2023 Winter summit

Click here to view the agenda as of January 12th!

We will kick things off at 1:30PM on Sunday, January 15 with our popular State Association meeting where all attendees are invited to join in the conversation on issues occurring in individual states around the country.  This is an opportunity to learn from each other, and we encourage attendees to bring with them (or send to us in advance) any state legislation, proposed legislation or any other documents that they would like to share.

On Monday, we are going to do something a little different for us.  We are gathering our entire Health, Aging, Dementia, and Alzheimer’s team together in one place to do a deep dive into health and I/DD, including for the first time, a step-by-step guide to putting together a dementia care plan and to meeting the CARF standards.  Joining us will be Dr. Matthew Janicki, Co-President of the National Task Group on Intellectual Disabilities and Dementia Services and Dr. Thomas Buckley, chair of the ACCSES Health, Aging, Dementia, and Alzheimer’s Committee, who will provide the latest information on aging and dementia in I/DD populations and walk attendees through the CARF standards (which they wrote!).  We are delighted to announce that highly respected neurologist, Dr. Seth Keller, Co-President of the NTG and former president of the American Academy of Developmental Medicine and Dentistry (AADMD), will educate us on “The Importance of Overall Health in Individuals with Dementia.”

Among the issues to be discussed during this day of Health and I/DD will be how to respond to crises that affect morale across your organizations.  We are encouraging attendees to share their stories during our extended lunch hour.  Dr. Lawrence Force, Director of the Center on Aging and Disability Policy at Mount St. Mary College will lead the discussion.  His insights into mental health can be life-changing.

Since so much affecting disability policy occurs at the state level, Julia Adams-Scheurich, CEO of Oak City Government Relations, LLC, will take some time in the afternoon to educate us on how to create a disability caucus within our state legislatures.  We have more to add, but already this promises to be a very special day chock full of information that attendees can put into practice immediately!  Most importantly, much of the team will be with us through Tuesday to respond to any individual questions.

Monday evening, we plan to pull out all the stops with the ACCSES 25^th Anniversary Celebration!  It will be dinner and cocktails, and a lot of laughs.  We will keep speeches to a minimum, but we do plan to make a few awards during dinner to honor ACCSES Champions and Lifetime Achievement Awardees.

The fun does not end there.  We will lead off on Tuesday with a motivating talk by Scott de Fasselle that is sure to get your year going in the right direction.  While we are on that high note, we’re going to bring together a few of the visionaries in our midst to brainstorm Big Bold Ideas, a panel discussion moderated by Jennifer Houston, Director of Mission Operations for Goodwill Industries of Southeastern Wisconsin.  We also are thrilled to announce that Kim Zeich, Executive Director of the U.S. AbilityOne Commission will be among the speakers on Tuesday.  Kim joins a line-up that includes, James Garcia of United Cerebral Palsy, who will address Latinos and Disability; Clayton Guffey, Program Director for the Arizona Technology Access Program, who will share not just what AZTAP is working on but also how a similar resource is available in every state; and Amy Fox CEO of LearningQ, who will show us new ways to teach and to learn life skills.

In setting the agenda, of course, we have not forgotten our core mission – advocacy – and there will be plenty of time to talk strategy for 2023 and to get the View from the Hill.  All in all, it is going to be a fantastic three days.

But wait, there’s more!  There’s a post-Summit fourth-day event!

The Center for Habilitation in Tempe has kindly extended an invitation for all Summit attendees to visit and tour their Tempe location on Wednesday morning, January 18.  TCH has even offered to provide transportation!  The tour will leave the hotel at 9:00AM and should conclude at 11:00AM, and there will be transportation options to the airport or back to the hotel.