One Can Dream - ICOIL (Indiana SILC)
The role of the SILC is to listen to the people with disabilities across the state and then advocate with the state to make necessary changes.
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One Can Dream - ICOIL (Indiana SILC)The role of the SILC is to listen to the people with disabilities across the state and then advocate with the state to make necessary changes.
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| The Ideal | The Reality in Indiana | Solutions |
| The SILC would be consumer controlled and made up of a majority of people with disabilities that are not employed by the CIL's | Indiana passed a law that doesn't make any sense which requires all CIL Directors to be appointed to the council indefinately, yet currently not all CIL Directors serve. | Change Indiana State law at minimum so that it does not conflict with federal law, and follow it. |
| In most states a Center Director Representative is elected | In Indiana, all CIL directors serve on the council because they don't trust their interest will be served by any elected representative. | Center Directors need to figure out how to work together - and truely put their past behind them. They need to give all individuals an equal opportunity to start over. |
| The Council would be made up of people who did not stand to financially gain from the decisions of the council and people who did stand to gain financially would not be involved in any financial decisions | In Indiana all of the directors of CILs are supposed to be on the council and are on the council as voting members. Center directors have an obligation to their respective centers and communities that is in conflict with their role on the council. | Get qualified individuals with disabilities on the council and re-write state law so that CIL Directors are back in the audience reporting to the council as opposed to making fiscal decisions which directly impact themselves. |
| The council would be accommodating the needs of people with disabilities, and would listen to comments, questions, suggestions and ideas of people across the state of Indiana | The council has difficulty listening and accommodating for the needs of members actually on the council or a committee...particularly if a council or committee member has a disability which directly effects their ability to communicate | The Council needs to be proactive in making sure that everyone regardless of disability can actively participate in meetings and have their voice be heard |
| The SILC serves as a leader and helps move independent living forward statewide. | In Indiana the council only strives to meet minimum requirements (not the act of a leader) and spends more time figuring what the minimal requirements are then it does in determining how to reach for an ideal and possibly achieve it. | The people have to demand that the council not be used as a smoke screen against them, but rather that the council is held accountable for it's actions. |
June 19, 2006
Dear people with disabilities in the state of Indiana,
My name is Ramona Harvey and I am from Evansville. I was born with my disability and have had to deal with issues regarding access to education, recreation, employment, transportation, and accessible housing. I know there are many others in Indiana who have similar problems because I have met them. I have been very fortunate because I have been able to travel and work with people across the country, but in the end, I always want to come home to Indiana. There are other states that have better services for people with disabilities because more money is allocated to those services, but Indiana is my home and I care about the people that live there. I care about you.
Recently, I had an opportunity to go to Alaska and work for a Center for Independent Living there. The offer was tempting, but I really want to make a difference for people with disabilities here in Indiana, while I still have the ability to do so. I want to see Indiana better be able to serve us. It is for this reason that I wanted to serve on the Indiana Council on Independent Living (our state SILC). The role of the SILC is to listen to the people with disabilities across the state and then advocate with the state to make necessary changes.
I was appointed by the governor, to the council, in May and I have served for almost two months now. One of the things I have realized is I am going to need help if our situation here in Indiana is going to change. I can make a difference, but I cannot do it alone. I need your help. I need the help and support of all people in Indiana with disabilities who want the right to live their lives according to their own desires, and not in accordance with what Vocational Rehabilitation or any other organization might tell them they should settle for.
We the people with disabilities, whether we are born with them or we acquire them should not have to settle for seeing our talents and abilities go to waste simply because the services we need are not in place.
Right now, Indiana’s SILC is restructuring and rebuilding itself. We have a great potential to be the leaders we are supposed to be. Things can be done differently then they have been done in the past and we can all benefit. But it will not be an easy road. It is a road that I am willing to go down because I care about you, and our aging citizens who are trying to maintain their independence and not end up in nursing homes. But I need your help. I need you to become involved, to listen, to ask questions, and to demand answers to those questions. I need you to hold me and everyone else on the council accountable for our actions. Indiana needs a strong council and a strong disability community to back it up and demand that their needs be met. This is the only way things will change for us, and so I humbly ask for you help. Because the fact is Indiana could be doing more for us then it is doing right now and that has got to change. But it will not change unless we demand that it does.
Ramona M. Harvey