What are the opening hours?

Monday 8:15am - 4:30pm Tuesday 8:15am - 4:30pm Wednesday 8:15am - 4:30pm Thursday 8:15am - 4:30pm Friday 8:15am - 4:30pm

Blue Ridge Independent Living Center, 1502 Williamson Road NE Suite B, Roanoke, VA (2026)

03/23/2026

*** Join us for a Day of Impact: Renovation Celebration! ***
Looking for a quick way to make a big difference in the Roanoke Valley? Join us for Renovation Celebration, a high-impact morning where you can roll up your sleeves and help neighbors in need!
The Plan:
• 10:00 AM – 11:30 AM | Serve: Help us build accessible modular ramps for local homeowners. No prior construction experience is needed!
• Future Builders Zone: We'll have a special supervised opportunity for kids of all ages to get involved with community service.
• 11:30 AM – 1:00 PM | Celebrate: After the build, we’ll enjoy lunch featuring special speakers, live music, and a silent auction.
Tickets: Every dollar raised goes directly toward our mission of providing critical home repairs for Roanoke area neighbors in need.
• Adult Tickets ($25): Includes your build session, safety gear, and lunch.
• Youth Tickets ($5): Includes supervised kids' service project and lunch.
It's the perfect opportunity to connect with like-minded neighbors while making a tangible impact on local housing accessibility.
Ready to pick up a hammer? Secure your spot on the crew today and help us ensure every neighbor in the Roanoke Valley is able to reside in a safe and healthy home.
Tickets on sale now!

We can't wait to build and celebrate with you!

Best,
The Renovation Alliance Team

03/19/2026

**** New Blog Series: Investing for Independence. ****
A New Blog Series Dedicated to Your Financial Freedom

Many people assume investing is out of reach—reserved for those with extra income, financial expertise, or exclusive networks. This perception is exactly what needs to change. A new three-part blog series, now live on ablenrc.org, explores how Achieving a Better Life Experience (ABLE) accounts can expand financial opportunity and inclusion for people with disabilities, their families, and the broader network of service providers and partners who support them. Designed to be accessible and practical, the series offers a clear entry point into building more equitable financial futures.
Introducing: A Beginner's Guide to Investing for People with Disabilities

This series was developed by experts in disability finance and economic empowerment, offering clear, honest guidance on building a more secure financial future.

Blog 1: Investing for Independence: How People with Disabilities Can Build Their Financial Future
By Thomas Foley, Executive Director, National Disability Institute
Tom opens the series by addressing a common belief—that financial growth is something reserved for others. He challenges this idea directly, breaking down the fundamentals of investing and highlighting how it can support greater independence and long-term security for people with disabilities. This blog provides a strong starting point for those new to investing.
https://realeconomicimpact.us8.list-manage.com/track/click?u=ea6584491b7ab9daf6b074fe6&id=83f8e7f1e5&e=ee97e918b4

Blog 2: A Practical Guide to ABLE Investment Options: How to Invest in an ABLE Account
By Ryan Fitzgerald, CFA, Principal, Sellwood Investment Partners LLC
With an ABLE account in place, the next question is how to use it effectively. Ryan outlines the full range of investment options available in most ABLE plans, from low-risk cash and money market options to target-risk portfolios for longer-term goals. He also explains key tax advantages and common pitfalls, offering practical guidance for informed decision-making.
https://realeconomicimpact.us8.list-manage.com/track/click?u=ea6584491b7ab9daf6b074fe6&id=42e4a30190&e=ee97e918b4

Blog 3: You Belong Here
By Jody Ellis, Director, ABLE National Resource Center
Jody closes the series with a powerful reminder: financial inclusion matters. The skills required to manage daily finances—budgeting, planning, and navigating complex systems—are the same foundations that support successful investing. This blog reinforces that wealth-building tools, including ABLE accounts, are increasingly accessible and designed to support broader participation.
https://realeconomicimpact.us8.list-manage.com/track/click?u=ea6584491b7ab9daf6b074fe6&id=42e4a30190&e=ee97e918b4

Why This Series Matters
People with disabilities continue to face structural financial barriers, including lower incomes, higher costs of living, and systems that have historically discouraged saving. ABLE accounts were created to address these challenges. However, awareness alone is not enough—understanding how to use these tools for long-term growth is what drives meaningful change.

This series brings that knowledge together in a practical, accessible format to support individuals, families, and the professionals and partners working alongside them.

Readers are encouraged to explore the series, share it across networks, and support continued progress toward more inclusive financial futures. Every step forward makes a difference.

With gratitude,
National Disability Institute

03/19/2026

**The National Center on Law & Elder Rights Contract Terminated**
The Trump Administration has terminated Justice in Aging’s contract to administer the National Center on Law and Elder Rights (NCLER), effectively ending a critical program that efficiently protected elder rights, promoted the well-being and independence of older adults, and helped them live free from abuse and exploitation.

NCLER, a resource center which Justice in Aging operated for nearly ten years, provided tools, specialized expertise, and trainings to assist legal and aging services providers in serving their low-income older adult clients.

The Termination’s Impact on Older Adults
The Administration’s decision to terminate the NCLER contact creates even more challenges for older adults and their families, during what is already a perilous and uncertain moment.
Low-income older adults and people with disabilities are already facing the largest cuts to Medicaid in history, as well as cuts to SNAP, affordable housing, and other programs. At the same time, scammers are getting ever more sophisticated, and staffing cuts at various government agencies leave older adults with fewer places to turn for help.

The Termination’s Impact on the Aging and Elder Rights Community

With the end of the NCLER contract, the elder rights and aging community has lost the central hub that provided resource support on the priority issue areas impacting older adults. And they have also lost a network where they could participate in cohorts and receive capacity support that helped them build their programs to prioritize and serve older adults with the greatest social and economic needs. Older adults across the country who rely on these networks will suffer.

Justice in Aging Resources and Trainings

Though Justice in Aging is no longer administering the NCLER contract, a core part of our mission has always been to provide training, resources, and case consultations to the aging network on the issues low-income older adults face. That’s not going to change.

Justice in Aging has many new resources and trainings available for advocates including:
• Webinar Recording: Protect Medicaid: State Revenue Strategies for Aging & Disability Advocates
• Fact Sheet: Understanding the Impact of H.R.1 on Older Immigrants’ Access to Health Care
• Webinar Recording: Implementing New Medicaid Work Requirements: Strategies to Minimize Harm in Your State
• Webinar Recording: Overpayments, In-Kind Support, and Operational Impacts - How Current SSA Policies Could Affect Your Clients

More resources are available in Justice in Aging’s Resource Library, and our experts are available for technical assistance and consultations by emailing info@justiceinaging.org.
Advocates who join our email list will continue to get updated information and resources to help serve and advocate for older adults. Please share our sign-up page with your colleagues and partners.

NCLER Background
The Older Americans Act (OAA) requires the Assistant Secretary for Aging to make grants and enter into contracts to provide a national legal assistance support system. The Act specifies the activities for this support system, who can operate it, and the target audience.
Since 2016, Justice in Aging had been the prime contractor selected by the Administration for Community Living (ACL) to develop and administer this support system as the National Center on Law and Elder Rights (NCLER).

For decades prior to 2016, Justice in Aging was one of several grantees who fulfilled this requirement, although not through a centralized entity like NCLER. Justice in Aging had the first five-year contract to administer NCLER from 2016-2021, and was selected for a second five-year contract in 2021.

Over the last nine years, NCLER provided training, technical assistance, and capacity building support to its network, which had over 64,000 professionals from the legal, aging, and disability fields. NCLER trainings and technical assistance services reached individuals in all 50 states.

The contract was renewed for its 10th year in early August 2025.
On September 30, 2025, the Department of Health & Human Services suddenly, and without explanation, terminated Justice in Aging’s contract to operate NCLER. The Department has shared no information about how it plans to continue to provide this important service to the community in accordance with the requirements under the Older Americans Act.

03/17/2026

**** NCIL Condemns Push for Guardianship of Veterans ****
The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs recently announced a new agreement with the Department of Justice that will allow federal attorneys to pursue guardianship or conservatorship for certain Veterans who are deemed unable to make their own medical decisions and who lack family or a representative.

The National Council on Independent Living (NCIL), a disability-led national organization, condemns this move.

Independent Living is grounded in the unwavering belief that all people with disabilities, including Veterans, must have the right to make decisions about their own lives. We have a long and troubling history showing that guardianship (and conservatorship) denies people those rights — the most basic civil and human rights.

In its recent move, the Veterans Administration has dressed this up in bureaucratic language. In fact, the proposed policy creates a pathway for the federal government to take away the civil rights of disabled Veterans.

Read the VA press release: https://bit.ly/3PnJ20N

Guardianship is not a supportive service. It is one of the most extreme legal actions that can be taken against a person when many, less restrictive options exist. Once imposed, a Veteran can lose the right to make decisions about their own body, their own money, and where and how they live — making it nearly impossible to restore those rights.

NCIL considers guardianship to be a form of institutionalization; depriving individuals of essential freedoms, denying individual choice and personal expression, and making self-determination and self-direction impossible.

Read NCIL’s position statement: https://bit.ly/4unHNPg

NCIL does support less restrictive alternatives to guardianship such as supported decision-making and power of attorney. Both alternatives formalize the supports Veterans may need while ensuring that they are still able to remain in control and to direct decisions about their life. A critical distinction from guardianship — supported decision-making and power of attorney leave the power to revoke these supports in the hands of the Veteran.

Disabled Veterans do not need their rights taken away. They need services, including housing, peer support, medical care. They need services that help them build the life they want while preserving dignity and independence.

As a disability-led national organization, NCIL will continue to call out and fight policies that threaten the autonomy and civil rights of disabled people, including Veterans.

Veterans fought for our freedoms. They should not have to fight their own government to keep them.

03/17/2026

*** Help Immigrant Families Stay Whole and Housed ***
The Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) has proposed a rule that would prohibit families with mixed immigration status from living together in HUD-assisted housing.
Under this proposal, mixed-status households would have to break apart their families to keep their housing assistance or face eviction and homelessness. Almost 3,000 older adults age 62+, as well as over 5,000 people with disabilities of all ages – including both citizens and non-citizens – live in HUD-assisted mixed-status households.

HUD’s proposal would also create unnecessary new administrative burdens. Tenants and applicants would have to provide documentation to verify their citizenship or immigration status.
The Trump Administration failed to implement a similar rule during its first term after significant pushback from advocates. Advocates can fight this proposal again and help keep families together by submitting comments to HUD.

Comments are due April 21, 2026.
Resources for Submitting Comments
• Justice in Aging contributed to these multi-sector template comments, which include information about how this proposal would harm older adults and people with disabilities. https://justiceinaging.us10.list-manage.com/track/click?u=727c211cf7b5afb21ea9dada3&id=914d5c6fb2&e=a195367e25
• We encourage advocates to use and adapt whichever sections of the template are relevant for your organization.
• Organizations can also sign on to comments by the Protecting immigrant Families Coalition by April 20 at 5pm EST.
More Resources
• Find toolkits, one-pagers, and more from the Keep Families Together Campaign and Protecting Immigrant Families Coalition.
• See data from CBPP about how this proposal would affect immigrant families in your state.
• For more detailed analysis of HUD’s proposed rule, see this memo from the National Housing Law Project.

03/12/2026

* Deadline Quickly Approaching- 2026 Charitable Fund Award Application Period Closes on March 31, 2026*
The Charitable Fund Award offers assistance with the purchase of equipment or services to individuals who demonstrate a financial need. Over the last 17 years, this program has provided funds for dental services, assistive technology, hearing aids, eyeglasses, camps, wheelchair ramps, and much more.

If you have any questions, email cfa@trustCCT.org

2026 CFA Timeline:
Application Period: February 1 - March 31
Review Period: April 1 - April 27
Applying Organizations Notified by May 7
Vendor Checks Mailed by May 21
Eligibility Requirements
The recipient must have a disability that meets the following Social Security Administration definition:
• Disability for an adult is the inability to engage in any “substantial gainful activity" by reason of any medically determinable physical or mental impairment(s) which can be expected to result in death or which has lasted or can be expected to last for a continuous period of not less than 12 months.
• Disability for a minor is a medically determinable physical or mental impairment or combination of impairments that causes marked and severe functional limitations, and that can be expected to cause death or which has lasted or can be expected to last for a continuous period of not less than 12 months.
The recipient must meet Federal poverty guidelines and/or receive SSI benefits. To review the HHS Poverty Guidelines, go to https://aspe.hhs.gov/poverty-guidelines.
(Note: For a minor, eligibility would be based on the family’s income.)

Who Can Submit an Application?
Applications must be completed and submitted by a representative from a nonprofit organization or public agency that serves people with disabilities.

"I really appreciate the hitch to my car. It made a huge difference in my life."

- Charles M. CFA Recipient
Appalachian Independence Ctr.

"The Lemux lift is amazing it comes in handy in so many ways. He enjoys being able to stand up and change position to build up muscles."

- Mae M.
Brain Injury Solutions

03/12/2026

*Research Recruitment Request for Individuals Who Use an Assistive Device for Walking — Illinois Institute of Technology*

03/03/2026

***HOTMA and Section 8: What Attorneys and Trustees Need to Know***
The Housing Opportunity Through Modernization Act (HOTMA) affects how income and assets are counted in determining eligibility and rent for Section 8 programs. While regulations implementing the law have been issued, there are some confusing provisions that will have to be further developed either at the local or national level. This issue of The Voice® provides a review of recent information on this important legislation.

Read This Issue of The Voice®
https://specialneedsalliance.us14.list-manage.com/track/click?u=d6910c896398ee6bf08993564&id=3c9d907a86&e=598129e301

This issue of the Voice was written by SNA member Emily Starr, CELA, of Starr Traiger LLP in Worcester, Massachusetts. Serving central Massachusetts, her firm specializes in special needs planning, estate and trust administration, guardianship and conservatorship, estate planning, and elder law.

03/03/2026

*** DBHDS/IFSP: Please Share 🌟Coordinated Regional Council Meeting : March 19 ***

03/03/2026

****** 2026 CFA We're Halfway There! ******
2026 Charitable Fund Award Application Period Closes on March 31, 2026!
The Charitable Fund Award offers assistance with the purchase of equipment or services to individuals who demonstrate a financial need. Over the last 17 years, this program has provided funds for dental services, assistive technology, hearing aids, eyeglasses, camps, wheelchair ramps, and much more.
If you have any questions, email cfa@trustCCT.org

2026 CFA Timeline:
Application Period: February 1 - March 31
Review Period: April 1 - April 27
Applying Organizations Notified by May 7
Vendor Checks Mailed by May 21

Eligibility Requirements
The recipient must have a disability that meets the following Social Security Administration definition:
• Disability for an adult is the inability to engage in any “substantial gainful activity" by reason of any medically determinable physical or mental impairment(s) which can be expected to result in death or which has lasted or can be expected to last for a continuous period of not less than 12 months.
• Disability for a minor is a medically determinable physical or mental impairment or combination of impairments that causes marked and severe functional limitations, and that can be expected to cause death or which has lasted or can be expected to last for a continuous period of not less than 12 months.

The recipient must meet Federal poverty guidelines and/or receive SSI benefits. To review the HHS Poverty Guidelines, go to https://aspe.hhs.gov/poverty-guidelines.
(Note: For a minor, eligibility would be based on the family’s income.)

Who Can Submit an Application?
Applications must be completed and submitted by a representative from a nonprofit organization or public agency that serves people with disabilities.

"I really appreciate the hitch to my car. It made a huge difference in my life."

- Charles M. CFA Recipient
Appalachian Independence Ctr.

"The Lemux lift is amazing it comes in handy in so many ways. He enjoys being able to stand up and change position to build up muscles."

- Mae M.
Brain Injury Solutions

02/26/2026

**** FCC Webinar for National Consumer Protection Week ****
The Federal Communication Commission’s Consumer Affairs and Outreach Division (CAOD) invites you to join a webinar in recognition of National Consumer Protection Week (NCPW) on Wednesday, March 4 from 2:00 p.m. to 3:00 p.m. ET.

Each year during NCPW, government agencies and nonprofit partners share information and resources to help consumers avoid scams and reduce the risk of fraud. This year, NCPW runs from Sunday, March 1 through Saturday, March 7.

During the webinar, FCC experts will provide information, tips, and guidance on:
• Robocalls
• Top Reported Scams of 2025
• Emerging Scams the FCC is tracking
• FCC Covered Entity List
• N11 – Abbreviated Dialing Codes
• FCC Consumer Resources

This webinar will be recorded, and the presentation slides will be shared with all registrants after the webinar. To register, click HERE.
c74745f1-72a2-40f4-b727-48e8f1221996@72970aed-3669-4ca8-b960-dd016bc72973" rel="ugc" target="_blank">https://events.gcc.teams.microsoft.com/event/c74745f1-72a2-40f4-b727-48e8f1221996@72970aed-3669-4ca8-b960-dd016bc72973

Additional Resources For NCPW:
The FCC will also share consumer protection resources throughout NCPW week on its Consumer Help Center: fcc.gov/consumers. Topics include:
• Robocalls
• Tips for Parents and Guardians: Child’s First Smart Device
• ISP Impersonation Scams
• Numbering/N11
• Tips for Individuals with Disabilities

All materials will be available for download to share with your networks and help spread the word about pressing consumer protection issues.

Questions or Collaboration Opportunities:
For questions about the webinar or to schedule a meeting to discuss collaboration with the FCC on providing information to your community, email outreach@fcc.gov.
Individuals who use videophones and are fluent in American Sign Language (ASL) may call the FCC’s ASL Consumer Support Line at (844) 432-2275 (videophone).

Accessibility:
Sign language interpreters and captioning will be provided. Other reasonable accommodations for people with disabilities are available upon request. Please include a description of the accommodation you will need and your contact information in case we need more details. Submit your request as early as possible. Last-minute requests will be accepted but may be difficult to fulfill. Send an e-mail to FCC504@fcc.gov or call the Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau at 202-418-0530 (voice).

We look forward to your participation at the webinar on March 4, 2026!

02/26/2026

**** Borchard Foundation Center on Law & Aging Calls for Fellowship Applications ****
Applications due April 10, 2026

The Borchard Fellowship in Law & Aging offers the opportunity to carry out a substantial project related to law and aging in partnership with a host agency. Two two-year fellowships are available to law school graduates interested in, and perhaps already in the early stages of pursuing, an academic and/or professional career in law and aging.

The fellowship is $70,000 a year for two years and is intended as a full-time position only. During the fellowship period, the Center’s director and former fellows are available to help fellows with the further development of their knowledge, skills, and contacts. Fellows may also receive financial support from the Center to attend appropriate professional education program opportunities.
A fellow is expected to provide the Center with monthly activities reports. Fellows may live and work where they choose in the United States. Fellows must be either U.S. citizens or legally resident in the U.S. Read more information about the fellowship.

The online application is live starting March 2, 2026. Begin the online application process here.

Blue Ridge Independent Living Center

03/23/2026

03/19/2026

03/19/2026

03/17/2026

03/17/2026

03/12/2026

03/12/2026

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02/26/2026

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Monday	8:15am - 4:30pm
Tuesday	8:15am - 4:30pm
Wednesday	8:15am - 4:30pm
Thursday	8:15am - 4:30pm
Friday	8:15am - 4:30pm