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The Self-Determination Housing of Pennsylvania (SDHP) Conference “Housing as a Human Right: Elevating Accessible Solutions” is coming up on May 5, 2022. This one-day conference is being held at the Holiday Inn Hershey/Harrisburg and will focus on expanding choice and control in housing for people with disabilities. The conference will include both in-person and some virtual programming. The conference will bring together leaders from across the commonwealth to discuss best practices and trends in accessible housing as well as address the systemic issues that people with disabilities face every day.
The LEAD Center will host a webinar entitled “How Blended, Braided, or Sequenced Funding Can Help Drive Employment, Equity, and Inclusion” on Tuesday, March 22, 2022 from 3:00 pm–4:30 pm ET. This federal interagency webinar will feature state practitioners across the workforce system discussing how they successfully applied innovative and collaborative resource sharing to benefit both businesses and jobseekers with disabilities.
Register here for the webinar.
From Institutions to Community
Learning From Our Past: Improvements in Disability Supports Through the 20th Century Webinar
In honor of March being National Disabilities Awareness Month, Partners for Quality has invited all members of the IDD Community to attend a free webinar on Tuesday, March 8, from 3:00 pm–4:00 pm. For decades, persons with intellectual and developmental disabilities were institutionalized, with little regard for their dignity, their right to choose, or their potential for growth and independence. Conditions were often overcrowded and even inhumane.
The Pennhurst State School and Hospital, in operation from 1903–1987, is a chilling example of an institution that holds vital lessons from our past. This free webinar will explore the mistakes made during the first half of the 20th century, the transitions from seclusion to self-advocacy, and the long overdue respect for persons with disabilities.
Introduction will be by Maggie Rothenberger, President & CEO of Partners For Quality. Dr. James Conroy, Co-President of Pennhurst Memorial and Preservation Alliance, will present some important and historical information on the Pennhurst State Institution to help us remember why we do what we do in the community!
Join via Zoom.
Meeting ID: 875 0777 8886 Passcode: 632925
This webinar will be presented by Partners for Quality in cooperation with Pennhurst Memorial and Preservation Alliance. RCPA wishes to thank them for this opportunity.
During the recent RCPA Children’s Committee meeting, leadership from the Office of Child Development and Early Learning (OCDEL) informed members about plans to hold six regional policy forums throughout the state. Forum information and pre-registration is now available.
Regional Forums for Partnering to Strengthen Early Childhood Policies to Include All Children are being held from 9:00 am – 3:30 pm on:
The Regional Policy Forums will focus on:
Offering input and creating strategies to support inclusion, including identifying strategies to build and sustain partnerships, developing a framework for addressing suspension and expulsion in early childhood programs, and providing input on statewide policy around inclusion, suspension, and expulsion. These policy forums will be work sessions with facilitated small group discussions to provide input to OCDEL on governance, professional development, and leadership support, related to these issues. Participants are expected to attend for the entire day and provide input based on their experiences and expertise. This is not a training or a conference where passive attendance is an option.
Pre-registration will be required for the Regional Policy Forums.
For registration questions, please contact Linda Rhine. Registration will close on Friday, July 22, or earlier if maximum capacity is reached at a specific site.