 | Happy New Year! Here at Community Vision, we are in full swing supporting people with disabilities through direct support, capacity building, and advocacy. To help kick off our year, we're sharing what a couple people from our community are excited about for 2023! We hope that in reading, you get a better idea of the work we do and why it matters. Personally, what I’m most excited about in 2023 are the opportunities we will have to show courageous leadership. As our state and community wrestle with so many challenges, we are finding ourselves at the intersection of issues – homelessness and disability, workforce inclusion, and navigating technological advances. All these areas are complex and require both thoughtfulness and action. | | | | | | | | In thinking through how to prioritize our work, I’m reminded of Winston Churchill’s quote: “Courage is what it takes to stand up and speak. Courage is also what it takes to sit down and listen.” I find that sitting down and listening to people with disabilities is critical to navigating the complexity. These conversations make it quite clear that people want opportunities for connection and ways to find purpose. | | | | | | | | The Assistive Technology (AT) Lab had an exciting 2022 and we look forward to 2023! This year we look forward to continuing our services to the community including tours of our new Smart Home, running our free AT Loan Closet and our free information and advice support line, providing low-cost AT consultations, hosting AT trainings and workshops, supporting Oregon’s free ADA technical assistance line, facilitating a social group for people who use augmentative and alternative communication (AAC), dispersing AT funding for Oregon children through Zetosch educational funds, and more! | | | | | |  | The Community Vision Employment Connections team is looking forward to so many things this coming year! In the past few weeks, we have welcomed 6 new job seekers to the program and we’re excited to be able to work with them to find new jobs in the community. We are looking forward to getting to know each of them, to hear about what they are looking for and how we can help them reach their goals. We are excited to continue supporting 17 people at their current jobs and to have that number increase as we help others find and keep jobs that they enjoy. | | | | | |  | Community Vision’s Supported Living team is looking forward to working with the people we support to build relationships and strengthen personal connections in 2023. Community is critical to overall well-being, and now that we are finally moving forward in a post-pandemic society, we can begin to get out into the world again. In 2023 we will provide and encourage more community outings and in-person social interactions that will strengthen old connections and create new ones for the people we support. | | | | | |  | The Housing Access Program has a lot to look forward to in 2023. We’re going to build upon the success of last year – helping 39 people find housing! - and our goal for this year is 45 people. We have also become a qualified provider with the Joint Offices of Homeless Services, and we are getting involved with supporting homeless people with disabilities to find housing and accessing services, like food stamps and Social Security. We are continuing to offer information and referral support, person-centered planning specific to participants’ housing needs, and tenant education classes. Our next tenant education class will be in the spring. We are excited about our advocacy efforts this year. Alongside Disability Rights Oregon and others, we are working on three bills in the coming legislative session. Our proposed changes would track accessibility features in housing, direct funding toward more accessible housing, and create improved accessibility requirements for publicly funded housing. | | | | | | | | | |  | HI People, Are you happy today? It’s a Happy New Year and time to make and set goals for ourselves. One important, but yet simple, goal I would like to see more people doing including myself is communicating more effectively this year. Let’s all try to be more compassionate and understanding to other as we all have our struggles and things we deal with on a daily basis. If we do this, we can make it that much easier for everyone to work together. Outside of these very simple concepts, I would love to get out more and see a lot more Monster Trucks, Blazers and Winterhawks games. Overall, I just would like to go out and see smiles on peoples faces. After all, they call me Happy Laddie. Sincerely, Laddie Read a.k.a Superman | | | | | |  | | | Our annual report has been published! Click below to read our updates for fiscal year 2022 (July of 2021 to June of 2022). | |  | | | | | | | | | | | | | Community Vision
2475 SE Ladd Ave Suite 240 | Portland, Oregon 97214
503.292.4964 | info@cvision.org | | | | | | | |
