Disaster Relief Efforts in Haiti

Portlight Strategies and Friends of Disabled Adults and Children (FODAC) have collaborated in effort to ship donated items to Haiti.

Items needed are tangibles such as food, bottled water, tools, outdoor gear, blankets, crutches, walkers, orthotic braces and supplies, wheelchairs, most any medical supplies including bandages, wound care, medical gloves, etc., and any other durable medical equipment. The address for the FODAC warehouse is:
 
Portlight Strategies, Inc.
4900 Lewis Road
Stone Mountain GA 30083

Anyone interested in going to Haiti to help staff one or more shelters for Haitians with disabilities please email paul@portlight.org.

Here are some helpful links to keep you posted on the situation:

ReliefWeb Info on Haiti

Reuters AlertNet - Alerts on Haiti

How to use Twitter relating to Haiti relief efforts (Word Doc)

Key words for researching Haiti (Word Doc)

Western States Symposium  |  March 11-12, 2010  |  Salt Lake City. UT

We are excited about the Western States Symposium: Building a Regional Collaborative for AT Reuse on March 11-12, 2010 in Salt Lake City at the Little America Hotel. Below you will find the agenda and a list of participants.  The meeting will start at 8:30am on Thursday in the Teton Room.

The main goals of this meeting are:

• Identify points of collaboration to build an intrastate and/or both interstate/ regional system for delivering assistive technology devices and services to meet the needs of people with disabilities in the western United States.
• Develop achievable action steps for short-term and long term planning for building successful strategies and innovative collaborations.

Travel Plans

The Little America Hotel, 500 South Main Street, Salt Lake City, Utah 84101 (801-596-5700), is located in the heart of downtown Salt Lake City, approximately 7 miles from the SLC International Airport. Shuttle service is available to and from the airport for $8.00 each way through Express Shuttle Service (801-596-1600). If you need an accessible van, please make a reservation at least 24 hours ahead of the time you will need the van.

Tour of CReATE - Thursday March 11 at 5:00 pm

CReATE, the UTAH AT Reuse facility, is opening its doors to Symposium participants on Thursday evening from 5:00pm - 7:00pm  There will be vans in the lobby at 5:00pm to take you to the facility. Alma Burgess recommends that you wear closed-toe shoes and bring a coat or sweater to the facility as it is a warehouse and may be cold.

Handouts for the Symposium

Handouts for the Symposium will be posted on both the NATTAP and the Pass It On Center web sites. Please check back.

Agenda (MS Word)

List of Participants (MS Word)

EMERGENCY RESPONSE SYSTEM

The Pass It On Center, in Atlanta, Georgia is in the initial stage of developing an emergency response system based on an existing network of Assistive Technology (AT) Centers across the United States. At the foundation of this project is there national survey which just got underway.

The purpose of this survey to develop an understanding of the current involvement of a variety of programs, including but not limited to the state Assistive Technology Act programs and their subcontractors, with efforts related to assistive technology reuse and emergency planning, management, and response.   Feel free to forward this survey to other agencies/organizations that you know who are currently involved with, or interested in, these efforts.

If you would like to take the survey please following link:
http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=wSOEqoWYnhBjNQ541bKy2A_3d_3d

The information that will be obtained will be vital to developing effective emergency response systems for all populations.

If you have any questions please contact George Heake at george@passitoncenter.org or 215-204-7177.