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A $7.7 million federal grant is being used to expand mental-health services in Montana and Wyoming where there is a severe shortage of psychiatrists and therapists.A Sacramento-based company, HealthLinkNow, received the three-year grant last year from the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services Innovation Awards, a federal program designed to underwrite promising new models of health care delivery.

"I was lucky to have been born in the computer age. Without them, my life would have been miserable and my scientific career impossible," – the dramatic words of Professor Stephen Hawking expressed at last year's Technology4Good awards. But Hawking is not alone in his sentiment. My career path also bears testimony to the enormous changes that technology has wrought over the past 20 years. It is not an exaggeration to say that the future is here at last, bringing with it enormous potential to improve the lives of disabled people in infinite ways.

USTA Serves awards program grants twice a year to programs that support at-risk youth and people with disabilities through tennis and education programs designed to improve health, build character and strive for academic excellence.   To date USTA Serves has granted more than $11 million to fund 226 programs in 173 cities in 43 states, including more than $600,000 to adaptive tennis programs for people with special needs. For additional information about submitting a grant proposal, please email us at foundation@usta.com.

In 2008 the Scotch Plains Public Library and the Fanwood Memorial Library, together with our partners, created Libraries and Autism: We're Connected. This award winning project produced a customer service training video and website primarily for library staff to help them serve individuals with autism and their families more effectively. The video focuses on what you need to know about autism and will empower you with specific techniques to offer more inclusive service to this growing and underserved population.

On June 7th, 2011, Disability Rights Montana (DRM) http://www.disabilityrightsmt.org and its client were honored in Baltimore at the annual National Disability Rights Network and TASC conference as Advocates of the Year for the work of two of DRM's senior attorneys, Alexandra Volkerts (Missoula) and Andree Larose (Helena).

Alongside the famed Caldecott and Newbery awards for children’s literature, three books are being honored for focusing on the disability experience.

Gary Mihelish, the former president of the Montana chapter of the National Alliance on Mental Illness, has spent a couple of decades advocating for people with mental illness, fighting against the stigma, ignorance and isolation that often comes with those diseases.In late June at the alliance’s annual conference in San Antonio, he received one of its top honors, the Distinguished Service Award, recognizing his work before the Montana Legislature and, along with his wife, Sandra, in implementing the group’s family-to-family program for more than a decade. He also was elected to NAMI’s national board.

HELENA -- The Montana Office of Public Instruction announced on Monday that it has received three grants totaling more than $12.5 million to improve school climate and school safety and support the mental and emotional health of Montana students. The Office of Public Instruction was awarded a $3.75 million School Climate Transformation grant, an $8.5 million Project AWARE grant, and a $250,000 School Emergency Planning grant.

New! AutismCares iPad 2 Grant Applications Open! Autism Speaks is thrilled to announce that through the generosity of Sevenly, Wyndham Worldwide, the Geier Foundation, the James Walter Pickle Charitable Foundation, the Agarwal Foundation and Jonathan Izak, 800 schools and financially disadvantaged individuals with autism will receive an Apple iPad 2 with a Kraken A.M.S. case, by Trident Case! iPads will be awarded to financially disadvantaged individuals with autism who are unable to afford an iPad. Applicants must be diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder and must reside in the United States.

When: Pre-Show - 6:00 pm Show - 7:00 pm Where: Dehler Park Baseball Stadium FREE ADMISSION This 2nd Event in the Koncert for Kidz 2010 Family Series features folk music by Mulberry Moon - Robert and Constance Smith and Award winning folk duo Jeff Troxel & Trevor Krieger.  Master of Ceremonies is Dave Wood.  The 6:00 PM Pre-Show includes kid friendly food vendors, Al Bedoo Shrine Clowns, Jonnie Edgeland's Fireflies, Face Painting, the Gazillion Bubble Machine, Dance Performances

A new institute at Purdue University will soon study ways for students with physical impairments to better navigate and excel in scientific research. <SCRIPT language='JavaScript1.1' SRC="http://ad.doubleclick.net/adj/N5654.285258.JOURNALANDCOURIERLA/B4859995.6;abr=!ie;sz=160x600;ord=[timestamp]?"> </SCRIPT> <NOSCRIPT> <A HREF="http://ad.doubleclick.net/jump/N5654.285258.JOURNALANDCOURIERLA/B4859995.6;abr=!ie4;abr=!ie5;sz=160x600;ord=[timestamp]?"> <IMG SRC="http://ad.doubleclick.net/ad/N5654.285258.JOURNALANDCOURIERLA/B4859995.6;abr=!ie4;abr=!ie5;sz=160x600;ord=[timestamp]?" BORDER=0 WIDTH=160 HEIGHT=600 ALT="Click Here"></A> </NOSCRIPT> The university has been awarded a $2 million grant to create the Institute for Accessible Science, which will include a physical laboratory and a Web-based interactive community for those interested in biomedical research careers.

MURFREESBORO, Tenn. - A CBS News Correspondent opened up to NewsChannel 5 about what he calls his shameful secret. Byron Pitts, correspondent for CBS's "60 Minutes" has interviewed the past 6 presidents, dodged bullets in Afghanistan, and brought home dozens of journalism awards in his 30 years of reporting. But on Sunday, he was in Murfreesboro for a conference about literacy and reading. Pitts was standing as an unlikely poster child of illiteracy. "Nothing about where I come from suggests I should be doing what I am doing right now," said Pitts. For the first 12 years of his life, Pitts admitted he couldn't read.

It is well known that people with special needs can accomplish amazing things despite their so-called disabilities. But in the annals of such heroics, a special place must be reserved for Joshua A. Winheld. On February 5, 2010, Winheld was awarded a Master of Arts degree in urban studies from Temple University in Philadelphia. For his thesis, he explored factors preventing local real estate developers from building more housing that is accessible to people with physical disabilities. Accessible housing was a subject that had interested Winheld since the age of 10, when he was forced into a wheelchair by Duchenne muscular dystrophy.

Kim Peek, the autistic savant who inspired the Oscar-winning film Rain Man, has died, aged 58. Mr Peek's father Fran said that his son had suffered a major heart attack on Saturday and was pronounced dead at a hospital in Salt Lake City, Utah, the town where he had spent his life. Mr Peek was probably the world's most famous savant. Described as a confounding mixture of disability and genius, his astonishing ability to retain knowledge inspired the writer Barry Morrow to write Rain Man, the 1988 movie starring Dustin Hoffman that won four Academy Awards.

These scholarship opportunities are listed in chronological order, based on their application deadlines. The list includes scholarships that are specifically aimed at Latinos and students with disabilities. The scholarships listed here include scholarships for undergraduate and graduate studies. Most of them are available nationwide. If the deadline for a scholarship has already passed, but the scholarship is a good fit for you, follow the link to its website and get more information about it. These scholarships are awarded annually, and you may be able to apply for it next year.

Google Lime Scholarship for Students with Disabilities

Recipients of the Google Lime Scholarship will receive a scholarship for the 2010–2011 academic year. Selected students will also be invited to attend the all-expenses-paid retreat at the Googleplex in Mountain View, CA, in 2011. Scholarships will be awarded based on the strength of candidates’ academic background, leadership and passion for computer science - $10,000USD for those studying in the US and $5,000CAD for those studying in Canada (based on average tuition costs).

Candidates must be: A current junior or senior year of undergraduate study or enrolled in a graduate program at a university in the United States or Canada (in addition to US and Canada citizens, international students with disabilities studying at universities in the US or Canada are also encouraged to apply) Enrolled in a Computer Science or Computer Engineering program, or a closely related technical feld, as a full-time student for the 2010–2011 academic year A person with a disability (dened as someone who has, or considers themselves to have , a long-term, or recurring, issue that impacts one or more activities that others may consider a daily function); this denition also includes the perception among others that a disability exists

Friends and colleagues of a former Montana State University Billings educator who was killed in a traffic wreck  in February have established a scholarship endowment in her honor. The Montana Center on Disabilities at MSU Billings has established the Merry Jane Trewhella Memorial Scholarship Endowment.  Organizers and friends are working on building the endowment fund and plan to award a $250 scholarship to an education major for Fall Semester 2010.