Our Community Standing Strong (OCSS) Regional Meeting Middle Tennessee Nashville, Tennessee November 8, 2014

Administration on Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities (AIDD) Projects of National Significance  Oklahoma  North Carolina  South Carolina  Tennessee  Grantee: Self Advocates Becoming Empowered (SABE)  The Southern Collaborative OCSS  8 States in the Southern Collaborative  Alabama  Arkansas  Florida  Georgia

Project Goals  States will identify and implement strategies that result in a stronger infrastructure for self advocacy  Goals of the project include:  Peer advocacy and mentoring  Training and leadership development  Education and outreach

Required Activities For Each State  Complete state needs assessments  Develop and implementing state training plans  Present at least eight training events held statewide and regionally  Post successes and lessons learned, training plans and products on the web  Create a sustainability plan for the regional self advocacy collaboration efforts

Tennessee Activities to date  Technical Assistance Needs Assessment  Webinar - Developing Strategies and Building Partnerships: How can our DD Partners help us?  VLOGS – On YouTube  Gatha Logan - Self Advocacy  Bill Gage – Closing Institutions  Meetings – Regional & a statewide retreat

Technical Assistance Needs Assessment Results Tennessee  Collected 153 surveys  Issues that are “very important for your state”  Employment  Learning how to speak up for myself  Voting rights  Olmstead/closing institutions  Eliminating the marriage penalty for people with disabilities

OCSS  Questions & comments about the OCSS grant?  Thank you for coming to the meeting today and your interest in grass roots self-advocacy efforts in Tennessee.  People First of Tennessee: Closing Institutions: &feature=youtu.be 3.22 minutes &feature=youtu.be