here - Disability Rights California

2011
Disability
Rights
California
California’s Protection & Advocacy System
San Diego
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I
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Septe
Fresno
Sacramento
San Francisco
Los Angeles
www.disabilityrightsca.org
www.disabilityrightsca/espanol
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SPOTLIGHT ON Youth Leadership Forum
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BAY AREA REGIONAL OFFICE
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NATIVE AMERICAN 5
SACRAMENTO OFFICE
SAN DIEGO OFFICE 6
FRESNO OFFICE
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OFFICE OF CLIENTS’ RIGHTS ADVOCACY
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LOS ANGELES OFFICE
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DEVELOPMENTAL DISABILITY PEER/SELF
ADVOCACY
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SPOTLIGHT ON
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20th Annual California Youth Leadership Forum for Students with Disabilities
T
he California Youth Leadership Forum (CYLF) is sponsored by California Governor’s
Committee on Employment for People with Disabilities, State Employment
Development Department, Department of Rehabilitation, Department of Education
and the California Foundation for Independent Living Centers. The Forum supports,
educates, and provides information and resources to California high school students with
disabilities. The Forum prepares young adults to be strong leaders and to give back to
their community. During the annual Forum young adults meet and greet other students
from different parts of California, interact with leaders in the state, and meet other role
models from the disability community. Approximately 60 students from California are
selected to participate and attend the 5-day event.
On July 26, the CYLF organized a resource and technology fair at California State
University Sacramento. The Fair provided a friendly space where students could meet
with service agencies and learn about the resources that are available. Sacramento
Regional staff Stephanie Arriero and Stephanie Burkett distributed agency brochures
and our special education CDs to the young adults at the event. The students were
enthusiastic about Disability Rights California and the services we offer.
Top photo: Stephanie Burkett and Stephanie Arriero, Sacramento staff.
Bottom photo: youths at the event
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BAY AREA
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an Jose’s 2nd Disability Pride Festival took place on July 23. Over 200 individuals from
the community gathered to participate in the celebration. The two Grand Marshalls of
the Festival were Jean Lin and Christina Mills. A previous Disability Rights California staff
member, Jean Lin is now the outreach coordinator for Asian & Pacific Islanders with Disabilities of California. Christina is the Deputy Director of the California Foundation for Independent Living Centers (CFILC).
The celebration highlighted the achievements of the American with Disabilities Act (ADA),
and provided organizations an opportunity to share their information with the community.
The event began with a parade at the Catholic Charities and ended at the Silicon Valley
Independent living Center. The festival offered an abundance of resources. Well over 100
agency booths and entertainment groups were at the event. This years’ parade highlight
was the “Justin Dart Puppet”. This puppet was made to commemorate the late activist,
Justin Dart,Jr., who is considered the founding father of the ADA.
Agencies present were Silicon Valley Independent Living Center (SVILC)-San Jose,
Abilities Expo, California Department of Rehabilitation, Apple West Home Medical Supply, and CFILC, Assistive Technology Network, Yo Disabled & Proud, Catholic Charities of
Santa Clara County, Parents Helping Parents, Santa Clara Valley Blind Center and many
more. All came to support the cause. Disability Rights California was also present to provide support and distributed information about Disability Rights California services in the
Bay Area.
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Background photo: Participants at the Disability Pride. Top photo: Grand Marshalls: Jean
Lin, Christina Mills, Elsa Quezada
NATIVE
AMERICAN
Drumming, Music and Special Education
O
ver 60 community members gathered on June 8, at the Oroville South Side Community
Center for the day long workshops on Special Education, Regional Center eligibility,
and children’s disabilities. And what a day it was!
Connecting Circles of Care through North Valley Catholic Social Services was our host. In
keeping with its mission of providing culturally competent services, the festivities started
with drumming, music, and a blessing by Lucky Preston. Throughout the day, simultaneous
translation was provided in both Hmong and Spanish.
Andy Holcombe, Clients’ Rights Advocate (CRA) from the Far Northern Office of Clients’
Rights Advocacy, warmed up the crowd with a presentation on children with disabilities and
their needs. Barbara Ransom, Senior Attorney, showed why she will always be first and
foremost, a teacher. Working the room with a brisk pace, no one fell asleep in her class,
“Special Education, Today and Tomorrow.”
With event facilitation provided by Lorie Atamian, Assistant Clients’ Right Advocate, and
Phyllis Preston, Native American Affairs Advocate, those gathering were treated not only
to a nice breakfast and lunch, but were active and engaged participants in case exercises,
question and answer sessions, and the all important end-of-the-day raffle. Who says you
can’t go back to school and have fun, too! Everyone left better informed and encouraged
about making a positive difference for their friends, family, clients, and community.
Top photo: participants. Left bottom photo: Phyllis Preston Sacramento staff and Lorie Atamian, OCRA staff.
Right bottom photo: Community leaders, Theresa Edwards, and Lucky Preston,
SACRAMENTO
4th Annual “Sacramento Homeless Connects” joins over 50 service agencies
O
n May 21, Disability Rights California joined the Sacramento Homeless Connects
event, which took place at Sacramento City College. This one-day event featured
agencies providing an array of health, education, and legal services to the homeless
community. Sacramento Mayor Johnson led the opening ceremony, welcoming everyone
to the fair. County Supervisor Phil Serna and Assembly member Roger Dickinson also
stopped by to lend their support to the festivities.
Over 50 different service agencies were represented and approximately 800 homeless
individuals attended. Agencies present included Americorp, Salvation Army, UC Davis
Medical, Private Dental Service, St Vincent de Pauls, CARES, Sacramento County,
Sacramento Self Help Housing, Veterans Administration, Social Security Administration,
Project Teach and many more. Health, optometry and dental screenings occurred
throughout the day; HIV testing and counseling, free DMV identification cards, applications
for social security and over 1000 hot meals were provided.
The event provided a great opportunity for Disability Rights California to network with
other service agencies and provide information about the services we provide. While at
the event, Sacramento Regional staff distributed brochures, annual reports and special
education CDs.
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Top photos: participants; Mayor Johnson and participant.
Bottom photo: Kathy Rossow and Dixie Diaz, Sacramento staff
SAN DIEGO
Training Held on Learning to Read
Your Individual Education Program
(IEP)
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n June 24, Griselda Delgadillo from
the San Diego Regional Office and
Cynthia Salomon from the Office Clients’
Rights Advocacy conducted a special
education training for the Mariposa
Support Group at the Dayle McIntosh
Center in Garden Grove. The Mariposa
support group meets monthly and hosts
Spanish-speaking parents who have
children with disabilities who are new to
special education.
The training focused on the Individual
Education Plan (IEP) process. Examples
of IEP documents were provided to the
parents who attended and the goal of the
training was to familiarize these parents
with the IEP process and how to read
and interpret the IEP forms. Parents had
lots of questions about their children’s
educational rights, such as “Should an
IEP meeting be scheduled and agreed
upon?” and, “Should the school push me
to place my child at a special day class?”
Approximately 23 parents attended the
IEP training and they requested that
Disability Rights California return to
provide additional trainings in the future.
Children at the Mariposa Support Group meeting
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FRESNO
Thumbs Up to Bingo!
T
humbs Up Community Integration was established in 1987 to provide adult
Valley Mountain Regional Center (VMRC) consumers with developmental
disabilities help with their integration into the Sonora community. Thumbs Up
assists 70 adult consumers at any given time.
On May 27, Agnes Williams, Associate Managing Attorney, Lisa Navarro,
Multicultural Affairs Advocate, Leinani Walter, Clients’ Rights Advocate and
Christine Hager, Assistant Clients’ Rights Advocate partnered with Thumbs Up
to conduct a self-advocacy clients’ rights BINGO training for the consumers.
The BINGO game is a fun, interactive way for consumers to learn about their
rights. The consumers participated enthusiastically, winning many prizes. The
Fresno staff plan to visit partnering agencies yearly to ensure access to legal
services for consumers throughout Tuolumne County.
Left photo: Leinani Walters,OCRA staff and Lisa Navarro, Fresno staff.
Top right photo: Participants. Bottom right photo: Lisa Navarro and participants.
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OFFICE OF CLIENTS’ RIGHTS
Advocates Collaborate at Self Advocacy
ADVOCACY
Training
D
isability Rights California has found that
collaboration with other advocates can
produce effective training of regional center
consumers. On May 26, 2011, advocates from
the Office of Clients’ Rights Advocacy (OCRA),
Peer Self Advocacy Unit , Area Board 4 and the
consumer advocate at North Bay Regional Center
(NBRC) presented a self-advocacy clients’ rights
training to 60 self-advocates from day programs
in the surrounding area.
Yulahlia Hernandez, Clients’ Rights Advocate,
Annie Breuer, Assistance Clients’ Rights
Advocate and Vanessa Ochoa-Alcaraz,
Administrative Assistant led the self advocacy
BINGO games and acknowledged excited winners.
Cindy Ruder of the Area Board 4 coordinated
attendance and planning for the event. DDS
Consumer Advisory Committee member, Cindy
White, facilitated audience participation. Randy
Kitch from NBRC moved the group through the
training agenda, while Daniel Meadows from the
Peer/Self Advocacy unit, provided information and
inspiration to the audience. Rosie Juarez, a selfadvocate and news reporter from the Becoming
Independent day program, participated in our
clients’ rights BINGO game along with other self
advocate representatives.
Poster sized BINGO cards were developed for
use by OCRA so that all the self-advocates in
the large room could see and enjoy the BINGO
game. Participants and presenters thoroughly
enjoyed and benefited from the collaboration. One
consumer noted that he, “I learned a lot of stuff
that I did not know.” Another consumer said, “I got
a lot out of it, I learned how to be a leader,” and,
“I learned more about rights and advocacy.” As a
result of this training, the next scheduled event is
September 29th, 2011, “How to be a leader.”
Top photo: Yulahlia Hernandez, OCRA staff and participants. Bottom photo: participant at day program
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OFFICE OF CLIENTS’ RIGHTS
ADVOCACY
My Own Choice
O
ffice of Clients’ Rights Advocacy (OCRA) staff had an extremely successful
Capital People First (CPF) training in June, 2011. Jeanne Molineaux,
Director, Alba Gomez, Assistant Clients’ Rights Advocate, and Wendy Dumlao,
Clients’ Rights Advocate met with nine residents of Country Hills Health Care
& Rehabilitation Center, a 304 bed skilled nursing facility. During the training,
OCRA staff presented materials developed by the Department of Developmental
Disability Services called “My Own Choice.” These materials explain four
possible community living options for consumers.
The facility’s staff was extremely supportive of the training and very interested
in the materials. They want to help consumers move to less restrictive settings.
As a result of the training, one of the consumers and his wife asked for OCRA’s
assistance in moving out into the community. OCRA will help coordinate services
between the agencies serving the consumer.
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LOS ANGELES
All-day Training for Spanish-speaking
Parents of Children with Disabilities
T
he Los Angeles and San Diego
Regional Offices joined forces to
provide an all-day special education
training to monolingual Spanishspeaking parents. Multicultural Affairs
Advocates, Mary Rios and Griselda
Delgadillo developed and disseminated
flyers to parent support groups, regional
centers, and advocacy groups. The
training was presented in Spanish
and covered assessments, the Individual
Education Plan (IEP) process, related
services, assistive technology, AB3632/
mental health services and due process.
The training provided parents the
opportunity to role-play different
scenarios and voice their concerns about
their children’s education. The event also
provided Disability Rights California the
opportunity to hear about many of the
issues facing monolingual families.
The June 15 training at the Disability
Rights California regional office
in Los Angeles and San Diego
via videoconferencing, attracted
approximately 23 parents. The participants
reported they had learned a great deal
and requested more trainings in the future.
Many of the parents agreed the training
gave them the tools to advocate effectively
for their children.
Photos above: participants at the Los Angeles Reg. office joined by VC with San Diego Reg. off.
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DEVELOPMENTAL DISABILITIES
PEER/SELF ADVOCACY
Spanish-speaking Parents Learn About Rights to
Special Education
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n June 15th, the Developmental Disability Peer/Self Advocacy
(DDPSA) unit staff, Multicultural Affairs Advocate, Mary Rios and
Assistance Clients’ Rights Advocate, Jasmine Romero provided training
via teleconference to Spanish-speaking parents on their children’s rights to
special education. Approximately 23 parents attended the training which
focused on Individual Education Plans (IEP), related services, assistive
technology, AB3632/mental health services and due process. DDPSA staff
Scott Barron, answered questions and also had the opportunity to share
his personal experiences. Parents came away empowered to effectively
advocate for their children.
Photos above: participants at the Los Angeles Reg. in collaboration with DDPSA unit.
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Disability Rights California
California’s Protection and Advocacy System
1-800-776-5746
www.disabilityrightsca.org
www.disabilityrightsca/espanol