The American Association on Health and Disability (AAHD) is pleased to announce that it will be funding eleven Community Outreach Collaboratives (COCs) through the National Disability Navigator Resource Collaborative (NDNRC) project. The COCs will increase collaborations in the community, dissemination and outreach efforts and enrollment of people with disabilities in the ACA. The COCs will have two primary tasks: 1) build cross-disability collaborations with other disability organizations; and 2) have the cross-disability collaboration work as a dissemination and outreach resource with their local and/or state navigators and assisters.
The COCs represent organizations with geographic diversity as well as varying constituencies within the disability community. AAHD is proud to say that the 11 COCs represent 11 different states and are located in 9 of the 10 HHS regions. The 11 COCs are (by HHS regions) as follows:
- Region #1 – Rhode Island Parent Information Network, Cranston, RI
- Region #2 – Center for Independence of the Disabled, NY, New York, NY
- Region #3 – NAMI (National Alliance on Mental Illness) Southwest Pennsylvania, Pittsburgh, PA
- Region #4 – Lakeshore Foundation, Birmingham, AL
- Region #5 – Family Voices Indiana, Indianapolis, IN
- Region #5 – Wayne State University, Detroit, MI
- Region #6 – University of New Mexico Center for Development and Disability, Albuquerque, NM
- Region #7 – NAMI Kansas, Topeka, KS
- Region #8 – Family Voices Colorado, Centennial, CO
- Region #8 – North Dakota Center for Persons with Disabilities at Minot State University in partnership with Family Voices of North Dakota, Minot, ND
- Region #10 – PAVE Family to Family Health Information Center, Tacoma, WA
We at the NDNRC congratulate these fine organizations and look forward to working with them through the coming open enrollment and the remainder of 2015 as we endeavor to increase enrollment of people with disabilities in the health insurance marketplaces. The COC initiative is part of the year 2 NDNRC grant which is made possible by the funding from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.