Why Community Inclusion?

Our goal is helping transform community supports systems into fully inclusive, fully integrated entities within which all individuals are interdependent and have equal opportunities to celebrate the humanity of all people and contribute to overall community as each person desires.

Community Inclusion presently administers two grants; one from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) and one from the Wyoming Department of Health, Hospital Preparedness program. 

Ongoing Projects

The CMS grant is called the Wyoming Employment Systems Assessment (WESA) grant which is a follow-on grant from the US Department of Health and Human Services. It is relevant and interesting to know Wyoming's WESA project grew from a grant awarded in 2001 from funds allocated by the Ticket to Work and Work Improvement Incentives Act (TWWIIA) of 1999... Our initial grant was named Employment Systems Development (ESD). Our present grant expires in December, 2010.
Emergency Preparedness has been a hot topic for WIND since 9/11 and Hurricane Katrina.  Hundreds of people with disabilities who could not remove themselves from harm’s way either perished or found themselves in discomforting situations.  In conjunction with our CMS grant, WIND formed a partnership with the Wyoming Office of Homeland Security and the Wyoming Department of Health to ensure emergency plans and provisions fully included people with disabilities.  In fact, WIND spearheaded an effort which includes all people who cannot self-evacuate.  The effort was named “UTSE” and stands for people Unable to Self Evacuate.  (See “Locations of People Unable to Self Evacuate”). 
UTSE statewide efforts are driven by a Core Advisory Group (CAG) which is comprised of a number of consumers, advocates, service providers and state and university officials who developed a strategic plan for introducing UTSE to each Wyoming community. (See “UTSE Goals, Mission Statement and Vision”).  The primary objective of the UTSE Project is to help ensure individual and community preparedness of people with disabilities in communities.
One of our 2007/2008s involved surveying all hotels and restaurants within Wyoming about accessibility. From the survey, WIND produced a Wyoming Accommodations Guide which is available on this website. (Accommodations Survey Summary) The Guide will be updated every two years. All restaurants and lodging facilities in the state were surveyed, but not all responded. (Accommodations Guide). An ad hoc group of consumers was formed to help design and guide the process. (Accommodations Survey Consumers) Contact WIND at 307.766.2095 to obtain a copy of the publication. The Wyoming Survey Research Center was instrumental in design and development of the survey and the guide.

Community Inclusion Programs at WIND grew from what was originally a focus on employment. Our first efforts for employment occurred in 1997 with the Cheyenne Employment Development Initiative (CEDI) in Cheyenne.
Following the CEDI, WIND continued to build expertise in the realm of employment through a joint grant effort with the Rural Institute in Montana. Jointly, Wyoming and Montana created the Careers Through Partnership (CTP) project with funds from a grant awarded by the US Department of Labor.

Training and Technical Assistance

Accessibility of employment-focused training and workshops in Wyoming has been a constant challenge. WIND has strong roots in the Wyoming Association of Persons in Community Employment (WYAPCE) which is a national affiliate of the APSE which is, “the network on employment.”  Collectively, each of the grants administered by WIND has offered quality training in Wyoming communities. Workshops and technical assistance have been delivered inside those communities for over one thousand people throughout the past nine years. WIND has a strong commitment to delivering quality state-of-the-art training and technical assistance in communities, at little or no cost.
Past and present workshops and training have included topics such as:
Employment Consulting
Bridges To Success for People With Disabilities
Hidden Disabilities of People With Disabilities
Personal Success for people with disabilities
Medical Emergencies and People With Disabilities
Roles and Responsibilities for Emergency Preparedness

Past and present workshops and training have included topics such as: