PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES NEEDS YOUR HELP

scilwa (63)in #life • 7 years ago

Spokane Washington's Best Kept Secret ~~~ Spokane Center for Independent Living

What is Independent Living you may ask?

Well... Independent Living (IL) is based on the philosophy that people with disabilities have skills, determination, specific abilities, creativity and a passion for life. However, many are unable to participate fully due to attitudinal or/and physical barriers in our community. IL is a “way of living” for people with disabilities who live in our communities where many barriers remain.

Bill for blog.JPG

William D. Kane
Executive Director
Spokane Center for Independent Living

Spokane Center for Independent Living requires that over 50% of staff has to have a disability, and over 50% of our board of directors also has to have a disability. We have people with disabilities helping others who have a disability.

Independent Living becomes a reality for people with disabilities through the support offered by Centers for Independent Living (CILs) throughout the State of Washington. SCIL is one of four CILs in the State of Washington. Other CILs are in Ellensburg, Lakewood (Tacoma) with a satellite office in Bellingham, and Seattle with a satellite office in Bellevue. Our CILs collaborate closely with the State of Washington Independent Living Council (WA- SILC).
Spokane Center for Independent Living (SCIL) is a consumer- driven, 501 (c ) (3) non-profit Independent Living Center providing services to meet the needs of the Inland Northwest disability community. SCIL provides a comprehensive range of services designed to educate, assist, empower and provide resources to the cross- disability community. The goal is to empower them to make their own decisions to live independently.

SERVICES OFFERED:

We provide Advocacy, Independent Living Skills Training, Information and Referral (referral to other community resources), Peer Support, Youth and Adult transition, Assistive Technology & Housing search assistance.
That is what we do, and may I say, we do it very well! We currently have excellent staff that make it all happen.

AREAS SERVED:

SCIL provides services to the following counties: Spokane, Lincoln, Pend Oreille, Whitman, Stevens, and Asotin counties (all in the state of Washington).

CURRENT PROBLEMS WE FACE:

We have been severely hampered because of unqualified individuals that were suppose to be managing the organization. We recently lost one of our major funding contracts, which was not renewed because of past mis-management. The loss of this income source makes it difficult for us to provide all the services to those who need our assistance. We continue to struggle to provide services to those in need, even with the knowledge that we will not get paid.

Since taking over as director I have been able to bring in an entirely new board of directors, and most of the staff have been replaced. All of them are dedicated to help turn around the organization.

I am asking for your help in spreading the word about SCIL; and assist us in re-establishing ourselves as the focal point of the disability movement in Eastern Washington. Any assistance will be greatly appreciated.

Thank you for your time and consideration. In the event anyone has any questions please feel free to ask.

William D. Kane
Executive Director
Spokane Center for Independent Living
8817 E. Mission Avenue #106
Spokane Valley, WA 9921

For purposes of full disclosure @r2cornell assists us with our steemit blog.

You can visit us on FaceBook @
https://www.facebook.com/Spokane-Center-for-Independent-Living-SCIL-610127335818492/

FOLLOW ~ UPVOTE ~ RESTEEM @scilwa

We also accept donations:

BTC: 1AzJd2hKKTqSvQMpb28QLF7B8mxV4ubByB
LTC: LVqAevy4vCb5uM681a95wyKaZPx88x2czc
ETH: 0xdB116E11d518B5B9B2f5390f31D6357511590Af6
DASH: XngWgVVoudktkTRW1zi8AQc5ZtBns24ikn

#health #charity #fundraising

7 years ago in #life by scilwa (63)

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r2cornell (69) 7 years ago

I have worked part time for SCIL since 2015. I was brought in by previous management to help turnaround the Youth & Young Adult program. I have run my own business for over 30 years so I have an understanding of how to manage a company or organization. After some months had elapsed I realized that the old management was not doing their job. I was thinking on leaving when our current director came on board.

I decided to stay a little longer to see if Bill Kane could rebuild the entire organization. As I observed the changes that he was trying to make I realized there may be hope. Things went from bad to worse because of mismanagement and ineptness of previous directors. Even though we had a lot of staff turnover (which was a good thing), we were blamed for the mistakes of the previous two directors.

Being blamed for past mistakes led to losing 2 contracts from our main funding source. We still provide services to all who walk through our doors, even though we do not have the contracts anymore.

I personally put in hours and not turn in all my time to help keep the agency functioning. I am aware of the fact that our current director uses his own money to pay for things that normally would be covered by the agency.

I have been impressed by our director actions, the new board of directors, and all the new staff who seem very dedicated to working with the disabled, disadvantaged, and many homeless people. Yes, in USA we do have a large homeless population, including the Spokane, Washington area.

Local, state, and national governments seem more inclined to try to hide the problem that to try and eliminate it. We even have Veterans who served in the military that are homeless. Whereas the government tries to cut monies that would help the homeless, SCIl and other local agencies (not-for-profit) do everything they can to help.

I hope that you the reader will help out SCIl by up-voting, commenting and resteeming. No matter how low your steem power every penny SCIL can earn will help us build steem power to eventually earn enough funds to help support our critical services. When we put together this post I also added some keys for donations. I did not include Steem because you should already know how to use your wallet to make donations. I know many do not have resources to make donations because they are trying to earn a living, but your upvotes, comments, and resteems go along way to aid in our cause.

It may look like SCIL has a lot of SP, but that came from my donations. I have other areas in the crypto-sphere that has also help raised funds and were needed from time to time.

Finally, please remember this post is for SCIL and not myself. I plan on donating my earnings and matching what SCIL raises. For some who are inclined to spam please do not do this. I will not upvote if it is spam.

Thank you for reading my long winded discussion. I am a strong believer in the Independent Living Movement. I have not told too many here on steemit but I too have a number of disabilities. There was no assistance when I was in high school and when I finished. I had to figure things out for myself. Not everyone is able to do this, so I know first hand the importance of the services offered through SCIL.

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roodcode007 (41) 7 years ago

great your comment