To apply for the MNS, applicants must have the Persons with Disabilities designation (PWD) and be in receipt of PWD income assistance. People who qualify for the MNS may receive up to $205 a month for nutritional items and vitamins or mineral supplements.

The application for the MNS has six questions. Our new Help Sheet reviews the questions and uses examples of applicants with various medical conditions to demonstrate how the questions may be answered.

The Help Sheet is accessible from our website at: http://www.bccpd.bc.ca/hs4.htm.

If you would like hard copies of the Help Sheet, we are happy to mail them to you free of charge. Please contact Val at 604-875-0188, 1-800-663-1278 or at feedback@bccpd.bc.ca to place your order.

Help Sheet funded by the Legal Services Society of BC, Human Resources and Skills Development Canada: Homelessness Partnering Strategy and Health Sciences Association of British Columbia

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PS. Have you signed up for Our Voice, our monthly e-newsletter? If you would like to receive it please go to this link: http://www.bccpd.bc.ca/ And don’t forget to “like” us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter. Thank you.

Duties and Responsibilities
- Providing administrative support to BCCPD’s different programs
- Assisting with basic case management for our Advocacy Access team
- Filing, data entry, faxing and photocopying
- Front desk reception, assisting staff and volunteers to answer the phones
- Responding to basic inquiries and information referral requests
- Greeting clients and providing excellent client service
- Researching funding opportunities and other initiatives

Desired Skills and Experience
- The applicant must work with people with disabilities in a respectful & inclusive manner
- Excellent verbal and written communication skills
- Strong customer service skills, experience answering a busy phone line is an asset
- Sense of humour, positive attitude and a willingness to learn
- Ability to work independently, to work within a team setting and to take direction
- People with all disabilities are strongly encouraged to apply for this position

This job is funded by the Canada Summer Job Program, applicants must:
- Be between 15 and 30 years of age at the start of the employment
- Have been registered as full-time students in the previous academic year and intend to return to school on a full-time basis in the next academic year
- Be a Canadian citizen, permanent resident or in possession of refugee status/protection
- Be legally entitled to work in Canada

The salary for this position is $10.25 per hour. This position is 30 hours per week for 12 weeks from June 4, 2012 to August 27, 2012. Office hours are 8:30am to 4:30pm, with some flexibility for the successful candidate’s weekly work schedule. We are a dog-friendly office.  

To apply: Please submit your resume and cover letter via email to Nicole Kiyooka at the BC Coalition of People with Disabilities: nicole@bccpd.bc.ca

Applications must be submitted by Wednesday, May 22^nd 2012. No phone calls please.

Representatives from the BCCPD, Cerebral Palsy Association, CNIB, Vancouver’s Persons with Disabilities Advisory Committee and the Council of Senior Citizens Organizations of BC recently began meeting with Vancouver’s taxi providers. The companies that provide taxi service in Vancouver are:

- Black Top Cabs
- MacLure’s Cabs
- Vancouver Taxi
- Yellow Cab

These companies invited BCCPD to meet with them to hear our ideas about serving people with disabilities and we invited other stakeholders to the table.

A positive initiative that has resulted from our meetings is the implementation by the four companies of a central phone line for users to register their compliments and concerns about the service they have received. This will enable the companies to hear directly from people with disabilities and seniors about what is working well and what needs some work.

The phone number is 604-215-0472. If you want to comment about a particular ride please try and have as many details about the trip as possible such as the taxi license number, date and time of the trip.

Rising demand for HandyDart rides from the elderly and disabled who can’t easily take regular buses is outstripping TransLink’s ability to deliver the custom transit service, advocates warn.

“There are always more and more people needing to use the HandyDart,” said Jane Dyson, executive director of the B.C. Coalition for People with Disabilities.

But service levels are frozen at about 600,000 annual service hours – likely until 2015 – and TransLink is simultaneously under pressure to carve savings out of the program after an efficiency review.

The result: more passengers being denied rides or offered a one-way trip only but no guarantee of a return trip.

“They may be able to get a ride from Richmond to Vancouver but when they want to get back it’s very difficult,” Dyson said. “A ride one way is pretty useless if you can’t get back.”

She’s heard complaints from passengers who say up to half of their trip requests are denied because the system is over-subscribed, and that trips are getting longer as dispatchers organize trips to pick up more passengers than before.

“For people who have health conditions like bladder issues, or bowel issues or breathing issues, that can be very challenging,” Dyson said, adding it is undercutting the reliability and usability of the system.

“We have to remember this is a service for people with disabilities and seniors. There needs to be some understanding of that built into a budget system.”

To read more, visit this link: http://www.surreyleader.com/news/149906135.html

In describing “Everyday Resilience,” Shelley says: We’ve all met resilient people—those who seem able to live through difficulties and challenges like illness, disability or loss of jobs, homes or loved ones. Often we assume that resilient people are extraordinary in some way—otherwise how could they be so resilient? I’ve made a hobby of studying resilience. I’m not sure why. I’ve not lived an especially difficult or challenging life but I have long been fascinated by the creative ways people adapt and live through tough times. This is what I’ve learned: 1) no one gets to the end of life without experiencing tough times and 2) everyone lives life one day at a time. The good news is that “everyday resilience” is all around us. If you’re reading these words, you have experienced resilience and you have played a role in someone else’s resilience. Like life, resilience happens one day at a time.

Research in the field of positive psychology offers insight and ideas for nurturing everyday resilience. Another ancient technique for building resilience is simply sharing stories about overcoming hard times. “Everyday resilience” is a new column which will appear regularly in Transition and shorter tips for building resilience will be published in BCCPD’s monthly e-newsletter, Our Voice. If you’re willing to share your story or resilience tip or if you have an idea for a story, please contact Shelley at wdi@bccpd.bc.ca or 604-875-0188 (toll-free 1-877-232-7400).

Time sensitive!

In partnership with Shelter Net BC and BC Society of Transition Houses, the Woman Abuse Response Program at BC Women’s Hospital & Health Centre will be delivering free training on Improving Women’s Safety in Co-Ed Shelters in 7 communities around the province. This training will enable front line shelter staff to learn more about how to keep women safe in a co-ed shelter environment. The training is open to all service providers who work with vulnerable populations, though priority will go to co-ed shelter staff.

ONE DAY FREE TRAINING for front line workers to learn more about how to keep women safe in co-ed shelter environments. Training will provide information on women’s experiences of violence and how it is connected to homelessness; impacts of violence, including mental health and addictions; barriers women face accessing services and trying to achieving safety; and examining policy and practices in shelters that impact women safety. This training is funded by ShelterNet BC, and jointly developed by BC Society of Transition Houses and BC Women’s Hospital’s Women Abuse Response Program.

TRAINING DATES
REGISTRATION
April 27, 2012 – Burnaby
May 2, 2012 – Fort St. John
May 8, 2012 – Kelowna
May 14, 2012 – Prince George
May 29, 2012 – Langley
May 31, 2012 – Nanaimo
June 4, 2012 – Vancouver

Please register online at http://survey.constantcontact.com/survey/a07e5igp1zigxjm2otj/start

Email hannah@bcsth.ca for more information.

What is “peer support”?

An opportunity for people to exchange ideas and experiences in a confidential, respectful environment with trained facilitators.

The group will explore many topics, such as:

- Daily living and coping in a changed world
- Relationships with friends, family and others
- Navigating medical systems
- Personal wellness and finding joy
- Exploring and sharing ideas about ‘what’s next’

Group size limited to 15 people. Group members can participate as much as they feel comfortable. Bus tickets and snacks provided.

Dates:           May 15, May 22, May 29, June 5, June 12 & June 19
Time:            1pm to 3pm
Location:     BCCPD office, 204-456 West Broadway, Vancouver
To Register: Contact Nicole at 604-875-0188 or nicole@bccpd.bc.ca

Read the rest of “A Cup Half Full” by BCCPD’s Shelley Hourston in The Positive Side (pages 4-5), the Positive Women’s Network’s quarterly magazine. Link: http://pwn.bc.ca/wp-content/uploads/2008/05/2012-AprMayJun-for-web.pdf

The Canadian Working Group on HIV and Rehabilitation (CWGHR) (www.hivandrehab.ca) has received funding to grant access to the Managing Episodic Disabilities: Accommodation Best Practices course to a maximum of 30 HR professionals in small/medium sized businesses free of charge ($349 value) over a 6 week period, beginning April 16th, 2012.

Participants in this 6 week course must work for a small/medium sized business. Continuing education credits will be available upon completion of the entire course for selected HR associations across Canada .

Participants in this program will be asked to post to an online forum on episodic disabilities in the workplace for HR professionals weekly during the 6 weeks of course access. Course access is available in both English and French.

For additional information see: http://tinyurl.com/7uy8mxm (overview available in English only) or contact Melissa Popiel at mpopiel@hivandrehab.ca.

For those interested in participating, a statement of interest (maximum one page) can be sent to mpopiel@hivandrehab.ca by email by Thursday April 12th, 2012.

The National Educational Association of Disabled Students (NEADS) is proud to announce the availability of a new, comprehensive guide on disability service provision and accommodations at colleges and universities in Canada. This Guide is now available on the NEADS website. It is the product of research conducted by the Government of Canada’s Office for Disability Issues and is a resource designed with direct input from Canadian campus disability service providers and student groups.

“The Enhancing Accessibility Guide is a very well-written and comprehensive document,” said Frank Smith, NEADS’ National Coordinator. “It is a resource that will be used extensively by disability service providers on college and university campuses, but it is also very valuable or students with disabilities as it is a model for optimal services and accommodations.”

Access to post-secondary education (PSE) is an integral component of achieving income security, yet people with disabilities are less likely to attend and complete PSE than those without disabilities. Students with disabilities have the potential to be successful in PSE and the support they receive from their institution can play a large role in this success.

NEADS partnered with the Government of Canada to ensure that the Guide was thoroughly reviewed by university and college disability service providers and student disability groups. NEADS then developed the Guide into a web-based tool, the purpose of which is to build awareness of disability issues within Canadian PSE institutions and to share best practices in accessibility and accommodation practices and procedures.

“The Government of Canada is committed to creating opportunities and ensuring the full participation of all people with disabilities, including students, in society,” said the Honourable Diane Finley, Minister of Human Resources and Skills Development. “We are proud to work with organizations such as NEADS, which has done important work in helping students with disabilities gain access to post-secondary education.”

The Guide contains best practice examples of accessibility policies and programs as well as a variety of resources on topics which include Financial Support, Mental Health, Sports and
Recreation, Transition to Employment, and many others.

We hope all people, whether service provider, student, or staff, will find this tool useful.

You can locate the guide on the NEADS website in English:

http://www.neads.ca/en/norc/eag/

and French: http://www.neads.ca/fr/norc/eag/

For more information, please contact the NEADS office:
National Educational Association of Disabled Students (NEADS)
Rm. 426 Unicentre, Carleton University, Ottawa, Ontario, K1S 5B6,
tel. (613) 380-8065, www.neads.ca