Social Security, College Preparation at the People First of Wyoming Community Awareness Training

The main session of the People First of Wyoming Community Awareness Training took place Saturday. "Looking Forward to the Next 20 Years" was the theme for this year's meeting. Some 50 attendees, including 39 self-advocates (those with disabilities who seek and utilize services) from around the state came for the two day event at the Best Western Ramkota Hotel, which wraps up on Sunday. I attended this event as a press visit, but what I write is my own observations without any scrutiny or vetting by People First of Wyoming.

Attending college was discussed at the People First of Wyoming 2011 Community Awareness Training

The first issue on the meeting agenda had to do with attending college. WY Think College, part of the Wyoming Institute for Disabilities (WIND), featured four presenters. This entity is preparing to begin assisting disabled folks in applying to and attending college, supporting them while they matriculate. The Executive Director, Dr. Bill MacLean, introduced the program. Pat Parton and Brent Heuer discussed the issues of education and their disabled children.

MacLean's Associate Director for Program Development, Sandy Root-Elledge (a parent of two adult disabled children), discussed with the conference attendees the process of attending college, and was interactive with the audience, asking them questions like what services they wanted to see on campus plus their post-college plans if they were to attend and graduate. The audience responded back their hopes of being in vocations like writing, sports, etc. while also expressing the desire to have kids and/or get married if and after they complete college coursework. These answers were deemed helpful to the program, as it is conducting surveys on how to move the program forward.

Next, Charlie Smith, a retiree who worked as a teacher and school psychologist and is currently an AARP volunteer, raised his concerns about the Social Security program due to the political climate in Washington, where budget cutting is making headlines. He stressed, "We're going to do a lot of battling for your behalf, my behalf."

He gave an overview of the program, citing various statistics via PowerPoint-like presentation, including that the "earned benefit" generally requires working (and paying into) 40 quarters to qualify, that 94 per cent of workers are covered, stressing that illegal aliens don't qualify despite rhetoric otherwise. As of 2010, the average disabled worker gets $1,068 per month while retired workers get $1,175. Smith was pelted with questions about such issues about how benefits were calculated as well as concerns over whether the government would be able to keep on paying.

Self-defense techniques were taught at the People First of Wyoming 2011 Community Awareness Training

Rape Aggression Defense (RAD) instructor Karen Moore spoke to the attendees about defending themselves. She admitted that she had to change her attitudes about defense after retiring from an eighteen year law enforcement career, where she had to use force in arresting suspected criminals. After studying many books on self-defense, she came to the conclusion that many skills that are taught aren't what she deemed as "memorable" when the situation calls for self-defense, saying "your body can't go where your brain hasn't been."

She stresses and teaches skills that effectively deal with the "adrenaline dump," such as learning how to be more observant of one's surroundings in the first place, yell, stand, making fists, breathing and using car keys effectively for and during self-defense, as well as thinking and acting in terms of the "Color Code of Awareness." For example, given that people are often not observant of their surroundings, or what Moore called "Condition Duh (White)," they all the sudden find themselves in the midst of an attacker, causing conditions of panic or shutting down physically (Black). Adequately describing the perpetrators was touched on, as the more details the police have, the more likely that person can be apprehended. One woman who used a walker was shown how to defend herself, as Moore believes that everyone can use whatever abilities they possess in self-defense, no matter their limitations.

Additionally, she also gave tips on how to deal with crooked telemarketers, who she deemed virtually as bad as rapists or child molesters since they, too, prey on society. Moore told the crowd to tell those telemarketers to stop calling and advised listeners to not give out personal accounts information, and even to make police reports on harassing telemarketers to get the authorities involved. Moore, now a Private Investigator, admonished the 2011 People First Community Awareness Training crowd to also inventory their personal possessions.

Sunday's session will wrap up in the morning, primarily featuring the attendees sharing their feelings and experiences about their time in Casper. For more information about People First of Wyoming, go to the organization's website here.

Sources:

Program Schedule and Personal Notes, People First of Wyoming 2011 Community Awareness Training, June 4, 2011