About NPN
The National PASS Network (NPN) is a national educational and consumer advocacy organization on Social Security disability benefits. Since 1983, NPN's primary mission has been to advocate for improved public access, work to increase consumer awareness and promote informed participation in the federal Social Security disability benefit, aging support and work incentive programs.
For more than 25 years, the National PASS Network's national advocacy strategy has been simple yet very effective: we work to build individual and organizational consumer capacity on Social Security disability benefit issues; then work diligently to maintain and enhance that informed knowledge base through ongoing training update opportunities and continuous consumer-based informational materials development.
National Training Activities
Our nationally recognized, 2-day Master Advocate course works to build and maintain the expert advocacy knowledge capacity of individuals with disabilities, their advocates and the rehabilitation and community service organizations, programs and agencies that serve them. In addition NPN conducts numerous training activities on a variety of topics on accessing Social Security disability, Medicare and Medicaid benefits around the country.
NPN's disability benefit advocacy experience is extensive and broad-based. Since 1983 we have conducted over 850 training seminars/ workshops across the nation for a variety of service organizations, advocacy groups and federal/ state agencies. Our consumer training comes from actual use and advocacy of the Social Security disability programs not a recitation or rewording of federal laws and regulations. NPN presents information on disability programs in unique, person-centered ways that are easy-to-understand that only someone with our 25 years of advocacy experience can. We publish a number of consumer-oriented written materials and publish several blogs ( National and Texas) that help organizations and individuals keep up with policy and regulation changes in the federal disability benefit programs.
NPN provides specialized disability benefit consulting, case management assistance and customized on-site training and staff development assistance for public and private organizations and governmental agencies around the United States to develop and integrate proactive management strategies that maximize and leverage public resources related to the Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid programs. Our workshops are about positive, what-you-can-do strategies instead of the what-you-can't-do focus that is a common way issues on access to disability benefits are approached by many organizations.
Aging and Disabilty
Through our Texas Aging Family Caregiver Network project, NPN works and provides extensive conference planning and training for organizations on aging and disability issues. Our ahead-of-the-curve financial advocacy for aging people with disabilities and their families through its family financial services, NPN provides long-range, person-centered financial planning assistance and strategy development to families with special needs sons and daughters to preserve needed access to Social Security disability benefit and medical coverage under Medicare and Medicaid. The future planning program for families is unique because it integrates strategies for maximizing public benefits (Social Security, SSI, Medicaid/ Medicare) options for financing long-term care and private planning techniques with our Master Advocate program.
ArtWorks: Creative Industries
The National PASS Network and VSA arts of Texas are working as partners in a unique special project funded by the Texas Council for Developmental Disabilities to help artists with disabilities to become self-supporting as successful artists.
The 3-year project is called Artworks: Creative Industries. The project assists Texas artists with disabilities to access and understand Social Security disability benefits as they work to become self-supporting as artists. NPN will help them understand how additional earned income impacts their continued eligibility for the SSI and SSDI programs. NPN will also show artists with disabilities how to use the Social Security work incentives to reach their goals of self-support. We will use a SSI provision we know a lot about called the Plans for Achieving Self-Support (PASS) to help people with disabilities start businesses as artists.
Working with NPN
To schedule a presentation, conference speech, plan a seminar or workshop, collaborate on a grant proposal or retain NPN for a consulting project, contact:
Daniel Scarborough
President/ CEO
National PASS Network
1307 Kinney Avenue # 149
Austin, Texas 78704
512.444.3603
dscarborough@passNetwork.org
NPN marketing materials are copyright, Daniel Scarborough, 2008
