Effective Outreach in Kansas Presented by Kathy Cooper, Executive Director Statewide Independent Living Council of Kansas “Recognizing Disabilities. Emphasizing Possibilities”

Kansas is… Very rural and frontier! According to the U.S. Census Bureau Kansas has 81,758.52 square miles and estimates a population of 2.9 million people in 2016. Lots of ground to cover and not a lot of people per square mile, approximately 35 people on average per square mile. Hard to get a lot of bang for the buck.

36 counties out of 105 are frontier, 35 are rural, 20 dense rural 36 counties out of 105 are frontier, 35 are rural, 20 dense rural. Roughly 87% of the state is rural or frontier. Yet forums and townhalls and other meetings are usually in the urban settings. We decided to make an effort to reach out to the rural population a lot better.

Stakeholder Forums for the SPIL Went to 5 rural communities across the state, basically the 4 corners and the middle. Invited CILs, ADRCs, VR, DD Council, SPED and other disability groups and of course asked them all to invite their consumers Had the same format and asked the same questions at all of the forums. Dodge City, Colby, Atchison, Chanute and Salina. Had great turn outs at all locations, and really good discussions on what they thought was needed in their communities and what was working well. Themes emerged-the basics Housing, transportation, employment, but things we didn’t expect too –all the different groups and providers not aware of what services were out there by others.

Public Comment after the SPIL Draft We utilized technology!!! ZOOM web conferencing 13 different sites across the state joined in on a web conference to offer public comment on the SPIL draft. Emailed out the SPIL draft to a huge list serve and put it on our website Accepted comments via email as well We did SPIL Forums to know how to prepare the draft, then did another forum after the draft was developed. 11 CILs, SILC, Families Together. ZOOM is great, super user friendly and very inexpensive. All sites had opportunity to ask questions and all sites were fairly well represented. Felt like this increased our statewide participation exponentially.

Department of Commerce: Workforce Investment Centers Worked with DOC on a training for their Workforce Investment Center staff on what services CILs provide Developed slides for the training and had CIL staff come to each location and present about what CILs are and what services they provide First time SILCK and the CILs have been invited to participate on a statewide basis. Proud of this. Had to cultivate the relationship to show what the KS IL Networks value was to the Dept of Commerce. CILs went to their local region WIC offices and presented, makes a difference to meet the service provider. Also gone to KDADs and discussed how SILCK can be of value, how we can help them, not how they can help

SPIL Workgroups Workgroups; Housing, Transportation, Employment These 3 workgroups have goals to get increased participation on regional and local councils, commissions, boards, etc. for their specific issue. This increases community knowledge of what people with disabilities need to be independent and an active participant in their communities as well as what CILs are. Workgroups are tied to goals and objectives in the SPIL. Each CIL has a representative on each workgroup, each CIL is expected to work towards the goals set by the workgroups. Participation = disability voice in the decision making of the transit councils, housing commission, workforce investment boards, etc. Also the spreads the word about what CILs are and do

SPIL Workgroups, continued Outreach workgroup Common language and materials Info cards PowerPoint presentation template SILCK tagline – Recognizing Disabilities. Emphasizing Possibilities. PSA with all CILs represented Goals for all CILs to do more with social media, community presentations, etc. Detailed packet of information developed that went to all CILs, SILCK tag line created by this group. Group worked with a local community college multimedia class to develop a video PSA. Also a radio PSA was created – CILs insert their contact info

Region VII SILC calls All SILCs in our region participate on a call every other month SILC ED’s, Chairs, CIL Representatives Discuss different issues, resources and trainings KS, MO, NE, IA. This was more internal outreach. Learned what other states do for DSE problems, SPIL, resource development, advocacy, Board education, etc. Discussed regional trainings and meetings. Developed a peer bond and a lot of info sharing not just on the calls.

Questions???

Kathy Cooper, Executive Director SILC of Kansas 420 SE 6th Ave., Suite 2000 Topeka, KS 66607 785-234-6990 Kathy.Cooper@silck.org My info in case you want to send gifts or ask questions.