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WPAS Updates:
News from the Washington Protection and Advocacy System
Table of Contents:
 | E-mail Updates - New Service from WPAS (12/17/01) |
| WPAS Sets Priorities for 2002 (12/17/01) |
| Ticket to Work Update (12/17/01) |
E-mail Updates - News about Disability Rights
A New Service from WPAS Delivers the News to your E-mail Address
December 17, 2001
Beginning early in 2002, WPAS will begin sending news and updates by e-mail. People interested in disability rights issues will be able to hear about current events as they are happening, in time to be a part of the decision-making process.
What issues are important to you? WPAS will send you an E-mail Update about:
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Disability issues being debated in the Legislature or in the U.S. Congress. |
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Court cases that will affect the lives of people with disabilities throughout the country. |
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Community meetings to discuss DSHS policies. |
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Public hearings about disability issues. |
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Legislative forums where you can talk to your Legislators. |
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Appointments to important boards or commissions. |
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Any news that affects the lives of people with disabilities. |
To begin receiving WPAS E-mail Updates, send an e-mail to Phil Jordan at WPAS, and include your name, address, phone number, and e-mail address. If you are belong to an organization or agency, you may include that information too, if you wish.
Concerned about privacy? WPAS will not distribute any of your personal information, including your e-mail address to anybody without your permission.
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WPAS Sets Priorities for 2002
December 17, 2001
There are many issues that are important to the people that utilize the services provided by WPAS. Unfortunately, there are limited resources to address these issues, so every year WPAS establishes its priorities for advocacy. These priorities determine how the staff and volunteers at WPAS allocate their time and resources.
The WPAS Board of Directors is in the process of finalizing the 2002 priorities. When that process is completed, the new priorities will be posted on the WPAS web site.
Identifying the issues that are most important to people with disabilities is a year-around process. If there are issues that you think WPAS should be spending its time and resources on, let us know! Your input is an important factor in determining WPAS priorities.
WPAS priorities are created in four broad categories:
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Protection and Advocacy for Individuals with Mental Illness (PAIMI) |
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Protection and Advocacy for Individuals with Developmental Disabilities (PADD) |
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Building Advocacy Capacity (increasing the resources available for individuals with unmet needs). |
Click on the categories (above) that are most important to you. At the end of each section is a link that asks for your comments. This is your chance to influence next year's priorities. What issues are we overlooking? What topics should we pay closer attention to? What is most important to you?
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Ticket to Work Update
December 17, 2001
It has been more than two years since Congress passed the Ticket to Work and Work Incentives Improvement Act. Ticket to Work is a wide-ranging law that has many different components -- all of them with the goal of helping beneficiaries of Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) or Supplemental Security Income (SSI) return to work.
It has always been difficult for individuals with disabilities to decide to seek employment for many, many reasons. One important reason is that Social Security rules are extremely complex and difficult to understand. Another important factor is that SSDI or SSI beneficiaries are often worried that they will lose their benefits if they go to work. These understandable concerns have prevented many individuals from seeking work, even though they would prefer to be employed.
The Ticket to Work law is designed to remove some of the barriers to employment faced by people with disabilities, create some incentives for those individuals to look for work, and to create new supports for them as they go through the process of looking for work.
Current SSDI or SSI beneficiaries who want to learn about how employment would affect the benefits they currently receive can get free benefits counseling. In King County, call Positive Solutions at (206) 322-8181. From anywhere else in the state, call the Plan to Work Hotline toll-free at 1-866-497-9443.
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