.  Truly, as someone who has spent decades of doing this work, it really feels like we are on the cusp of a once of a generation opportunity.  After decades of just slowly chipping away at the institutional bias, we finally have some proposals that are big systemic reform.  It is the time for us to think big and bold and to collaborate and to work together with every tool we have in our toolbox.  We must keep our focus on the future, on the post—COVID society and what we want that to look like even as we are honoring the pain and sadness that our community has endured.  I really think it is so important now more than ever that we have big tables, that we work together with stakeholders from the disability and the aging and the labor communities to identify priorities and common ground because we will need to work together to succeed.
	I want you to know that we and ACL and I, personally, am committed to working with all of you to move forward on our shared agenda to achieve equal access to community living and everything that goes with it for all people with disabilities.  As we look ahead, including to our upcoming fiscal year, I am hopeful that we will have even more resources to do this crucial work together.  I want to just end by saying thank you.  Thank you for the work that you are doing across this country and I really appreciate our collaboration.  With that, I will turn it back to Billy.
	»  Billy:  Awesome.  Am I there?  I am there! Hey! Thank you, so much.  My gosh, you were singing —— I know that.  So thank you, very much.  Much appreciated.  I know we have —— we wanted some time for Q and A and I believe Sierra, are you going to run Q and A?
	»  Sierra:  I am.  Hello, everybody.  So really quick, just as a reminder, this is your first Zoom, I am sure of it, we —— if you want to ask a question, you can do that by going to the Q and A box that is in that menu bar and you can submit your questions there.  If you are on the phone or would like to voice your question, you can select the raise hand in that same menu bar or press star 9 or Alt Y if you are using key strokes.
	Let's see, so if you would like to ask questions, now would be your time.  I am done with my spiel.  Just as you were looking on our website, as she was referencing different websites or different links, those have all been dropped into the chat.  But also on our conference website, as well, they are already up there which can answer some of the questions for links that you were trying to find.  Scott has the first question.  When you talked about improving housing options, have you had discussions with solving issues for people with evictions, criminal history or other barriers that make finding housing almost impossible?
	»  Allison:  Yeah, sorry, can you hear me okay?  So those are absolutely really, really important barriers that people face.  For the last time that I was in the administration, HUD has put out guidelines to address these issue.  On the criminal background, how to make sure that people can still be eligible for housing and I think there was some guidance that came out a number of years back.  The credit check.  That's something that I know many in the housing world are working on how do we address some of those barriers.  So I think it's actually a really good point to highlight that, you know, this is why we are working with HUD.  They have this whole set of policies out there, maybe some of them really need to be dusted off and lifted up and shared across our networks on what are ways to address some of these common barriers that people face addressing housing challenges and I will try to see if I can go back and find that guidance or I will ask a colleague at HUD and we are, as part of launching the housing and services resource center, really one goal is to have one centralized place where we can pull together all of this different guidance.  So ACL has put out guidance to our networks, you know, on how to access housing .  There's a whole set of HUD guidances.  There's guidance that has come out of CMS.  The goal is to organize the whole range of existing guidance that reaching a whole set of stakeholders.  I will follow up and if I can get that, I will send to Sierra and Billy.
	»  Sierra:  Okay, thank you.  So our next question, have you heard of any allotments coming down to build more affordable housing in rural areas
	»  Allison:  So one of the many, many things that we are all watching as I mentioned in the reconciliation bill is huge, huge, significant proposals for investment in housing.  A whole range of housing, everything from housing vouchers to new affordable housing construction.  Again, as I mentioned, you know, for anyone who is watching the news, things are very much influx.  So there's a combination of what was in the American rescue plan that was passed in March, as well as a number of housing resources that were in some of the COVID supplements and I am hoping, with HUD's fiscal year 22 budget, as well as what may end up in the reconciliation, we will have access to more affordable, accessible housing.  I think that one of the links that maybe my colleague Vince may have dropped into the chat is the guidance that we put out in July this year for the ADA anniversary, together with HHS and HUD.  In that document, it describes some of the housing that came out as part of the American rescue plan, as well as includes a link that you can look at at each housing authority level.  So really, at the local and at the state level about unused housing choice vouchers, which are targeted to people with disabilities.
	So it was really surprising looking at that and we have even in some communities brought together some state medicaid and the agencies that run MFP, some of the state and local housing authorities and some of the CILs and triple A's because, in some communities, there's a really surprisingly large number of unused vouchers.  So I would suggest —— and again, I can send this link to Billy and Sierra to send around and Vince just put a link to the fact sheet.  But I really encourage some of you to look at are you in places that have —— that have some unused vouchers and how can you work to leverage those.  So we are fighting for new resources, but there are also some unused resources that are out there.
	The other thing I will mention in this fact sheet is that, because of COVID, there have been emergency transition vouchers.  They are targeted primarily to people experiencing homelessness and people with disabilities who are experiencing homelessness absolutely are covered and people transitioning from institutions who do not otherwise have a place to go can also access those emergency vouchers.  So I would encourage you to look at that housing fact sheet and happy to pull together some more resources, if there are additional questions.
	»  Sierra:  Awesome.  Thank you.  There is another one:  Is there more we can do to address the prevention of institutionalization as an emergency situation for individuals?  I.e. providing resources, financially supported by government, government funding to fill gaps while waiting for waivers and programs?
	»  Allison:  Yeah, so —— you know, this has really, really been the ongoing thing.  As I mentioned, so much of my career of trying to get people out of institutions, but we have to have the resources on the front end to keep people from going in in the first place.  Now, I do think these steps and these initial investments and expanding home and community based services and access there is really crucial and if you are in a state that has long waiting lists, you know, I would really, really encourage you to work with your state on can you, using these funding from the American rescue plan, even put together a small package of services to prevent people from going in the institutions in the first place.
	I'm not sure if the question was also related to kind of emergencies as in disasters and I think that's another place we are really interested seeing what is it in ACL that we can do.  We know that CILs play a really, really important role in responding to disasters.  Obviously, COVID has been an incredibly extended disaster, but we know that CILs play a crucial role when we are talking about hurricanes and tornados and fires and a whole set of issue which, oftentimes, because of lack of planning and resources, can end up with people being forced into institutions.  It's an issue that we are working closely with partners at FEMA to think about what ways are there to more quickly leverage some of those emergency resources and we're working with the National Council on Disability but I would really be interested in ideas that people have or ways that you have inserted in your states working with public health or emergency response in addressing some of those needs.  So I think, you know, your question raises both, for me, what can we do on the diversion end, what quick resources can we put in place, as well as really thinking about some of the situations that end up forcing people into institutions in emergency situations
	»  Billy:  Perfect! Thank you, Allison.  You ran us right up on time.  Perfect timing.  We knew that you would be the one to do this.  There may be some pop up questions that came in, but we will get those answered and I will send those to you later, if you don't mind, and we will get those answered.
	Man, I can't thank you enough for being on here with us today and look forward to many more years of collaboration.  In that, I thank ——
	»  Allison:  Thank you, again, for having me and thanks, everybody, again, for your incredible work.  Thank you.
	»  Billy:  Thank you.  Bye—bye.
	(End 11:29 MT)
	*This text is being provided in a rough draft format . Communication Access Realtime Translation (CART) is provided in order to facilitate communication accessibility and may not be a totally verbatim record of the proceedings .*