Western Montana Disability News and Views

Youth

The ADA Generation

There live a people who will never feel the sacrifices their forefathers made to fight for their freedom. They will never truly understand that only a short time ago their people were not citizens in the land of the free—they could be shipped off to an institution against their will, be arrested for going out in public or be →


Montana Medicaid for Workers with Disabilities In Effect July 1st

The Montana Medicaid for Workers with Disabilities (MMWD) program, one of the key achievements of the 2009 Legislature for individuals with disabilities, goes into effect July 1, 2010. The MMWD program is a new Medicaid eligibility category specifically designed for individuals with disabilities to go to or return to work or for those who are already working and may become →


Flathead Youth Corner

The Flathead Youth Opening Doors through Advocacy (YODA) group has been having so much fun in the past few months! We have gained 6 new members and hopefully there are more to come. We have a member that will be attending MYLF as a delegate this year. We helped with a Comedy/Karaoke party that was put on by →


Missoula County Update

Right now Summit is under a lucky star!  Spring and Summer is so busy we can hardly tell when we are coming or going, but it’s been a blast! We hosted an ADAPT board member picnic on June 26th. What is ADAPT you ask? ADAPT is a national group of disability rights activists who have championed such changes as accessible public →


Amanda Edwards – Youth Specialist

Amanda Edwards from Bigfork, MT has been hired as Summit’s Youth Specialist in the Flathead office. Amanda has been a wheelchair user since September 7th, 1997 as the result of a car accident. It happened a month before she turned 16 years old and she’s always had a great attitude about it, never letting it stop her from living a fulfilling →


Summit’s PR Intern

Justyn Field, a Journalism student at the University of Montana, has been working at Summit this summer as the Public Relations Intern to help prepare for our Symposiums and ADA Celebration. Justyn’s main job is to interview Montanans and find out how their lives have been impacted by the ADA. At Summit we believe everyone has an important →


Missoula Youth Corner

BALLS (Building Advocacy and Learning Leadership Skills) wrapped up its 6th round of classes during the fall at Hellgate High School.  We have plans to go to Seeley Lake High as well as Frenchtown High in the spring of 2010. Also, as part of the services we provide for schools, we have developed a disability history and culture presentation that we →


YODA Youth Talk About Alleged Teacher Abuse

The Missoula and Flathead County YODA (Youth Opening Doors through Advocacy) groups discuss their thoughts about the alleged abuse towards students with disabilities that occurred at North Middle School in Great Falls, MT. The news story referenced in the video can be found on the KFBB.com News Channel 5 website at http://www.kfbb.com/news/local/65353112.html


Youth Corner

YODA first:  As many of you may know, Summit’s Missoula youth advisory group, Youth Opening Doors through Advocacy (YODA), has identified more social activities and access to recreation as one of their goals as a group. So, we took their advice and went bowling and fishing this summer!! For the YODA meeting in July, a group of around 15 went bowling →