Jacksonville Area Center for Independent Living
November 2013
CONNECTIONS
Affordable Care Act Update
by Larry Whewell
Several JACIL staff have been working for
several weeks to complete all training required
by the ACA, to become IPC/Navigators in order to assist consumers in enrolling in a health
insurance plan. Three of JACIL's staff are now
certified and the others will be in the next couple
weeks.
This means that certified Navigators can
begin scheduling appointments and enrolling
consumers to get
health coverage.
JACIL is prepared to serve the
deaf community because we have a
Navigator who is
deaf and will be
working with consumers who are
deaf state wide.
The Affordable Care Act is now law and all
uninsured individuals must have some type of
health insurance or face a penalty. The federal
website, www.healthcare.gov, has been going
through many problems. When that website is
up and running staff will be ready to help anyone. People who have Medicare, Medicaid or
Employer Based Health Coverage don’t need
to do anything in regards to the ACA.
What you need to bring to your appointment with JACIL is photo ID, social security
number, proof of income for past 30 days, and
proof of residence (this could be a power bill or
any letter with your name and address on it).
The ACA has two parts because Illinois is
one of the many states to include the Medicaid
Expansion part of ACA. So the process is like
this: first JACIL Navigators discuss confidentiality with you. We assure that your personal
identification will remain confidential and then
we input the answers to a few questions; second the website will
take you to the Medicaid site or the Market Place: third then
fill out all your information and the computer will tell you what
health coverage is
best for you.
JACIL Navigators are here to assist, but the final decision is yours. Navigators
cannot help with the decision process. Consumers do not have to make up their minds
when the enrollment is finished.
The cost of insurance coverage is based
on income, family size, geographic area and
tobacco use. If consumers enroll by December 15th your coverage begins January 1, 2014
For questions, more information, or to
schedule an appointment contact JACIL and
ask for Larry or Monte at 217-245-8371 or
Deloris by videophone at 217-408-2668
Jacksonville Area Center for Independent Living
1
JACIL plans “supply closet” for hard-to-find supplies
There are some materials which are specific to the needs of people with disabilities and
JACIL plans to start a “supply closet” to help
our consumers obtain goods they might need
but have trouble locating.
An example of something we might stock
in this closet is Braille paper for personal embossing. An often-used white cane is like your
frequently-worn shoes - the soles often wear
out. We plan to store replacement cane tips in
our closet as well.
The products we are hoping to stock will be
items one cannot simply go to Wal-Mart and
purchase. And, unlike catalog or internet shopping, JACIL will provide these things at our cost
as a service to our consumers.
We will be set up to take cash or check
payments but we will not be able to accept credit
or debit cards.
Now comes our question to you: What
things would YOU like us to stock as part of this
program? What materials can we keep on hand
which would make your life easier?
Call Roger at (217) 245-8371 (v/tty) or email him at [email protected] with suggestions.
We hope to have this up and running by the
first of the year. Let us hear from you.
QUICK FACTS:





New Supply Closet at JACIL
Will have specialty items:
Will sell at low cost
What do you need?
Talk to JACIL staff!
COME CELEBRATE THE HOLIDAYS WITH US!
by Susan Nolls
JACIL invites everyone to join us in our
annual celebration of the upcoming holiday season.
On Wednesday, December 18, from 3:00 to 4:30
p.m., we eagerly invite you
to attend JACIL’s annual
Holiday Open House
Party at our 15 Permac
headquarters in Jacksonville. The event will be
held in our large conference room.
We will celebrate the holiday season
with snacks, games and fellowship. All of our
JACIL friends and supporters are invited to attend.
A variety of games and activities are being
planned for the gathering. JACIL Staff Member Kathy Price is in charge of this year’s festivities.
2
A variety of holiday refreshments provided
by our staff members will be available.
Mark this date on your calendar and be sure
to make transportation reservations to come
celebrate the holidays with us.
Please register in advance by Monday, December 16. There is no charge
to attend. A sign language interpreter will also be present.
For more information or to
register, please give us a call at
(217) 245-8371 (v/tty).
QUICK FACTS:
•
•
•
•
•
•
Holiday party for everyone!
Dec 18, 3:00-4:30 at JACIL
Play games, win prizes, enjoy refreshments
ASL interpreter will be here
Register by December 16
Call 217-245-8371 for info
Jacksonville Area Center for Independent Living
JACIL hires In-Person Counselor for ACA Services
by Deloris Summers
My name is Deloris DeAnn Summers,
people call me DeDe.
My family is from Greene County (mostly
White Hall). My parents moved to Chicago IL,
and they already had two girls before I was
born. My mother had German Measles when
she was pregnant with me. It was discovered
that I was deaf at one year of age.
We moved to Virginia, Illinois, so I could
attend the Illinois School for the Deaf. Over
the next 17 and half years, I grew up at ISD. I
have worked several places like the Chicken
Factory, Mobil Chemical, Excel, Ponderosa
and White Hall Nursing Home.
I have two grown daughters (Teena and
BreAnne) who are married and they have one
girl and one boy each (Landon and Brooklyn/
LeaAnn and Jackson.)
After moving to Jacksonville from White
Hall four years ago, I was elected President of
the Jacksonville Community Center for the Deaf
and also President for Jacksonville Chapter
I.A.D. Both are volunteer organizations.
JACIL’s offices will be closed for:
VETERAN’S
DAY
Monday,
November 11
Deloris Summers
Starting in September, I began working part
time as an in-person counselor to assist people
who are deaf in dealing with the Affordable Care
Act ( ACA) at JACIL.
My hobbies include sewing, scrapbooking,
family history/genealogy/research. One of my
goals is to finish my family history book. I love
playing Bingo, talking to different people (neverstop!) and making them laugh. Laughing is a
good medication.
And I am a die-hard fan of the St. Louis
Cardinals!
QUICK FACTS:

THANKSGIVING
DAY
Thursday, Nov. 28
Friday, Nov. 29







New staff: DeDe Summers
From Greene Co
Graduated from ISD
Prez of JCCD
Prez of IAD
Now IPC at JACIL
Assists Deaf with ACA (Affordable Care Act)
ins
Come to JACIL: meet DeDe!
Jacksonville Area Center for Independent Living
3
New I.S.V.I. intern arrives at JACIL
by Monique Ramirez
My name is Monique
Ramirez. I am 19 years old, and
I am totally blind. At the present
time, I attend the Illinois School
for the Visually Impaired.
I graduated from Walter
Payton College Prep High
School on the North side of Chicago. Walking across the stage
to receive my diploma, was one
of the most rewarding experiences in my life thus far. In that
culminating moment, it was as if
all my effort and hard work in the last four years
had finally paid off.
I have been blind since birth and have had
many challenges throughout my life. However,
I don't give up. I strive to prove myself, and
MOBILITY SUPPORT GROUP
Tuesday, November 19
10:00 to 11:00
Topic:
Gas Station Accessibility &
Illinois parking placard program
Speaker:
Bill Bogdan, Disability Liaison
Secretary of State
4
whether I fail or succeed, I always
manage to leave an impact!
Along with attending ISVI, I
am also taking classes at Lincoln
Land Community College. I am
currently studying Political Science. Attending LLCC has given
me a sense of what to expect
when I transfer over to a four-year
university.
When I finish out the year at
ISVI in May, I plan to transfer over
to the University of Chicago,
where I am looking to major in Psychology. I
aspire to become a social worker and work with
children and adolescents.
I played sports for the majority of my teenage years, including Goalball and Judo. But
one of my favorite sports was and still is Track
and Field. Joining teams taught me lessons,
about good sportsmanship, respect for others
and that if one believes deeply enough they will
achieve their dreams.
I also love music. I took guitar lessons for
about a year. I also sing, by myself and with a
choir and I am currently learning to play piano.
I don't ever take a day, good or bad, for
granted. I may have my setbacks, days where
nothing seems to go right. But I take each day
as it comes, and I regret nothing. I have made
mistakes, but I have learned from them and that,
to me, is one of the most important things anyone can do.
I am someone who is passionate about life.
I spend time with friends or family and sometimes both. I love listening to people and giving
advice to them about how to deal with their
troubles. Helping people is my passion in life.
I have never let blindness stop me from
doing what I love in the past, and I am not about
to let opportunities pass me by due to my lack
of sight.
Jacksonville Area Center for Independent Living
`
CAFE
Next KIP Café scheduled for Monday, November 25
Our next KIP Café in Jacksonville is scheduled for Monday, November 25, 11:30 a.m. to
1:30 p.m.
The program will be presented by be Alex
Cuftocio, a staff attorney with the Land of Lincoln Legal Assistance Foundation.
The LLLAF provides free civil legal services to low-income and senior citizens in 65
counties in central and southern Illinois.
Alex will be sharing about ways LLLAF can
provide high quality civil legal services in order
to obtain and maintain basic human needs.
Through advice, representation, advocacy,
education, and collaboration, the agency seeks
to achieve justice for those whose voices might
otherwise not be heard and to empower individuals to advocate for themselves.
Be sure to call and register by November
22 to help us assure we have enough lunch for
everyone. If anyone requires materials in alternate formats, please contact JACIL by November 22.
A sign language Interpreter will be present.
For more information contact Larry at JACIL,
(217) 245-8371 (v/tty).
Our KIP Café presentations are sponsored
in part by a grant from the Shopko Foundation.
QUICK FACTS:





Come and learn Monday, November 25
In Jax at JACIL
Time: 11:30-1:30
Topic: Land of Lincoln Legal Assistance
Foundation.
Call 217-245-8371 by November 22 to register
by Kathy Price
Each issue Kathy will answer your questions about anything--from household hints to
the price of tea in China.
This Month’s Question: My husband loves
hard boiled eggs but I hate messing with them.
Whenever I try to remove the shells, they keep
breaking off in tiny pieces and it takes forever
to clean them all off. Is there any way to make
this de-shelling process go a little faster?
JACIL Treasurer Mark Arnold (left) provides the
program at the first meeting of the new Moving On
mobility support group held last month.
Kathy Says: Place one teaspoon of salt
into the water before putting the eggs in. That
will keep the shells from cracking into such little
pieces.
Jacksonville Area Center for Independent Living
5
DAN THOMPSON’
s
THOMPSON’s
TECHNOLOG
Y TIPS
TECHNOLOGY
Shut down or leave running
That is the question!
Let’s look at the pros and cons of shutting
down, putting to sleep or hibernating your computer.
From a software perspective, an operating system and the programs you run on it tend
to accumulate all sorts of crud over extended
periods of use - temporary files, disk caches,
page files, open file descriptors, pipes, sockets, zombie processes, memory leaks, etc. etc.
etc.
All that stuff can slow down the computer,
but it all goes away when you shut down or restart the system. So shutting down your computer every once in a while - and I do mean
actually shutting down, not just hibernating or
putting it to sleep - can give it a "fresh start" of
sorts and make it seem nice and zippy again.
Computers can also sleep or hibernate. The
sleep function allows you to quickly resume using your machine at the cost of some electricity. The hibernate mode is like shutting down
your computer but you can still resume working
where you left off.
There's no right answer in all situations.
Some people leave their computers running 24/
7 while others shut down computers the moment they step away. Each of these options
has its advantages and disadvantages.
Shut Down vs. Sleep vs. Hibernate
Each of the three power-down states appears to shut off your computer, but they all
work differently.
Shut Down: This is the power-off state most
of us are familiar with. When you shut down
your computer, all your open programs close.
6
A computer that's shut down uses almost no
power. However, when you want to use your
computer again, you'll have to turn it on and go
through the typical boot-up process, waiting for
your hardware to initialize and start-up programs to load.
Sleep or Standby: In sleep mode, power is
used to keep the computer's state in memory,
but other parts of the computer are shut down
and won't use any power. When you turn on the
computer, it will snap back to life within just a
few seconds. You won't have to wait for it to
boot up.
Sleep is particularly useful if you're stepping away from your computer for a small
amount of time. If you put your computer to
sleep and its battery becomes critically low, the
computer will automatically go into hibernate
mode to save your state.
Hibernate: Your computer saves its current
state to your hard drive, essentially dumping
the contents of its RAM into a file on its hard
drive. When you boot up the computer, it will
load the previous state from your hard drive
into its RAM. This allows you to save your
computer's state, including all your open programs and data, and come back to it later. It
takes longer to resume from hibernate than
sleep, but hibernate uses much less power than
sleep. A computer that's hibernating uses about
the same amount of power as a computer that's
shut down.
Some computers or software may not work
properly when resuming from hibernate, in which
case you'll want to shut down your computer
instead.
You can control what happens when you
press the power button on your computer or
close the lid on your laptop. To do so, press
the Windows key, type Power buttons, and
press Enter. You'll see the power button options in the Windows Control Panel. On Windows 8, you'll need to click the Settings option
on the search screen after typing Power buttons.
Jacksonville Area Center for Independent Living
NOVEMBER CALENDAR OF EVENTS
Thu
7 Knollwood 20/20 Support Group - 10:00 to 11:00
Thu 7
Personal Assistant Orientation in Havana - 8:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.
Mon 11 Veteran’s Day - JACIL OFFICES CLOSED
Thu 14 VisAbility Support Group - 10:30 a.m. to 12:00 p.m.
Thu 14 Parents of Children with Autism Group - 6:00 p.m.
Tue 19 Moving On Support Group - 10:00 to 11:00 a.m.
Thu 21 Visions Support Group in Havana - 2:00 to 3:00 p.m.
Thu 21 Deaf Silent Club - 6:00 p.m.
Fri
22 Medicare Part D Assistance by appointment
Mon 25 KIP Cafe - 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m.
Topic: Land of Lincoln Legal Assistance Foundation
Speaker: Alex Cuftocio, staff attorney
Thu 28 Thanksgiving Day - JACIL OFFICES CLOSED
Fri
29 JACIL OFFICES CLOSED
Jacksonville Area Center for Independent Living
7
“JACIL Connections” is published by the Jacksonville Area Center for Independent Living. JACIL
is organized to serve people with disabilities in Morgan, Scott, Cass and Mason Counties. JACIL
is committed to serving persons with disabilities to gain control and direction of their lives in the
home, workplace and community. JACIL’s goal is to stimulate and promote a growing sense of
personal dignity through individualized services designed to provide the tools necessary for
maximum independence and community participation. We invite your comments and suggestions.
JACIL is a Prairieland
United Way Agency
JACKSONVILLE AREA CENTER FOR INDEPENDENT LIVING
15 Permac Road, Jacksonville, IL 62650
Office Hours: Monday-Friday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.
217-245-8371 Voice/TTY  217-245-1872 Fax  888-317-3287 Toll Free
866-790-5311 Deaf Advocate’s Toll Free Videophone Line
E-mail: [email protected]  Website: www.jacil.org
A Proud Member of the
JACIL - MASON COUNTY OFFICE
220 West Main Street, Havana, IL 62644
A Proud Member of the
Office Hours: Tuesdays, 12:30 to 4:30 p.m. and Thursdays, 8:00 a.m. to Noon
309-543-6680 Voice/TTY  309-543-6711 Fax  877-759-2187 Toll Free
E-mail: [email protected]
15 Permac Road
Jacksonville, Illinois 62650
8
Jacksonville Area Center for Independent Living