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Idaho Transportation
Department

Office of Communications
P.O. Box 7129
Boise, ID 83707
208.334.8005
Fax: 208.334.8563

 


Board lauds work of independent living group

The Idaho Transportation Board commended the Idaho State Independent Living Council (SILC) and the Division of Public Transportation for pooling and leveraging resources through an inspirational partnership with the goal of creating “Local Mobility Management Networks” throughout the State of Idaho in support of efficient, effective, and intelligent transportation options that are accessible and seamless.

Kelly Buckland who is the executive director of the Idaho State Independent Living Council (SILC) has made the generous commitment to assign staffing support that the council recently received through an AmeriCorps grant to Idaho’s Mobility and Access Pathway (IMAP) initiatives.

More specifically Buckland wishes to support the final development of the Local Mobility Management Networks, including the generation of coordinated public transportation service plans for each of Idaho’s seventeen local mobility networks as identified through IMAP.

The Idaho State Independent Living Council was created by Executive Order on May 28, 1993, and since that time has been engaged in activities that assist in providing Idahoans with disabilities a greater voice in obtaining services that are consumer responsive, cost effective, and community based. Idaho SILC advocates for equal opportunity, equal access, self-determination, independence and choice for people with disabilities.

The focus of Idaho SILC is to maximize opportunities and incorporate people with disabilities into all walks of life through personal empowerment. Idaho SILC also provides leadership development opportunities to empower grassroots advocates, who, in turn, will develop systemic changes in public policy to positively impact people with disabilities.

In 2007, Kelly submitted a grant request to AmeriCorps for staffing support to create local mobility networks focused on the needs of the independent living community. During discussions that occurred in the development of IMAP it became evident that there was a natural nexus that existed between Kelly’s desire to connect the independent living community and the new vision of IMAP.

AmeriCorps is a network of three programs that each year supports the engagement of nearly 75,000 Americans in service to meet critical needs in education, the environment, public safety, homeland security and other areas.

Since 1994, nearly 500,000 AmeriCorps members have served with thousands of nonprofit organizations, public agencies, and faith-based organizations nationwide-from small community groups to nationally known organizations such as Habitat for Humanity, the Red Cross and Boys and Girls Clubs of America.

Members tutor and mentor youth, build affordable housing, clean parks and streams, and recruit, train and manage community volunteers. In return for their service, AmeriCorps members receive an AmeriCorps Education Award that they can use to pay for college or to pay back qualified student loans; members have earned more than $1 billion in education awards since 1994.

This year, AmeriCorps will present more than 380 individuals opportunities to provide intensive, results-driven service to meet education, environmental, public safety and other pressing needs in communities across Idaho.

Roughly three-quarters of all AmeriCorps grant funding goes to the Governor-appointed Serve Idaho, Governor's Commission on Service & Volunteerism, which in turn awards grants to nonprofit groups to respond to local needs. Since 1994, more than 2,700 Idaho residents have qualified for AmeriCorps Education Awards totaling more than $9.2 million.

Published 6-27-8