[il-talk] Some may find this interesting

[Laurie Porter]

I found it very interesting. I wonder if you have contacted the folks at 
cable access channel 19. This seems right up there with the sort of 
interviews they do with respect to chicagoland initiatives concerning people 
with disabilities.
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Edwin Rodriguez" <conibodyworks at gmail.com>
To: <il-talk at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Thursday, January 20, 2011 9:16 AM
Subject: [il-talk] Some may find this interesting


Some may find this interesting From: kari lydersen
[kari.lydersen at gmail.com]
Sent: January 20, 2011 12:16 AM
To: Gary Arnold; abarrera at accessliving.org; mrobbins at accessliving.org;
conibodyworks at gmail.com; michellerobbins at accessliving.org
Subject: Kari's story on Cambiando Vidas
Hi Michelle, Edwin, Gary and Beto
Thanks so much for meeting with me today! It really is wonderful to hear
about your political philosophy and the projects you have going. Here's my
story -- sorry I didn't have more time to talk to people but hopefully it
turned out ok. Please let me know if there are any mistakes or things you
want to change or important things I should add. Also Edwin I realized I
don't know your last name - sorry! Can you let me know? I'm turning this in
Thursday night but since they are translating it there will be plenty of
time to correct mistakes. Thanks again!
Kari


Cambiando Vidas

By Kari Lydersen

Growing up in a traditional Latina family in El Paso, Michelle Robbins never
went anywhere without her mother or sister. Her mother assumed they would
grow old together taking care of each other, she couldn't imagine her
wheelchair-bound daughter living an independent life.

But Robbins had other ideas, especially after getting involved with a local
branch of the national disability rights group Adapt during college.

"It clicked for me that I didn't have to be oppressed, I could go out by
myself, have my own friends," she said. "Then it dawned on me I could live
by myself, so I bought a house. Then I had to pay the mortgage, so I got a
job."

She played a lead role in fighting for 24-hour para-transit service and
accessible taxi cabs and bus stops in El Paso. She challenged the mayor to
spend a day sitting in a wheelchair at a busy corner - on the street, since
the steep curve made it impossible to get onto the bus otherwise. The
government-run transportation service for people with disabilities stopped
at 8 p.m. She argued it should run later - just because she is in a
wheelchair doesn't mean she doesn't want to go out at night.

Her activism caught the attention of Beto Barrera, a long-time organizer for
the rights of immigrants, people with disabilities and others who works as
the manager of community development at the Chicago disability rights group
Access Living. Barrera said he could see Robbins had "that fire in the
belly" and offered her a job in Chicago. Robbins, then 30, accepted. That
was three years ago, and her mother still asks her when she'll get over this
"phase" and return home. "My mom was freaking out, here I was a woman with a
disability going to a different state by myself," she says. "But it's not a
phase, this is my life."

Around the time she left El Paso, the fights for 24-hour para-transit
service and accessible cabs and bus stops were won. Now her energies are
focused on even larger and more complicated goals: not only changing
policies and government practices that discriminate against people with
disabilities, but also working to change cultural attitudes within Latino
families and communities that often depict people with disabilities as
deserving of pity and charity but not full empowerment and respect. Through
a new initiative called Cambiando Vidas, she, Barrera and other organizers
are creating dialogue among Latinos about disability rights and realities -
hoping to change the way people interact with their friends and family while
also helping Latinos access services which they are often separated from by
language, discrimination and fears over documentation.

"There are the myths, that you can't do things for yourself," said Barrera.
"There is the pity and paternalism, and religion plays a big role. Everyone
thinks you have to pray for them, and that the mothers must have committed
some big sin. We need to expose these myths."

On Dec. 4, the first Cambiando Vidas forum was held at St. Agnes of Bohemia
Church in Little Village, with the theme of disability etiquette and
self-esteem. More than 30 people attended, despite a snowstorm - all new
faces rather than Access Living regulars. Many were parents of people with
disabilities - "checking us out to see if we are respectable enough to let
into their homes," said Barrera. The program will include four major forums
a year, to be held in Pilsen/Little Village, Humboldt Park, South Chicago
and Back of the Yards. It will also include up to 30 smaller community
meetings. (Check www.accessliving.org for future dates).

Edwin, 51, a newly-hired organizer for Access Living, thinks the forum and
related conversations will be invaluable in the Puerto Rican community in
Humboldt Park where he grew up legally blind and found people
"over-protective and sheltering." "Everyone told me I was so smart, I was a
genius, a miracle, but no one would give me a job," he said. "It was a
disability culture where you were supposed to be happy with what you got and
not ask for much."

He found the type of work offered to him through government programs
demeaning, so he started his own massage therapy business, running it for 15
years. He often experienced discrimination "since I have a disability, I'm
Puerto Rican and I'm a man in a field with predominantly women," he said. He
stumbled across Access Living just blocks from his home, and joined
different groups and meetings, including the group Disabled Americans Want
Work Now (DAWWN). Now he plays a leadership role in changing the kind of
attitudes that he struggled with in his community.

"These programs are based on self-empowerment, finding out what your rights
are and defending your rights," he said. "I realized 'Hey this is something
important, I want to share this.'"

While many people with disabilities lack adequate health insurance, housing
and other necessities, Latinos and immigrants are disproportionately
impacted because of language barriers, immigration status and other factors.
In 2007 Access Living partnered with The Chicago Reporter on the Immigrants
with Disabilities Rights Project.  An investigation by The Chicago Reporter
showed immigrants who suffer disabling workplace injuries often are
illegally denied workers compensation and then find themselves unable to
find other jobs or health care. "Many workers, already vulnerable to
exploitation and more likely than others to work in dangerous industries.end
up with shattered shat·ter
v. shat·tered, shat·ter·ing, shat·ters

v.tr.
1. To cause to break or burst suddenly into pieces, as with a violent blow.

2.
a.
..... Click the link for more information. bodies and none of the benefits
to which they are legally entitled," wrote reporter Jeff Kelly Lowenstein.

To help meet people's needs, Cambiando Vidas has a "lending closet" of used
medical equipment like canes and wheelchairs. Barrera noted that their
resources compared to the need are still "like a grain of salt in the ocean,
or trying to fill up a bucket drop by drop, and sometimes there's a hole in
the bucket." That's especially true for "in your face" advocacy efforts,
which are typically harder to find funding for than traditional social
services.

Access Living's strategy is to connect people with disabilities with
services while also pushing for larger societal and governmental change and
empowering people to demand their rights. They are meeting with candidates
in the mayoral race to explain the issues facing people with disabilities.
On Jan. 19 candidate Miguel del Valle was the first to visit Access Living's
office at 115 W. Chicago Ave. Alderman Ricardo Munoz has also been a strong
advocate. Access Living spokesman Gary Arnold noted that a crucial demand
for the new mayor is that they continue to fund the Mayor's Office for
People With Disabilities, an important agency which is relatively unique to
Chicago. Barrera and Arnold said Chicago is relatively strong in terms of
policies and practices protecting the rights of people with disabilities,
but that is mainly because of the tireless work of Access Living and other
groups. Increasing outreach to Latinos is a major goal of Access Living in
coming years. Their annual report notes that in 2009 their clientele were
only 10 percent Latino, 65 percent African American and 21 percent white.

Catedral Café in Little Village has been a focal point of Latino outreach,
with Cambiando Vida meetings held there and Robbins and Barrera frequently
speaking on the café's radio station. They have also worked with Enlace and
other nonprofit groups in Pilsen and Little Village, and they frequently
work with the Progress Center for Independent Living and present on its
radio station, Radio Vida Independiente.

Edwin noted that disabilities don't discriminate by race, gender, economic
status or other factors - and that someone who is healthy and wealthy one
day could become disabled the next. "The population of people with
disabilities is growing," he noted. "Many people are coming back from war
with disabilities. And baby boomers with disabilities are retiring. We need
the powers to be to lose that air of 'don't challenge us because we have
your best interests at heart. We're teaching empowerment, that we can
understand our rights and demand them."



-- 
Kari Lydersen
kari.lydersen at gmail.com
www.karilydersen.com


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