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Corwin Ford Donates Christmas Gifts to iLive Participants

Corwin Ford Donates Christmas Gifts to iLive Participants

We could add the thank you to Corwin Ford who delivered Christmas gifts to 25 people with disabilities we serve as part of our Host Homes program, along with a $3,500 check! Thank you to the folks at Corwin Ford Reno for making these gifts possible and for your generosity! We appreciate you!

About the iLive Program

Our iLive Program is our shared living program where participants get to live in partnership with a Host Home Provider in a home of their choice, in a part of town that is convenient, and with people who support and teach them new skills to help them live more independently.

 

New 988 Hotline Create to Help Those In Crisis

New 988 Hotline Create to Help Those In Crisis

A national hotline that was recently launched is intended to provide easy access to help for anyone experiencing a mental health crisis in much the same way that 911 connects people to emergency services.

The 988 phone line, which Congress established in 2020, launched on July 16th.

The three-digit number will take over for the existing National Suicide Prevention Lifeline — which will also continue to be available at 800-273-8255 — but with an expanded mission. In addition to offering support to people at risk of suicide, the hotline is designed to aid those facing all sorts of mental health crises or any kind of emotional distress.

The number will be available by call, text, or chat 24 hours a day for those who are struggling as well as anyone worried about a loved one who may need crisis support. Individuals who reach out will be connected with a trained crisis counselor at one of 200 local centers who can provide support and resources. If a local center is unavailable, callers will automatically be routed to a national backup crisis center.

Read the Full Story

988 Hotline Fact Sheet

Podcast: Ethics and Bias in Artificial Intelligence (AI) Technology

Podcast: Ethics and Bias in Artificial Intelligence (AI) Technology

Listen to our very own Merve Hickok on the Workology Podcast who represents HSI at PEAT’s Start Access Steering Committee which focuses on AI-powered recruitment tools and inclusivity (especially around disability).

The Workology Podcast is part of Future of Work series powered by PEAT, the Partnership on Employment & Accessible Technology.

PEAT is funded by the Office of Disability Employment Policy, U.S. Department of Labor.

Data Driven Chat || AI Will See You Now: AI Bias in HR Analytics & Management || Merve Hickok

Data Driven Chat || AI Will See You Now: AI Bias in HR Analytics & Management || Merve Hickok

Data Driven Chat || AI Will See You Now: AI Bias in HR Analytics & Management || Merve Hickok

n this episode of Data Driven Chat, Ganna Pogrebna interviews Merve Hickok on #AI​, #AIethics​, #bias​ and #responsibility​. How can we avoid #aibias​ in #recruitment and in #humanresources​ decisions in general? From AI-based recruiters to data-driven psychological matching of people to roles, AI penetrates much of the #HR​ decision making. How do we make sure that it is used in responsible and ethical way? What is the impact of these decisions on marginalized communities? Click to find out. Merve Hickok is the founder of www.aiEthicist.org & a Business Process and Management Analyst at High Sierra Industries. Merve has 15+ years of senior level HR & Sales experience in Fortune 100 companies (Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Marriott Corporation), working on Diversity & Inclusion, College Recruitment, HR Technologies and Sales projects spanning more than 20 countries. High Sierra Industries is focused on learning systems for individuals with intellectual disabilities. Within the organization, Merve is in charge of project management, HIPAA security, as well, as the overall information security for the organization. Merve is also a member of the board of directors for Northern Nevada International Center (University of Nevada-Reno), Management Committee member for Sierra Club Toiyabe (Nevada) Chapter, and a Lecturer on Data Ethics at University of Michigan. She volunteers for a number of organizations working on community empowerment. Merve’s AI ethics advocacy work through lectures, speaking engagements and her website on AI & ethics and bias is focused on elevating the conversation, and increasing the public knowledge of the impact of AI and automated decision making systems in our lives and working for oversight, transparency or accountability.

Find out more about Merve via: LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/mervehickok/ Twitter @HickokMerve Website https://www.aiethicist.org/mervehickok

What COVID Life is teaching us about inclusion

What COVID Life is teaching us about inclusion

Never in modern times have we humans experienced the fear of the unknown as we seek to plan for an uncertain future. Now in forced togetherness, even families of moms, dads, and kids, who love each other express feelings of boredom and sadness from a daily diet of sameness.

This is COVID Life.

We long for socialization in wider and more interesting ways. We look back on activities we likely took for granted and wish we were able to do them: to party with friends, nachos grande arriving to our table packed into our favorite corner booth at the taqueria, hugging people, seeing a smile, high-fiving anyone around us in the bleachers, cheering as our team scores.

We look forward to being able to live that life again. Thanks to COVID Life, perhaps we’ll notice in the moment how precious inclusion is. Even though we know it’s for our own safety more of us now are experiencing firsthand that physical, emotional and social exclusion hurts, and like the virus, it will not go away easily.

What if in the name of safety, lack of self-determination, loneliness, and isolation is not just your reality this year, these features describe your daily life? COVID Life for many people with disabilities just describes their extended reality, often for many years.

And now while many of us are experiencing COVID Life, thousands of Nevadans are even more isolated, with fewer activities in which to engage, while parents and providers see funding issues looming on the horizon adding to their COVID Life stresses.

Sounds dire. It is in many ways. After COVID Life, after quarantine, when fear becomes hope and trust, how will we be changed by this experience? Will we find the courage to change what we can? Participate in this time of great reckoning for excluding, labeling, prejudice.

Michael Brueggert, left, and James MacNamara HSI.

Can we dare to expect and take action to support true inclusion in our businesses, in our homes, in our everyday life? Generally, change requires a significant experience that causes us to question what we think we know. If COVID Life helps us glimpse how isolation or exclusion feels can we build on that and start by being kinder?

A question, followed by supportive silence (no foot-tapping, texting) to wait for an answer saying with your face that you are willing to listen with an open mind. Help me understand your perspective?

If there is a kinder question to start an honest dialogue, ask that question. How can I include you more, value your input more, value your ideas, your decisions? Begin a dialogue with first-line staff, with customers, with your leaders, it’s the first step to identify areas of strength and opportunity for a more inclusive anything.

High Sierra Industries (HSI) is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit. We develop and use learning systems to benefit people with disabilities and those who support them.

You may wonder what you, a complex organization, or small business can possibly learn from us? For over 20 years we’ve successfully pivoted, shrunk, grown, and stretched our business and our resources while honing our success teaching people with different abilities to identify and achieve their goals.

Our greatest lesson learned and biggest secret … people are people first; we ALL have different abilities.

The X-treme Ability Challenge (XAC) is our annual fun-raising event. The XAC was created as a fun, participative way to dispel stereotypes, prejudices, and exclusionary labels used to describe people with different abilities. Participants in the XAC, for just a few minutes, do a task using skills such as using sign language or using a wheelchair.

We’ve taken the XAC to a new level; as employee development to explore your organization’s inclusion culture in a positive and outcome-focused way. Inclusion conversations aren’t easy conversations to have. When were they ever?

What we DO KNOW is thanks to COVID Life more of us have some experience with exclusion upon which to build and improve INCLUSION. What we also know is how to facilitate honest dialog, do data analysis and provide actionable recommendations.

Whether you have us help you or not, you can lead an inclusion dialogue, ask questions, dig deeper and identify opportunities to create a more inclusive work environment where your employees, the people YOU support, can’t wait to contribute every day!

Be a catalyst to a conversation of inclusivity in your organization, to learn more about the XAC, please call LaVonne at 775-771-2494 or Jimmy Breslin at 775-846- 8008 or visit hsireno.org/XAC.

This article was originally posted on the Northern Nevada Business Weekly’s Non-Profit Spotlight.

In Memory of Sparks Mayor Ron Smith

In Memory of Sparks Mayor Ron Smith

Photo Credit: Gwinn Nelson

In addition to appreciating his service to the community he loved, Ron was our friend. He served for almost four years as our Government Liaison Officer, overseeing contracts providing people with disabilities well-paying jobs. We were privileged to get to know him and work with him. Heartfelt sympathies to Ron’s family, many friends, and colleagues.

On behalf of us at HSI-WARC,

LaVonne Brooks