The membership of the USC UCEDD’s Community Advisory Committee has been selected to reflect the following criteria:

All members with developmental disabilities and/or family members. These individuals represent larger cohorts of consumers, but may also be at large.
Representatives from Northern and Southern California
Reflects the diversity of our state
Cross-disability representation
Professional and other service system representatives will not serve on this body by decision of the original group formed in 2002

Representatives of a variety of self-advocacy organizations which include:

Parent Training and Information Centers
Family Resource Centers
Family Empowerment Zone
Centers for Independent Living
Consumer Advocates, Regional Centers
People First of California
Local Self-Advocacy Group representatives
Self-Advocate, PAI
Specific disability-focused organizations (e.g., Fragile X Association of Southern California, Autism Society Los Angeles, Down Syndrome Association, etc.)
Fiesta Educativa
Minority consumer organizations

DD Act Partners:

Protection and Advocacy, Inc.
State Council on Developmental Disabilities
Developmental Disabilities Board, Area X

Statewide Representation

We are dedicated to having statewide input from consumers. Because there are over 150 self-advocacy groups in the state of California, statewide representation of this group will be through People First of California (PFCA), which is based in Sacramento, CA. We will ask PFCA to identify a southern California member to represent PFCA on UAP’s Consumer Advisory Committee. In order to also have local self-advocates on our advisory committee, we will also ask the Self-Advocacy Committee of LAC to appoint two representatives of self-advocacy groups in LA. In order to have representation of FRC’s from the north, we will ask the FRC network of California to appoint a member from the north and one from a rural community. We will also invite representation from the Consumer Advocates of regional centers. Consumer Advocates are mandated employees of regional centers under the Lanterman DD Act. Their role varies from regional center to regional center

Purpose and Frequency of Meetings

Meetings will occur three times a year, beginning in October, 2002. The focus of these meetings will be to report progress on the goals and objectives outlined for the year. The second meeting of every fiscal year (February) shall be used to plan objectives and priorities for the following year, with full Advisory Board input (renewal submission is usually April of every year). The third meeting of the year (June) will summarize accomplishments for the previous year towards intended outcomes. All recommendations from the Advisory Board which are agreed upon during meetings, shall be acted on by the UCEDD and reported back to the board through e-mail or at the next meeting, depending on how time-sensitive the recommendation is.

Compensation for Consumer Members

Consistent with existing UAP policy, all Advisory Committee members who are not supported by their host organization, will be reimbursed for their travel, personal assistance services, child care, in addition to a $75 honorarium for every meeting attended.

At the beginning of this five-year cycle, we decided that most representatives who do not live in Los Angeles, were to participate in advisory board meetings through teleconference. However, we found that this was not an effective form of participation, so our budgets beginning in 2004 included additional funding to pay for travel for all members for al three meetings.