What's the Purpose of the Participant Involvement Fund(PIF)?

The NC Council on Developmental Disabilities (NCCDD) is committed to promoting the involvement of people with developmental disabilities in public policy, advocacy and community building. Many policy, procedure, and program decisions affecting the lives of people with developmental disabilities are made without input from the disability community. The Participant Involvement Fund (PIF) was designed to help people with developmental disabilities, their family members, or their guardians by reimbursing some of the costs of going to events. Events are conferences, trainings, public forums, focus groups, committees, task forces, hearings and other similar non-recreational activities, which provide consumers resources and information they need to learn best practices, to make informed choices, to learn advocacy and/or to enhance their quality of life. The PIF cannot help with treatment or consultative services; conferences with very limited registration may be judged to fall in this category.

Who’s Eligible?

(Council members are not eligible.)

The term ''developmental disability'' means a severe, chronic disability of an individual that-

is attributable to a mental or physical impairment or combination of mental and physical impairments;
is manifested before the individual attains age 22;
is likely to continue indefinitely;
results in substantial functional limitations in 3 or more of the following areas of major life activity:

reflects the individual's need for a combination and sequence of special, interdisciplinary, or generic services, individualized supports, or other forms of assistance that are of lifelong or extended duration and are individually planned and coordinated.

How to Apply:

Apply to the NC Council on Developmental Disabilities
· An application must be received in the Council office 30 days prior to an in-state event and 60 days prior to an out-of-state event. The committee prefers applications to be in at least 30 days prior to any “Early Bird” registration dates. Applications received by Participant Involvement Fund Committee (PIFC) will be reviewed monthly. All applications for a particular event will be reviewed at the same time, regardless of how far in advance some applications are submitted.
· A Participant Involvement Fund Committee will review applications for funds monthly.

Funds May Be Provided For:

Registration Fees
Child Care or Respite: Up to $8.00 per hour, up to $170 per day
Personal Assistance Services: Up to $8.00 per hour, up to $170 per day
Hotel/Lodging: Up to $57.00 plus tax in-state, $63.00 plus tax out of state
Meals (per day): Up to $30.00 in state, and up to $31.50 out-of state.
Transportation: .405 per mile (State rate subject to change)
Other (at the discretion of the PIFC)

Funds Per Applicant:

There are limits on how much the PIF can provide to any one individual per year. The limit is up to $600 per year per person for in-state events, and up to $800 per year per person for out-of-state events. The maximum amount available for any single activity or event cannot exceed $1200 in-state and $1800 out-of state, regardless of how many people apply.

In order to allow more families of people with disabilities to attend events, the Council’s Participant Involvement Funds can only partially fund the cost of attending an event. The Council requires persons wishing to receive Participant Involvement Funds to secure partial funding from other sources, such as his/her own money based on ability to pay, other state agencies, private foundations, consumer or advocacy organizations, or employer.

If the total amount of applications exceeds the above limits, the following priorities will be applied to determine how the funds will be awarded:

When Are Funds Available To Applicants:

The Participant Involvement Funds are reimbursed for actual expenses. This means that Council cannot authorize a check to the applicant before he/she actually attends or participates in the activity/event. A receipt for each expense to be reimbursed must be submitted to Council before a reimbursement request can be processed. The participant will be responsible for the necessary cancellations if unable to attend a prepaid event, and immediately informing the Council of such cancellation.

The Committee’s Decisions on all applications will be mailed in writing to all applicants.

After returning from an event, all individuals receiving Participant Involvement Funds will be asked to complete a PIF survey form. Participants will also be asked to share information received from the event with his or her local community and/or the NCCDD.

DISCLAIMER:
The Participant Involvement Fund is not an entitlement. The PIF Committee reserves the right to use discretionary judgment on any application they deem appropriate.


Guidelines will be updated as needed. Rev. 07/2007

For questions or comments, please contact Jean Wolff-Rossi, PIF Coordinator at Jean.Wolff@nccdd.org .
 

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