Visit Oregon Helps to Find Out What Services You’re Eligible For

Oregon Helps is an online clearinghouse that takes you through a series of questions online to determine what services you or your loved one might be eligible for. The site’s services are available in multiple languages. Check it out here.
Services covered include:

Food and Nutrition

  • Food Stamps
  • Emergency Food

Housing and Utilities

  • Federal Housing Assistance
  • Low-Income Energy Assistance (LIEAP)
  • Portland Water Bureau’s Financial Assistance Program

Children and Family Resources

  • National School Lunch Program
  • Women, Infants, and Children Nutrition Program(WIC)
  • Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF)
  • Employment Related Day Care (ERDC)
Health Care

  • Oregon Health Plan

Veterans’ Services

  • VA Health Care System
  • VA/Military entitlements
  • Veterans’ Home Loans

Financial Benefits

  • Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC)
  • Child Tax Credit (CTC)
  • Federal Elderly/Disabled Tax Credit
  • Individual Development Accounts (IDAs)
  • Oregon’s Working Family Tax Credit
  • Oregon Dependent Care Tax Credit
  • Property Tax Deferral
  • Home Care Tax Credit
Senior and Disabled Services
  • Social Security
  • Social Security Disability Insurance
  • Supplemental Security Income
  • Medicare and Medicare Savings Program
  • Medicaid Long Term Care
  • Senior Drug Program
  • Employed Persons with Disabilities
  • Senior Farmers’ Market

Finding and Keeping Inclusive Child Care–A Parent’s Notebook

Check out this excellent resource from the folks at FACT (Family and Community Together):

Finding and Keeping Inclusive Child Care–A Parent’s Notebook

Inclusive child care is the term used to describe a child care setting where children—both with and without a disability—are cared for together.  By a disability we mean a developmental or a physical disability, an emotional/behavioral disorder, or a special health care need.  The child who experiences the disability is included in all activities using whatever modifications are necessary.  Providers make simple changes in the typical activities and routines to meet the needs of your child.  Barriers to participation are removed whenever possible and there is an emphasis placed on the strengths, interests and experiences of all the children in care.
Inclusive child care is not a situation where the child with a disability is merely in the same room or facility with children that do not experience disabilities.  Parental rights with regard to inclusive child care are a part of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA).

This notebook (in English and Spanish) was developed as a guide for parents with information as to options and resources for child care, to be shared with care providers as a resource notebook.  The notebook can be used as a way to introduce your child.  Templates are included which can be personalized with photos, articles, contacts, so as to be shared with your child care provider to help them to be a part of your child’s team.  With the notebook, care providers can become familiar with children who experience disability and be better equipped to fully include all children.
Parent_Notebook_on_Inclusive_Child_Care.pdf
Encontrando_y_Conservando_Cuidado_Infantil_Bajo_Inclusion.pdf

Next Sunday Parkways Walk – August 16th in Southeast Portland

Next Walk:  This Sunday in Southeast Portland.

Opening streets to walking, bicycling, rolling, and roller blading – without having to watch out for cars!

Sunday Parkways are 7-8 mile “temporary parks” along city streets connecting neighborhoods and residents in North, Northeast and Southeast Portland.

A relaxed, non-competitive, FREE event featuring a variety of activities in several parks and along the routes.

Intersections are staffed by volunteers allowing residents to get to and from their driveways, with larger streets supervised by Portland Police Bureau staff and certified flaggers.

Sunday Parkways gives Portlanders a chance to get out and be active right in their own neighborhood. Participants walked, biked, rolled, ran, strolled, and roller bladed along the route to activities in the parks as well as to nearby shops and businesses in the vicinity.

Why?

Sunday Parkways highlights Portland as a walkable and bikeable city.  Sunday Parkways is ideal for connecting neighborhoods by bringing people together with healthy activities.  Health, transportation, recreation, community, environmental, and safety interests all benefit by partnering to implement Sunday Parkways.

Full information here.

No Myths

The “No Myths” PSA offers a refreshingly positive and optimistic view about life with autism. And it was written and performed by people who should know–individuals who are on the autism spectrum themselves. The purpose of the PSA is to tell society that, with the right supports, people with autism can do anything anybody else can do, even if it isn’t in the same way. Ari Ne’eman, president of the Autistic Self Advocacy Network, leads a cast that includes {in order of appearance} Dena Gassner, Ben Liske, and Jacob Pratt.

The Dan Marino Foundation of Weston, FL sponsored the piece, which was filmed by Nashville-based Kent Creative. Jon Kent directed the PSA and Britt Simmons was the Director of Photography.

“No Myths” was filmed inside the Parthenon in Nashville, TN. The Nashville Parthenon, which was built in 1897, is a full-scale replica of the ancient Greek Temple. The two bronze doors, used as a symbol throughout the PSA, weigh 7.5 tons each, and are thought to be the largest pair of matching bronze doors in existence. The producers wish to thank Citation Film Support and the Filmworker’s Club of Nashville for their generous support of this project.

Thanks to Dora Raymaker for the tip.

Autism News/Huffington Post Article: Autism Rate Now at One Percent of All US Children?

The following article was recently posted on Autism News, picked up from The Huffington Post:

A pair of federally funded studies on autism rates is about to make news — big news — and it isn’t good: It would appear that somewhere around one percent of all US children currently have an autism spectrum disorder. The rate is even higher among six to 11 year olds and among boys, according to data from at least one of the new studies.

If you are an expectant parent, or planning to have a child soon, you might want to sit down before absorbing these staggering statistics, recently released by the National Survey of Children’s Health (NSCH), which is supported by the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) of the US Department of Health and Human Services.

According to data from the 2007 telephone survey of parents of nearly 82,000 US children, the odds of a child receiving an ASD diagnosis are one in 63. If it is a boy, the chances climb to a science fiction-like level of one in 38, or 2.6% of all male children in America.

But there was also some surprisingly good news. Enormous numbers of children originally diagnosed with ASD went on to shed their diagnosis as they got older, parents reported.

Among all children aged two to 17, according to respondents, one in 100 (100-per-10,000) currently have an ASD diagnosis, which is considerably higher than the previously (CDC) estimated rate of 1-in-150, (or 66-per-10,000).

But researchers were also told by parents that 60-per-10,000 children “had autism, Asperger’s Disorder etc. at some point, but not currently.”

This suggests two rather remarkable things:

1. At some point in their lives, 1-in-63 US children (160-per-10,000) will have an ASD diagnosis and;

2. Out of every 160 children diagnosed with ASD, 60 of them (37.5%) will somehow go on to lose that diagnosis.

Continue reading here