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2023 Monthly Newsletter

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DIG Year in Review 2023

justine, Lauren, and debbie at the supper social holiday party smiling

Supper Social Club

black rectangle box outlined with a yellow line and the words Supper social club in the box in white

Our Supper Social Club is a neuro-diverse dining experience that we created to give young adults a fun night out in the community.


This project started in 2018, but we had to stop the event because of the COVID-19 pandemic. This year, we restarted the event, and we had five in-person events this year, that averaged 47 people per event. We also hosted our first Supper Social Club Karaoke Holiday Party. We had a fabulous time, and we hope to make this an annual event. We wanted to give a special thank you to Garrett Zediker and Zediker Law Firm for their support.


Please visit our Supper Social Club page on our website to see pictures and videos from the events.

The next Supper Social Club will be in February 2024

The Wallet Card Project

The Wallet Card Project is a comprehensive project that works with both law enforcement and people with disabilities to ensure safe police interactions.


The project includes a communication tool called a wallet card that helps a person disclose their disability to law enforcement.


We also have a caregiver card that family members can carry that has information about their family member with a disability.


We also have police training available for all law enforcement agencies.


We are proud to announce that the US Patent and Trademark Office has declared our name “The Wallet Card” as incontestable undersection sections 8 and 15. This is fantastic news for our project and means that the name is ours and that no one else can use it. The project is protected from anyone trying to copy the name.


This year we had 2,850 wallet card requests and we made 2,365 wallet cards. 1,801 were wallet cards and 1,049 were caregiver cards. We received requests from over 20 different countries and even from two US Military Bases overseas.


To date, we have made over 12,000 wallet cards and have given our police training to 83 departments that have trained more than 20,000 personnel.


Visit our wallet card project page on our website.

The Miami Inclusion Alliance (MIA)

mia lowercase.png

The funding for this project will end in December of this year. However, DIG will continue to advocate for people with disabilities who are victims/survivors of Domestic Violence and/or Sexual Assault.


The resources that we have developed with our partners will be available on our website and we are available as a resource to the community.


If you would like us to train your organization or your participants, please contact Debbie directly at Debbie@justdigit.org.

Our Resources

 

The MIA Institute

The MIA Institute is a 9-part training series. For each of the 9 training topics, we have available the training video, a transcript of the video, an online post-test, and a certificate of completion.

 

The Courthouse Guide

The Courthouse Guide will guide a victim through the Order of Protection court process in simplified language with pictures and is available in 3 languages and American Sign Language.

 

Accessibility Features of the iPad

Accessibility Features of the iPad give you a step-by-step guide to the iPad as an accessibility aid.

 

The MIA YouTube Channel

 

Power and Control Wheels

DIG Monthly Newsletter & Blog

This year we increased our readership to over 12,000 readers.


Justine has done a fabulous job as our editor. We have brought in amazing guest authors and have used the blog on our website to expand the reach of the articles in our newsletter.


We added a search bar on the top left of our website so that a person can search through any topic that is in our blog or on the website.


All of our newsletters are posted on the website and most of our featured articles are available through our blog

DIG Social Media

This year we focused on increasing our social media presence.


We are focusing on Facebook and Instagram. Please make sure to follow us so that you can stay up to date on the latest projects we are working on.


Justine is our social media maven and she is doing a fantastic job of sharing DIG’s work through social media. We also have a TikTok account and mainly use it to post videos of Lucy the Dog.


You can also visit our two YouTube channels to watch our videos. The two channels are the DIG YouTube Channel and the MIA YouTube Channel. 

DIG Trainings

This year DIG conducted 29 training courses and trained almost 900 people.


The trainings were on various topics, at the local, state, and national level, which included, how to safely use your wallet card, fair housing, Domestic Violence/Sexual Assault, civic engagement, how to host an accessible event, how to hire a person with a disability, and voting rights.


If you would like DIG to customize a training for your organization please let us know. You can email Debbie directly at debbie@justdigit.org. We also participated in community events and shared information about our work.

We are so excited for 2024!

We are going to focus on growing our Supper Social Club. We want to include more events and encourage more people to join our group. If you have an idea for an event, please email Debbie directly at debbie@justdigit.org.


We are also going to continue to make wallet cards and caregiver cards. If you would like to become a part of this project, please email Debbie directly at debbie@justdigit.org. We have programs for teachers and schools, programs for group homes, programs for organizations, and programs for police departments and law enforcement agencies.


We hope you have a wonderful holiday and a happy new year!


Look out for our January newsletter!


Love, The DIG Team

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The 988 Lifeline

blue square with 988 suicide and crisis lifeline written in the middle

988 is now active across the United States.

988 has been designated as the new three-digit dialing code that will route callers to the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline (now known as the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline) and is now active across the United States.


When people call, text, or chat 988, they will be connected to trained counselors that are part of the existing Lifeline network. These trained counselors will listen, understand how their problems are affecting them, provide support, and connect them to resources if necessary.

 

This new, shorter phone number will make it easier for people to remember and access mental health crisis services.

(Please note, the previous 1-800-273-TALK (8255) number will continue to function indefinitely.)


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