Resources that help you plan for your family’s financial future:
Possibilities: A Financial Resource for Parents of Children with Disabilities
Resources that help you plan for your family’s financial future:
Possibilities: A Financial Resource for Parents of Children with Disabilities
Excerpts from How to Ask Candidates Questions that Make a Difference:
By Fran Korten, 2012
Tips for spreading your ideas without getting the runaround:
[W]hen candidates show up at political and professional meetings, hold fundraisers, or are on the radio, we can ask questions that put forward policy ideas. And with the changed political environment, those ideas can be ones that just a few months ago might have seemed entirely out of bounds. These opportunities only work well if we craft our question carefully. Because we want to build momentum for new ideas, the audience for our question is not just the candidate, but also the others who hear our question.
Here are some dos and don’ts for asking questions that can help us all take advantage of this political moment.
The dos and don’ts in action
Now let me apply these dos and don’ts to a few fresh ideas.
For a national candidate: “I think many of us are concerned that the government is having to cut back on important services like education and veterans benefits because we don’t have the money. I’ve heard one solution is something called a Financial Transaction Tax. As I understand it, it’s a small tax on trades on Wall Street. I read that if we taxed each trade just a quarter of one percent that could raise about $150 billion a year. What is your view on the Financial Transaction Tax?”
For a state candidate: “I’m really concerned about the number of people unemployed in our state. It’s been hard to watch my sister search for a job for over a year. I’ve heard it would help if our state had a state-owned bank. I’ve read that North Dakota has a state-owned bank—and it runs a budget surplus and has the lowest unemployment rate in the country. The state bank partners with community banks and together they’ve kept credit flowing to farmers and local businesses throughout this recession. What do you think about our state creating its own bank?”
For a county candidate: “I’m concerned our neighborhoods are deteriorating because of all the foreclosures. I read that in California, the auditors in one county checked the documents on a sample of foreclosures and found that the big majority had fraudulent elements. Their investigation has slowed down the foreclosures. What would you think about conducting such an audit in our county?”
Now it’s your turn. If you like this approach, think of an issue you care about. Do you have a positive solution you want to bring forth—especially one that might have traction in our current political environment? Can you express your idea in less than a minute? Can your Uncle John understand what you’re asking?
Once you have crafted some good questions, use one the next time you have a chance to question a politician. See what happens. Share your own dos and don’ts, examples, or experiences in the comments below.
Let’s use this political season to get some good ideas moving from talk to policy.
Original Source: http://www.neweconomyworkinggroup.org/blog/How-To-Ask-Candidates-Questions-That-Make-a-Difference
Here is a great blog chockful of one page profiles!
Certainly, Jen Randle at the DD Council is a tremendous resource for families and educators on this tool among others in Person Centered Thinking. You can reach Jen at Jenifer.Randle@okdhs.org.
Both the American Red Cross and the Oklahoma State Department of Health maintain websites and printable docs on emergency management and disaster preparedness for persons with disabilities. This reading is time well spent and we hope you will also share it with first responders in your community!
A “hot” topic in Oklahoma has been how to persons with mobility limitations access underground storm shelters and safely move through disaster areas. In the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy, the New Jersey Council on Developmental Disabilities dedicated their quarterly magazine to the topic of disasters.
When discussing service animals, there is a great deal of misinformation! We hope you’ll make use of resources like Partners’ graduate Janet Borden who works for High Aim Assistance Dogs as well as share tip sheets like these from the ADA National Network: http://adata.org/factsheet/service-animals. Each year, Janet, High Aim colleagues and working dogs visit our Partners class. If you are a Partners graduate, you are eligible to attend this session — call Erin at 405.521.4967 or email her at Erin.Taylor@okddc.ok.gov.
ADA (American with Disabilities Act) at the US Dept of Justice’s Civil Rights Division produces great brochures on a host of topics. Here’s one on effective communication and compliance with people who use different methods to express and listen. Visit here: http://www.ada.gov/effective-comm.htm.
A Guide to Solving the Funding Puzzle and Receiving Assistive Technology in Oklahoma. Download the latest version here. We encourage you to spend time at the OK ABLE Tech site, share this resource in your community and let your legislators know how valuable it is! If you are a Partners graduate, you are eligible to see our ABLE Tech presentation during class time. Just let Erin know by calling her at 405.421.4967 or emailing her at Erin.Taylor@okddc.ok.gov.
Going on vacation? Planning a conference? Wedding guests? This ADA Network on hospitality and disability is a BIG resource with planning tools and ADA compliance standards. http://www.adahospitality.org/content/fact-sheet-places-of-lodging
From the ADA National Network ~ a tip sheet on ADA expectations of prison facilities: http://adata.org/sites/adata.org/files/files/Detention__Facilities_2012.pdf