Scholarships program for disabled students launched

The organization American Association on Health and Disability (AAHD) is offering several scholarships worth about $1,000 each for high school graduates and graduate-bound students to attend four-year universities and graduates schools across the nation.

All applicants must be high school graduates, or bachelor's degree recipients, have documented disability and provide documentation of their disabilities.

Applicants must be U.S. citizens or legal residents living in this country. They need to be enrolled in, or accepted by, an accredited US four year university or graduate school on a full-time basis.

Preference will be given to students majoring in public health, disability studies, health promotion or a field related to disability and health, and all the topics that can be included in disability policy and disability research.

The mission of the American Association on Health and Disability (AAHD) is to contribute to national, state, and local efforts to promote health and wellness in people with disabilities and identify effective intervention strategies that reduce health disparities between people with disabilities and the general population. AAHD accomplishes its mission through research, education and advocacy at the national, state and community level.

In 2008, AAHD launched the "Disability and Health Journal" (DHJ), the first peer reviewed, scientific, scholarly and multidisciplinary journal that focuses on health promotion and wellness for people with disabilities. Royalties from the DHJ will fund the first year of the AAHD scholarship fund.

In 2009, AAHD created the AAHD scholarship program. As this is the first year of the scholarship program, funds are limited. Scholarships will be competitive. The AAHD board of directors scholarship committee will evaluate each of the applicants and make a decision.

The first AAHD scholarship award will be on December 2009. The scholarship committee will determine how many scholarships will be awarded each year, and the amount of each scholarship.

SCHOLARSHIP PROGRAM CRITERIA

APPLICATION REQUIREMENTS:
Applicant must provide a Personal Statement (maximum 3 pages-double spaced), including brief personal history, educational/career goals, extra-curricular activities, and reasons why they should be selected to get the AAHD scholarship. This Statement must be written solely by the applicant.

Applicant must provide three letters of recommendation (one must be from a teacher or academic advisor).

Applicant must provide an official copy of high school transcript as well as college transcript (if applicable).

Applicant must agree to allow AAHD to use their name, picture and/or story in future scholarship materials.

Please mail applications to:
AAHD, Att: Scholarship Committee, 110 North Washington St., Suite 328J, Rockville, MD 20850 (301) 545-6140. To download an application, visit http://www.aahd.us. Only completed applications will be considered. They need to be postmarked by Nov. 15, 2009.

Please e-mail Roberta Carlin, AAHD executive director at rcarlin@aahd.us, or call (301) 545-6140 ext. 206 if you have any questions.

HUD offers $20 million for accessible housing, independent living

Hoping to strengthen independent living and services for the disabled, elderly, and non-elderly legal residents, the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), has offered $20 million in grants to owners of multi-family housing developments to support the hiring of service employees and to increase the number of units accessible for the elderly and the disabled.

HUD is making these grants available through its service coordinator program. The program will support the hiring of service coordinators to help frail and at-risk elderly individuals and persons with disabilities access health care, meals and other critical support services.

“HUD is helping to provide older Americans and those with disabilities with safe, affordable housing. These grants will help provide the services they need to allow them to remain in their homes, connected to their communities and friends, rather than face unnecessary institutionalization,’’ said HUD Secretary Shaun Donovan.

The service coordinator program funding covers service coordinators salaries and fringe benefits, training, quality assurance, and relevant administrative expenses. Service coordinators assess resident needs, identify and link residents to appropriate services, and monitor the delivery of services.

Services involve activities of residents' daily living (ADLs), such as eating, dressing, bathing, grooming, transferring, and home management. A service coordinator may also educate residents about what services are available and how to use them, and help residents build informal support networks with other residents, family, and friends. The service coordinator may not require any elderly or disabled family to accept the supportive services.

These grants will be awarded to owners of privately owned multifamily housing developments that receive money from HUD to house low-income individuals. The owners or their management companies will use the funding offered today to either hire or contract service coordinators with backgrounds in providing social services, to the frail elderly and people with disabilities, and to assist their residents with special needs.

Owners of Section 202, Section 8, Section 221(d)(3) below-market interest rate, and Section 236 developments may apply for funding. Eligibility for grant funding is limited to those developments designed for the elderly and persons with disabilities, including any such building within a mixed-use project originally designed for them or where the owner gives preferences in tenant selection with HUD approval.

Type of assistance
HUD provides funding through three mechanisms at this time: (1) a national competition with other properties for a limited amount of grant funding, (2) the use of the development's residual receipts or excess income, or (3) budget-based rent increases or special rent adjustments.

HUD will award grants to approximately 100 applicants. Applications are due on or before Nov. 5, 2009.

Eligible customers
Service Coordinators can serve residents who are elderly or have a disability. "Elderly" is defined as age 62 or older. "Disabled" is defined three ways: 1) has a disability as defined in Section 223 of the Social Security Act; 2) has a physical, mental, or emotional impairment expected to be of long, continued, and indefinite duration that impedes the individual's ability to live independently, or 3) has a developmental disability.

Funding status
In Federal fiscal year 2006, HUD awarded 75 grants for a total of $12,105,849. These grants serve 78 developments, with a total of 6,038 units.

Target sued for unlawful employee treatment

A labor discrimination lawsuit filed in Los Angeles claims Target Stores. Inc., unlawfully denied reasonable accommodations to an employee with disability impairments, and substantially reduced his work hours due to his medical conditions.

The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) filed the lawsuit on Aug. 24. The EEOC establishes that Target subjected his employee at the chain’s Foothill Ranch location, in southern Orange County, to discriminatory practices on the basis of disability when it failed to notify his job coach and parents of any individual meetings involving work issues and job performance, as they requested.

The disabled worker was unable to fully communicate with others without the assistance of a job coach because of his cerebral palsy, and limited intellectual functioning.

Hence, the disabled employee was compelled to attend these in-person meetings alone, even though the job coaches and his parents have made several requests to be present in the meetings. Target hired the employee with full knowledge of his disabilities and needs for reasonable accommodations, wrote the EEOC.

The EEOC filed its lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California, after it failed to reach an out of court settlement. Target's alleged conduct violates Title I of the American with Disabilities Act (ADA) of 1990, and Title I of the Civil Rights Act of 1991.

Anna Y. Park, EEOC Los Angeles office district regional attorney, said the retail chain store knew well in advance it was dealing with an employee with a disability, and failed to provide assistance as required by the ADA and the 1991 Civil Rights Act.

“What is particularly disturbing here is that Target already knew this employee was disabled and needed assistance with communicating during in-person meetings,” said attorney Park. “Target’s failure to provide a reasonable accommodation denied him equal benefits and privileges of employment. Despite his disabilities, the employee in this case was qualified and motivated to work, but Target denied him an equal opportunity to succeed in the workplace.”

Target’s corporate offices are located in Minneapolis, Minn. It operates more than 1,700 stores in 49 states in the country, including more than 240 Super Target outlets. Target currently hires about 351,000 employees.