April, 2010

Every Mother’s Day the Tennessee Justice Center honors its Mothers of the Year.  We choose as many as six women per year who, in the midst of their own family’s medical crisis, speak out to help other families. These are parents who persistently advocate for not only their own children, but all children in need of health care. 

Our staff recruits volunteer photographers, providing our honorees with framed family photos in addition to “Mother of the Year” certificates. This year, we continue a new tradition - the second annual reception and ceremony honoring the mothers in person.    Here are their stories.

Tennessee will hold six public hearings across the state in May about the State Plan for Indepdent Living (SPIL).  Your input to the proposed plan is very important.  A brief summary presentation of the plans will be made by the Statewide Independent Living Council (SILC) Executive Director Mark Montgomery and comments will be received as a part of the SPIL.  Written comments will be accepted until Friday, May 21, 2010 (see below)

Carol Westlake, the Coalition’s Executive Director, will be a recipient of the Tennessee Alliance for Progress (TAP) Long Haul Award.  The Long Haul Awards Celebration will take place on Saturday, May 22, 2010 at 7 pm at St. Ann's Episcopal Church in Nashville. 

Public Service Announcement "Service Animals Welcome" is posted on YouTube 

Share your thoughts on resiliency, recovery, hope, success in the face of adversity and life experiences. Your writing can be as a poem, a personal essay, or a short story.  It can be on the theme of what faith and hope mean to you, especially as a part of recovery, or other life experiences you wish to share.  Drawings to illustrate the writings will also be accepted.

Earlier this year the U.S. DOL’s Office of Disability Employment Policy (ODEP) held six listening sessions designed to gather information on employment issues, ideas and priorities for people with disabilities. The sessions were held across the country (Dallas, Philadelphia, San Francisco, Chicago, Atlanta & Boston) and the webcasts are now available to view on ODEP’s website.

NASHVILLE  – Celestica Inc., a Canadian electronics manufacturer service company doing  business in the United States as Celestica Corporation, will pay $102,100 and  provide other relief to settle a disability discrimination lawsuit filed by the  U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), the agency announced  on April 8. 2010.

The Autism Society of America - East Tennessee is hosting a spring conference titled, "Intervention Tools for Parents."  Led by the Parent Child Services Group, topics will include:  literacy to language, verbal behavior & behavioral interventions, sensory approach to feeding therapy, social interventions, TN insurance updates and more.

Date:  Saturday, May 8th

If your youth has special health care needs and/or disabilities, you both will want to join Family Voices of Tennessee at the Tennessee Disability Coalition office for a movie, pizza and an opportunity to learn about transition issues from pediatric to adult health services. This Friday night beginning at 5:30pm.

A bill has been introduced that - on the surface - seems harmless enough, but once one looks at the unintended consquenes it is clear that funding for Traumatic Brain Injury programming could take a significant cut as a result.  Efforts are underway to see about an amendment to ensure TBI Funds are protected so stay tuned.