RICHMOND, Va. -- An online gathering in October will provide information on all the resources and services available to the disability community.
The disAbility Law Center of Virginia's 'Rights and Resources Summit' is built around the theme "Determine Your Future," so people with disabilities can become their best self-advocate.
Alden Blevins with the disAbility Law Center of Virginia, explains that the dLCV occupies a special place in the lives of anyone with a disability,
"We are actually the designated protection and advocacy organization in the state of Virginia for people with disabilities," Blevins said. "And what that means is that we protect the legal, human, and civil rights of people with disabilities across the whole state. So whether you're out in Appalachia, or you are up in Northern Virginia, we are just a phone call away to make sure that people with disabilities' rights are protected."
The Center's online event on October 10 hopes to make it easier for families to navigate what can be a challenging journey to accessing available resources.
"The purpose of this totally free educational summit is just to spread our resources and those self-advocacy skills out to the whole disability community across the state," said Blevins. "Because we do serve the whole state and we serve people with any type of disability, including physical mobility impairments, including developmental disabilities like autism. We have several different tracks within our summits with sessions that can fit a wide variety of needs. So whether you're somebody who needs assistance with a Medicaid waiver appeal, or you're somebody who is looking for transition services for your 18-year-old, who's transitioning out into the world with their disability, there's a session at our summit for you."
CBS 6 has done many stories involving people with disabilities, sometimes with mental illness, interacting with other state agencies, especially in the criminal justice system, including with police.
Blevins says the dLCV gets calls from such families asking for help.
"That's a ton of what we do," she said. "We receive many calls with those types of issues. We have an advocate on call every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday from 8:30 to 4 p.m., who you can reach out to with your specific disability issue and see if that's something that we're able to cover and help support you with. The patchwork of supports and all of the various systems have a long way to go in learning what the various disabilities mean and how they should really be interacting with people who have those specific conditions."
Blevins said they also get calls from people who didn't know there was help available.
"Usually when they contact us, they've hit a wall and exhausted their other resources," said Blevins. "One specific thing I can think of recently - I won't mention the college - but a specific college in the state of Virginia had a specific program for which there were no accessible classrooms in that building. So a child, a student with a wheelchair, would not be able to get to that class and have their educational experience. And that's where dLCV steps in and says, 'Hey, the student with a disability is a full-time student. They're paying the full tuition as the other students are in this building, and they deserve access to the same high-quality education.'
If you would like to join the dLCV's Summit on October 10, from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., you can click here.
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