REALTIME FILE

APRIL
Changing the Landscape of I.L.
 Tuesday, October 25, 2022
1:45 PM Eastern

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>> Sierra: Hey, everybody.
We will get started in just a minute.
We will let people filter in and then we will get started.
>> Ok.
Hello, everybody.
Welcome.
This is our second webinar from the Ford foundation that we are happy to bring to you.
Today is the Changing the Landscape of Independent Living.
Building a place for everyone.
So, thank you for joining us.
I'm Sierra Royster, the Director of innovation with APRIL.
And again, this is something that we have been working on with the diversity, equity and inclusion committee within APRIL's board.
And so, we are very excited to bring you this presentation today.
A couple of housekeeping items before we get started.
First, when you scroll over the screen, a menu bar should pop up, depending on what device you are on, you can find that menu bar at the top or at the bottom of the screen.
And that's where you can find the closed captioning for today's session.
You can view the captioning by selecting the CC tab on the menu bar and you have the choice of subtitle or maybe it's the full transcript that you prefer.
That will be there as well.
We do have sign language interpreting for today's session.
You can find the interpreter right on the screen.
There will be slides that are shown, so during that time, there will be a line in between the slides and the presenters and the interpreter and you can make that interpreter smaller or larger, depending on preference.
And so, if you have any technical issues, please use the chat feature for that.
I will drop my e‑mail in there as well.
Sroyster@APRIL-rural.org.
And I will drop that in the chat, too.
But if you could use that to kind of connect with me if you need anything.
Any question and answers that you need for today that can be found in the Q and A box.
Feel free to drop in your questions.
We will move through the presentation and save the cues for the end.
Today's session will be recorded and posted on our website afterwards so you can go back and review it, as well.
But, we hope that we will get to all of those today.
So I just again want to welcome everybody to this presentation.
This is something that the DEI committee, our diversity equity inclusion committee, has been working on for a couple of years now.
We have conducted a survey a while back and understood that diversity, we just had numbers to put to kind of what we already imagined was the case within independent living, that our centers are not as diverse as we would like them to be.
Especially as the APRIL makeups since that's who we surveyed.
This one of many opportunities that will be coming soon of kind of understanding different communities and different cultures and how that plays a role within our centers.
Today, we have some great presenters that are going to kind of guide us through what we can learn, what we can know, and then we have a center for independent living here who will be kind of guiding us a little bit more on what they learned and that peer support that we can all learn from at the same time.
We do have several speakers for today.
So I hope that you will hang out the whole time, because there's much to learn from everybody.
We have Ken Mitchell, from disability link in Atlanta, Georgia.
And he's been a part of many of our presentations in the past.
But has also been in this work for quite a long time.
We have Ansuyar Naiken who has been involved with centers in Indiana, but also has a vast history with working with different communities and talking about culture and racial diversity and understanding how to bring that within your workplace.
We are excited to have you as well.
We also have Maria Palacios.
Oh, missed it up Maria, I tried.
>> Palacios.
>> See I knew, I even spelled it phone ethically for me.
No matter what, we definitely welcome you.
Sorry I messed up the name.
I practiced it, too.
But, Maria has been in this work for decades and so we are so excited for her to come and share her experience and her involvement in the disability rights and justice work she has done.
And in sharing more about the communities that she has worked with.
And is part of.
And then we also have Brenda Steinbuck and LaKesha Whitman from the independent living center in Arkansas.
We welcome them.
We understand that centers for independent living, oftentimes it's helpful to see how these things work.
With, that we are very excited to have them come and share things they learned along the way and how they worked hard to diversify their staff and make that a place where it represents the community they live within.
So with all of that, I thank you all for joining us.
I am going to go ahead and turn it over to Ken who will get us started with sharing a little bit about the Black and African American community and culture.
And Ken, do you want me to start with the video clip?
First?
>> Um, sure.
That would be great.
>> Ok.
Perfect.
Let me get it pulled up here.
All right.
And Ken will be sharing a video from one night in Miami, which is a movie I think it's on amazon prime right now but there are clips on youtube, as well.
So that's what we will be sharing with you.
Right now.
But, in this clip, there is a young plaque man, Jim Brown, who is an NFL football player who is coming to the door and this very country setting.
And he's coming to the screen door to knock on it.
He will sit on the front porch with the man that owns the house who is a white man and his granddaughter I believe is the one that will also be there and they will be having a conversation right there on the front porch.
So, this will be what we will start.
Oh, hold on.
Stop sharing, it doesn't want to share what I want it to share.
There we go.
Ok.
All right, Ken.
I'll go ahead and start it.
>> All right.
[Bell ringing] 
>> Yes?
May I help you?
>> Yes, ma'am.
I'm here to see Mr. Carlton.
Will you tell him that Jim Brown ‑‑
>> Jim Brown?
Oh, God from the NFL.
Grandpa!  Jim Brown from the NFL is here.
He wants to see you.
Well I never.
>> Would you look at who's on my porch?
James Nathaniel Brown.
>> Hello there Mr. Carlton.
>> Don't you hello me.
Put her there, son.
Come in.
Have a seat with me.
Can I get you something to drink?
Lemonade maybe?
>> Oh, that's all right.
Thank you, though.
>> Soot yourself.
I'm certainly having me some.
Fetch us a couple of glasses of that lemonade, would you sweety?
In case you change your mind.
How long you been back on the island?
>> Just got in last night.
>> And you came by to say hello.
How thoughtful of you, Jimmy.
>> Well M my aunt said you were anxious to see me.
I thought I would come on over.
>> The early bird catches the worm.
But you already know that.
You caught a helluva lot of worms this year.
>> Guess you can say that.
>> No man who has run 1860 yards in a season needs to be so humble.
>> Actually it was 1863.
>> Oh, that's more like it.
>> Mm‑hmm.
>> That record is going to stand the test of time.
>> You know I would happily give that record back for a win over the packers in that last game.
>> That packers win will be forgotten by anyone who doesn't live in Goose Bay by tomorrow.
Your record is going to be remembered forever.
>> Well I don't see why I can't have the record and the win next time.
>> Right you are, son.
Right you are.
Jimmy, I just wanted to let you know, if there's ever anything I can do for you, you should never hesitate to reach out.
>> Well, um ‑‑ that's ‑‑ that's mighty kind of you, sir.
>> Our families go way back.
We have been looking after one another since the first folks settled on this island.
I wanted to make sure that I told you face‑to‑face as long as I'm still here, that ain't ever going to change.
>> Well my aunt would be very happy to hear such a kind sentiment from you, Mr. Carlton.
Not everyone else on the island has been so supportive.
>> Oh, crabs in a barrel, I say.
To hell with them all.
I for one think that you are a credit not only to this community, but to the entire state of Georgia.
I never been prouder to say that I live on St. Simons Island than I am now.
And I would make a point of adding ‑‑ place where the great Jim Brown is from.
' [chuckling] 
>> Here you boys go.
Two lemonades.
>> Thank you, darling.
>> Well thank you.
>> Sorry to bother you while you are entertaining, grandpa, but if you could come move that bureau when you have a moment.
>> Oh, sorry.
I almost forgot.
>> You ‑‑ you moving some furniture?
>> Mm‑hmm.
>> Well, you know ‑‑ you should let me help you with that.
>> So considerate of you Jimmy, but you know we don't allow ‑‑ in the house.
So it's quite all right.
It really is wonderful to see you, son.
You keep up the good work.
Do us all proud.
>> Hi, again, this is Ken Mitchell.
>> Go ahead, Ken.
All right he good.
>> Ok.
This is Ken.
And, so for some of you guys who may not have read the bio, I'm from Atlanta, Georgia.
I grew up in Atlanta as a youngster, I went to elementary school in central part of Georgia, one of the poorest counties in Georgia.
Hancock county.
And from there, I moved to Connecticut.
One of the richest counties not only in Connecticut but in the nation.
Fairfield county.
So one of the things I remember that was kind of the same in both is that growing up, I went to segregated schools.
I went to segregated schools in the south and in the north.
And even though the south is kind of like the easy to pick on because of the atmosphere there, it's also really the same thing in the north.
Maybe a little differently related but the same factors.
And that might be happening throughout the United States.
I haven't been everywhere in the United States, mostly the east coast.
But where you are, it might be the same and you might know that better than I.
One of the things I want to tell sue whenever I say something like you should do this or shouldn't do that, it scares me.
Because I don't know if you should or shouldn't do anything.
I'm not here to tell you what to do or whatnot to do.
Perhaps I'll give you a couple of things you may want to consider.
Going back to the video.
Which we will talk about a little bit in a minute.
So some of the things you might want to consider, especially in the reference to CILS and SILCS.
If your population of your, of the people that you serve is one thing, and your CIL or SILC population is something else.
How is that happening?
How can you affect that change?
Because I know that we want to have our centers and SILCS serve the population you serve.
If it's only two or three people that might be a little more difficult, but over the number of years, there should be some kind of correlation between your employees and your population.
Again, I said "should" and remember, any time I say "should" I'm messing up.
Because I don't know that as a fact.
But, it's something you might want to consider.
So, I went back and was talking about why I believe that some of the things are happening in our employment areas, for instance why the ratios may be different.
And when we were talking, we talked about welcoming.
Which means if, is it welcoming when we see our particular centers?
And for me, it's like I didn't give you my stuff about me, I should have said something earlier.
But I happen to be Black, I'm also blind.
I'm also a veteran.
And I'm also 6 Fort‑‑ I'm also 6‑3.
I happen to have no light reception, which basically means I can't see any light at all.
And so, some of the things, when I go into a particular place, it's important to me to hopefully be welcoming.
For instance, how the audio sounds are or if there is a, a description of the place, if they happen to have that.
It makes it more welcoming for me.
I remember for a while I lived in Milford, New Hampshire.
I lived there for a year.
I remember not seeing too many people like myself.
The population of Milford, New Hampshire was about 16,000.
There was probably, well there was six people of color.
In the town.
Me being one of them.
And my mailman, his wife and three kids were the other.
So there was not quite the welcoming or the camaraderie that I was hoping for when I went there.
Which brings me back to the video that you guys were seeing.
And why I brought it up.
So one of the things about the video that I noticed, and you probably noticed other stuff, was that the person, the older gentleman was, you know, kind of welcoming.
St. Simons Island is off the coast of Georgia.
The main part of Georgia.
That's where Jim Brown grew up.
Jim Brown as you heard was a professional football player.
He was quite well‑known.
Still is.
He did a lot of civil rights actions.
He also in a number movies.
He gave up football at the height of his career to I guess go into acting.
But, he did ‑‑ he still was quite the civil rights leader to this day.
So when the video showed that even with the facade of the welcomeness, admiration and attitude, there still was an underlying bigotry that was there.
You might consider with our CILs and SILCs, there may be an underlying bigotry that might be perceived, even if it's not there.
Let's put it that way.
When we look at our centers and look at your centers, I would like you to consider the fact that, if you have a population of 40% of one religion or ethnicity or whatever it is, and your CIL only has, well it only has had maybe a population of two or three percent, you might want to consider why that's happening or the law of averages says that it should be greater.
But there again "should."
You got to catch me on that.
But you can't talk, so I guess you can't say anything just yet anyway, something you may want to consider about why that is so.
And one of my things is actually the beginning of the welcoming.
And, the old saying about you know, you only get one chance to make a first impression.
And that's often recognized as well.
So ‑‑ couple of things to consider and hopefully in the question part that you might want to do is, the intro.
What happens when a person first finds out about your CIL or center?
How is it perceived in how is it perceived in the neighborhood?
How are you projecting that to your community?
Are you projecting it as such and such?
The people who go out and advertise for your center, how is that being done?
And then also look at the members of your center.
If they are members of your center of all one ethnicity or race or religion or even disability, how is that being perceived?
How are you portraying that?
I know there are some people have accused CILs or centers for independent living of having a hierarchy of disabilities.
And that's not something that we want to be perceived.
And how do we address that?
So those are some of the things.
One, the introduction.
Two is that after the introduction, what do we do?
How do we actually perceive our self?
In the video, the beginning was good.
There were some underlying stuff that if you ‑‑ well if you noticed Jim Brown had said.
And then of course the actual attitude, when he let his guard down a little bit, saying hey look, can I help you?
And the answer, we don't let people in the house.
Brought him back to reality.
And the video ended there.
And then again, so, for our CILs and SILCs are we doing something the same?
We are willing to let people talk about becoming employees or becoming members.
But are we really letting them in?
And two, even if we are willing to do that, how is it being perceived?
How is it being recognized by the community?
If we don't know that, maybe we should consider reaching out to the community a little bit more and how we are doing that.
How we are perceived when we do that.
So those are some of the things that I hopefully that we can talk about today in our meeting to discuss and with all that in mind, I'm going to switch it over to my newly good friend, Maria.
And she has a couple of things to say.
>> Thank you so much.
And, good afternoon again.
It is such a pleasure and a special honor to be sharing space with you all today.
A quick description of myself, I am a Latina Indigenous woman of brown light skin and I have brown eyes and brown hair.
I, again, my name is Maria Palacios.
I feel via special connection with you all here today because I feel like I am a child of the movement.
I have been an activist and advocate in my own community here in Houston for the last 40 years.
And I am also an artist and an author who has been using my one personal experience of who I am as a Latina and translating it into forms of art that communicate the experiences.
To other disabled people and to people who want to know the intersections of disability and the things that we experience as Latinos.
I was born in Latin America.
And had polio as an infant.
And I came to the United States when I was 15 years old.
I actually grew up and shuffled from place to place in such of a cure until my mom and islanded here in the United States.
And my personal journey of positive disability identity began.
I love the way that sounds.
Positive disability identity.
Because not everybody has it.
Just because you are disabled, it doesn't mean that you connect.
And such is the cases especially for certain groups of extra marginalized people.
So, my positive disability identity, or CRIP identity, is something that evolves through my involvement with advocacy and exposure to disabled people who were making waves and demanding equality.
That was such an odd concept to me at the time.
Having come from a place where the word "disability" would never be associated with pride or independence.
I was lucky to have gotten involved with some of the revolutionary CRIPs of the day.
I was part of adapt and part of the movement that actually passed the ADA.
I am very proud of my early involvement with advocacy because it put me on the front lines of what we know as such an important part of our history.
I was very much in the very center of a movement that pretty much left people like myself out.
I guess I had my own CRIP Camp experience because I do believe that there is nothing more powerful or more important to disabled people than having access to the survival and advocacy of other disabled people as part of our own journey of empowerment and independence.
However, I want you to know that the word "independence" doesn't necessarily come natural to my culture.
Independence is often seen as a cultural threat and especially so in the case of those who grew up disabled like myself.
In a culture where adult kids are not expected to leave the nest at 18 or in a culture where daughters stay home until they marry.
Or in a culture that believes disabled people are a cross to bear and accepted as such.
The word "independence" often translates as a threat.
I'll never forget the first time that islanded at my local CIL.
And I was just a kid.
Like maybe 18.
And I don't even remember how I ended up there.
But I know that I found myself and for the first time ever I was age to see other disabled people in positions of power.
I had no idea that the word "independence" was something that could apply to me.
I encourage you that in your center's efforts to serve Latino communities, you first recognize that oppression still exists and it's very real.
Oppression still exists.
There are communities within the Latino community who often live in fear of deportation, fear of being seen as an outsider.
Fear of not being able to communicate.
Fear of not fitting in.
Fear of not deserving to be fair.
And, I know and we know that ableism does that to all disabled people.
But when rejection and disability are also connected to the color of your skin or the language that you speak or the place where you were born, it is just so much harder to overcome obstacles.
Harder to advocate for your rights and for the rights of others like yourself.
I encourage you all to learn the geography of our diversity.
I say it like that purposely using the word geography of our diversity.
One of the things that I conquered in my own journey as a disabled Latina, I often got placed in a little category of oh, ‑‑ she's Mexican.
So, I encourage you to learn the beauty and the geography of our diversity.
That not all Spanish speaking people are not only from one agent of the world.
Not all Latino disabled peoples, even though they express the same language are almost as diverse as you can imagine.
It really is.
We encourage you to stop putting us in boxes of cultural expectations by believing we should Americanize ourselves by learning English or not sharing certain aspects of our culture and language traditions.
Know we bring color, sound, spice, we bring art.
But we also bring the trauma of language oppression.
I have been in places of employment and places in society that have denied me access to my language.
They have denied me the opportunity and the right to be who I really am.
So please, do recognize that we bring the trauma of language oppression and that it still hurts.
It's something that shapes our persona in the ability and way we communicate.
We are also superstitious and come from a culture rooted in ableist superstition that believes disabled people are some form of punishment.
We are still oppressed and still connected to our roots and to the love for things that sometimes only exist in the heartbeat of our memories.
Many of us had to leave behind our birth nations, our families, our language and reinvent ourselves in order to survive.
We have the right to still love our language, culture, and traditions.
While loving this country at the same time.
Also know that what we consider family could be very different and not aligned with what the dominant culture considers to be family.
In our culture, we have so many relatives that actually are part of our immediate family that we consider family.
In our culture we usually do not put disabled people and elderly people in institutions so that's one thing for you to consider and think about when you are as a center transitioning people out of nursing homes and you wonder why you don't see more Latinos transitioning out.
One of the things is we are often kept at home.
For better or worse, whichever way it may go, it's part of the cultural oppression and the cultural protectiveness that we endure and we live with.
So, when you look for us, when you look for Latinos, when you look for people like myself, I encourage you to try to find us in places that speak Spanish, you know.
Look where the language is.
Look where the roots exist.
Look for us in religious institutions and on the margins of some religious institutions because some part of our community are so, so, so marginalized that everyone shuts the door on our faces and denies us services, denies us community and access to survival.
And religious institutions, um, along with religious ableism tend to be the only spaces that open the doors to millions of lateens with disabilities.
Look for us in hospitals and charity spaces.
Look for us in space whereas everybody else has been helped but us.
Look for us in food banks.
You will find us also in schools where our kids go to school.
You can find us on the margins of all the intersections where you forgot to look.
We exist.
We exist and we have so much to give.
Please offer us a space where we can contribute the language, the beauty, the color of our culture.
And, you know, when I speak of "this," I know that there's like a sensitive cultural line.
I heard somebody mention recently that at their center, there was a staff member who was Latina and this person wanted to celebrate some kind of Latina celebration.
And this person was not understood on why that was important to her.
And the truth is, you know, ok, so yes, it has to be related to disability.
But, we have to think in terms of intersections.
We are not just disabled people.
I am Maria Palacios, disabled, Latina, queer, mother, I am parts of so many intersections and, you know, one way of looking at the celebrations for example is not in thinking in terms of what does it have to do with disability?
Buts terms how truly intersectional those cultural festivities are for disabled people.
Many times disabled people are not able to participate in cultural events because they are so, so, so framed in the context of nondisabledness.
That unless you are able to either pass or just watch from the sidelines, you not really participating in the celebration.
So when we say please let's have a Cinco de Maya presentation.
Presentation really matters.
When you have someone in mariachi in a wheelchair or someone singing and they are blind or, we are bringing aspects of our intersections to you.
You have to be able it see that as part of who we are without saying well what does it have to do with disability?
Let me tell you.  It has everything to do with disability.
I'm sorry.
Yep.
Another thing that I wanted to share is encourage you to plan ahead.
Be one of my favorite stories to tell about the planning ahead is the story of this town waiting for rain after a terrible drought and the town decided to have like a gathering to pray for rain.
And they decided that after praying so hard they are going to come back the next day for the second day of praying for rain and rain will happen.
So, we have this huge crowd the following day.
We gather to pray for rain and there's only one person sitting there with an umbrella.
And people looked at this person like wow.
What's so weird?
We haven't gotten rain in years and this person is sit hearing with an umbrella.
Well, the lesson here is that if we are going to plan for something, let's really be prepared.
Let's have, let's believe we are going to have rain.
Let's believe we are going to be reaching out to Latinos and offering services that will make us more diverse that will allow communities to really participate.
So, plan ahead.
As an example, have a budget that's inclusive of our language needs.
Very, very few spaces until recently have really made an effort to help us participate.
Help us celebrate our heritage by allowing us to bring parts of our cultural wealth into your experience.
What better way of doing it than allowing us to speak our language.
Especially we don't speak English.
So, we ask ourselves why are disabled Latinos not part of the movement?
We often are in the background of things.
We are often not seeing or seen through the lens of cultural expectations that do not fit realities all the time.
We sometimes might think you don't care.
Others, a lack of materials in Spanish.
There's lack of information in Spanish.
Many Latinos fall through the cracks of the movement because there's little there to support our presence and participation.
Just saying that you want us is not enough.
So how do we prepare to reach out to this marginalized communities?
I know everybody says hire more disabled Latinos, have more diversity, but we must recognize that unless we plan and make space and create opportunities for this community to participate, things will not change.
We must grow the number of consumers from Latino communities by investing in cultural wealth and offering language justice wasted service.
Must recognize that various intersections where disability exists.
Would you say no to providing interpreters to deaf consumers?
Then why deny Spanish language interpreters to disabled consumers who need it?
Are your intake forms and brochures bilingual?
And stop saying you can find us when we constitute 20% of the U.S. population.
There are so many things to think about.
So many things to consider.
So many things to embrace.
For me, the most important thing is language justice.
And I want to close my section by reading this statement.
It has to do with language justice.
Language justice means that everyone is listened to and understood without hierarchy, stigma or shame.
It honors our right to communicate our feelings and ideas and demands we move in mutual respect for all people regardless of whether or how they sign, speak, or otherwise convey what's on their mind or in their heart.
People communicate in a multitude of ways through spoken language, through movement, through signs, through breathing.
Through electronics, through giving touch to writing to silence through reading, through our eyes.
There are as many ways to communicate as there are people.
All types of communication are valid and important.
Why choose to express is unique to us as individuals.
Our communications are our expressions are valuable.
Language is fast and abundant.
Some spoken languages include whistles and clicks.
Some movement languages include sounds.
Some languages are written while others are knots.
Some languages are used by just two people.
Some by 300.
Some by millions of people.
There are no right or wrong languages.
They are all precious means of expression.
Our languages carry our cultures and tie us to each other, to our ancestors and to the way we understand life through the practice of naming.
There are languages create and used specifically by disabled and deaf people and as our body minds inform our means of expression we use augmented and alternative communication.
American Sign Language, LSM, Black American Sign Language, brook dial communication with and through our tracks and our staccato, breathing through our brain fog and aphasia, through pain, pain meds, medicals to text amplifiers, texts and videos grants and groves, through blinks and blowing through straws than we can outline.
Language can give power.
Language can take power away.
Language can be used to normalize oppression.
Language cans be used to disrupt, dismantle and transform oppression.
Language justice is about access to communication, to relationship building, and to our communities.
Language justice isn't just about access.
We strive to flatten hierarchies by creating spaces where each person is respected and where power is shared among speakers of all languages.
Language justice centers multi lingual access and these centers a supremacy of spoken English.
And with our other political commitments we should enter into language justice practice humbly knowing that others have paved the way and that we are in a place of learning.
We want to believe in the power and brilliance of immigrant communities and deaf communities and know that inclusion is key to achieving justice for all oppressed peoples.
That beautiful piece comes from sense an valid, the disability justice and movement building organization it happens to be among the creators of what is now known as disability justice.
So I hope that this few minutes of what I brought to you gives you an insight into the world of Latinos with disabilities and give you a little bit more perspective and how important language is to us.
To all of us.
Including those who don't speak Spanish.
Language in general.
We should believe in a world that allows all disabled people to communicate.
I encourage you to invest in Latino communities to recognize that by you doing so, you are growing.
You are helping your center grow and you are offering a space of honesty.
And diversity.
Where Latinos can come in and really begin to acclimate ourselves to what independent living really means.
Independence means different things to each of us and we have to continue moving forward without leaving anyone behind anymore.
It hurts me it say that I was part of the movement.
A movement that left people like me out.
So, thank you so much for this space and this opportunity and it's my pleasure.
And my honor to now pass the mic and the stage to Ansuyah.
>> Thank you, Maria.
It is, I want to say thank you to APRIL for inviting into he to be part of this very esteemed panel.
And, just absolutely powerful messages from both our panelists that have spoken already.
So, I am a woman of Asian South Asian dissent.
My ancestors are from India.
You can probably pick up a little bit of my accent as I speak.
What will talk about for the next few minutes is talk about Asian cultures and how might disabilities be perceived within Asian cultures.
So we could move to the next slide, please.
The reason why I put this map in here, when we talk about Asia as you can notice from the map, it's huge.
And Asia, I think, oftentimes when we think about Asia, we think about Russia.
We have countries of the middle east, and oftentimes when we think Asia, our mind goes more to what is on the right‑hand side of your map.
But if you look at that, that within itself includes multiple countries.
So when I reference Asian cultures, I might be talking about some of the ones that permeate through all those countries but what I want you to keep in mind is that each of those countries, each of those cultures, are so unique in themselves.
So, when you think about your independent living centers, and you are thinking about who is coming through your doors with the people that you serve, whether they are your employees, it's really important that while we think about them as Asians, we also think about them specific to the country that they come from.
Specific to the culture and the cultural norms that they might bring to your workplace.
Because that's that certainly differs from one Asian culture to another.
So what I'm going to talk about Asian, I will talk about the commonalities that run through Asian cultures.
Really, really important to keep in mind that there is diversity within the Asian cultures.
As Maria mentioned earlier on, when you think about Hispanic cultures, when you think about central and South American cultures, it's not just Mexico.
It's multiple countries each with their own diversity.
So, just something to keep in mind as you think about people that you work with that would be of Asian descent.
Ok.
Could we move to the next slide, please.
All right.
So this is kind of an info graph that was put together by the CDC and I believe it was put together in 2020.
And it kind of gives us kind of a breakdown of people with disabilities and the focus here is on adults across the different racial groups that we as a country capture.
And you would notice that when you look at the Asian population, it's the smallest number.
One in 10 Asians have actually been identified with having a disability.
Now a lot of folks in the Asian community or a lot of people that do research in this space, have said that they don't quite agree with that number.
They don't think it's a real reflection of the number of Asians with disabilities in the U.S.
And the reason why they feel that this number is not a true reflection is that, and they provided a number of reasons, but just a couple of them is that sometimes when the surveys are conducted, or this research is done, they might not reach out to Asian communities on a broad scale.
So they survey maybe a smaller number than they would survey with other groups.
The other reason that has been provided it S. that when these surveys are done, oftentimes Asian Americans are grouped as a single group.
And that can skew the results.
There was mention that cultural stigmas among the Asian community, could prevent people from participating in these surveys.
So, while we say that one in 10 Asians have a disability, a lot of research believes that that number is probably higher than that.
So, what I am going to do for the next few minutes that I have is to actually just focus on some of the cultural stigmas that the Asian communities might carry, might have when it comes to disabilities.
Next slide.
You can put them all up.
Thank you. all right.
So the first thing is that among the Asian community, just the conversation of the topic of disabilities, often treated as a taboo subject.
Often treated as something that look, we don't want to talk about it.
Or if we do talk about it, it's something that we will talk about in our family, in our home, behind closed doors.
In some cases it may even be seen as this is just not even a real thing.
So I am not going to talk about it.
So it's not ‑‑ it's something that generally among Asian cultures there isn't a level of comfort having conversations around disabilities, people with disabilities.
It's something that as a culture, a community, we tend to hide, because we tend to be ashamed of it or we think that, you know what?
If I treat it, it can go away.
There could be a medical treatment and it could go away.
Oftentimes it's very closeted.
Kept within families, kept within homes.
It's discussions that are held within these very, very confined spaces.
It's already spoke been in terms of sharing it with communities sharing it with folks on the outside.
We don't go out into the public.
Don't share stories about family members that might have disabilities, challenges that we might be facing.
We don't go out and seek help for it.
It's pretty much kept within the family, kept within the community.
And oftentimes, when a child is born with a disability, there's a perception that we believe that this child will not be able to lead a full life.
That this child will always be dependent on others.
And will not be able to have that independent living.
So, in terms of wanting to reach out to independent living centers for support or help, whatever that might look like with the family, that's not going to happen organically.
It's not going to be something that just happens very, very easily.
Because of that sense of wanting to keep it within the family, a sense of shame that could be associated with it.
So, the child that is born with a disability may not get a full education.
The child would be kept at home.
Probably provided with some kind of basic education by family members.
As a spinoff of that, the chances of that individual being able to go out and find a job will be less likely.
And follow up to that is the chances of any form of independent living will be minimized to a large extent so you find this rubber effect that begins to happen.
Oftentimes, people with disabilities, the child that's born with disabilities, even seeing them as getting married, having children, that's oftentimes seen as an impossible thing to happen.
So, that's kind of how that is viewed.
And so, some of the traditional views that come with the conversations around disabilities and I'm going to talk about one of them, which is the concept of karma.
In a lot of Asian cultures and specifically in the east Asian culture which I am a member of, we believe in the process of rebirth.
So we go through our life and if we have sinned in some way, if we have treated people badly, we just haven't been kind to folks and things like that, and we have led a life that was not a good life, then we believe we will come back in another life to make up for what we have done wrong in the previous life.
And sometimes there's the belief that when you come back in your new life, you could come back as a person with disabilities so that you can pay for the sins of your previous life.
And so as a result, families associate the disability with shame and blame.
For what the family member could have done in the previous life that's causing them to come back with disabilities in this current life.
So these are some of the cultural stigmas that Asian cultures have associated with disabilities and those could result in the level of discomfort having conversations around it.
Revealing that I have a member in my family that has a disability.
Going out to seek any kind of support and help that that individual would need, these are the things that would actually hold individuals back.
Ok?
And the other thing about, with the cultural stigma is that families or communities feel like there's a concept of saving face.
Saving face meaning that, you know, I am, whatever I do, I will put my best foot forward.
Now, if I do have a member in my family, be it my child or anyone else, in the community, I end up losing face with my community because I have a child with disabilities.
So a lot of Asian cultures, the concept of saving face is really important and having a member of my family with a disability causes me to lose face and therefore, I kind of lose that social capital that I make in community.
Next slide, please.
So what this slide shows is that, this is based on some kind of research and I have the name of the book at the bottom of the slide.
It's Erin Meyer.
The name of the book is The Culture Map.
She talks about different cultures around the world and nationalities around the world and how we as a culture respond to different things and in this particular slide, on the left‑hand side of the slide, individualistic cultures.
On the right‑hand side are the collectivist cultures.
So what this means is, if you look at the countries that are on the left‑hand side of your slide, the individualistic cultures, these are cultures that put a lot of focus on the individual.
Much so, individuals are encouraged to be independent.
They, if you think about like here in the U.S., the U.S. is one of the most individualistic cultures.
And so we encourage our children to go out and be who they want to be.
We encourage them to recognize what are their strengths?
Very, very early in life.
And work on developing this, those strengths.
We talk about the weaknesses and we say look, don't see this as a weakness.
But see this as an opportunity or an area for growth.
These are the things that we foster in our children these are what individualistic cultures do.
Collectivist cultures on the other hand is more about a group dynamic.
It's more about what do we do as a family?
What do we do as a group?
And so therefore, when it comes to an individual with a disability in these cultures that are on the right‑hand side, and you can see a lot of the Asian cultures are there, we have China, we have Thailand, we have India, a lot of these, we have Japan, a lot of these collectivist cultures on the right‑hand side, it's about a group focus.
It's about focus on family, focus on community.
So, if we have an individual in our community, in our family, we, as a community, we as a family, we will take care of them.
We will protect them.
We will provide for whatever that individual needs.
And so we may not go out and seek the report.
Of independent living centers.
Of outside resources.
Because that is what the characteristic of collectivist cultures are.
How they handle it is helpful in the centers when you are reaching out to communities that do have family members with disabilities.
Think about these are some of the cultural nuances that will play into ‑‑ that will play in when you approach them, when you reach out to them.
This shift in the community to start engaging around cultures with disabilities, not seeing it as something to be embarrassed about, to feel shame and blame around.
But rather, that this is something that we can help members in our community.
The more we engage in conversations, the more we recognize that this is part of the community and that we can offer support that could come from sources outside.
So that's the good part of it.
Is that the community is slowly starting to open up, slowly starting to engage with members outside the community to engage in these conversations.
About disability.
So a couple of things and the next slide will show just a couple of things that you can think about in terms of what can be done when you are reaching out to the Asian American community.
So provide resources on how to have conversations about disabilities with their families.
So as I said, that level of discomfort.
And a lot of it is, you know, probably around maybe I just don't have the language to use in terms of how do I communicate what's going on with my child?
What's going on with my family member.
I don't have the skills.
I don't have the tools on how to do this.
And that keeps me from engaging with people outside my community.
So, as a, an independent live center, part of the literature, part of the resources that you can put out there, to help Asian families engage in these kind of conversations, that would be helpful.
Train staff to be culturally sensitive.
As I mentioned, Asian culture is very nuanced.
There's a lot of difference between norms for American culture.
A lot of Asian families are coming over as immigrants and so they are bringing in a lot of the cultural norms, the cultural behaviors and so on from the communities that they come from.
So in terms of training staff, helping staff, setting staff up for success so that they can engage with the Asian community, would be really, really helpful.
Language.
A lot of the immigrant families that come in are nonnative English speakers.
Maria spoke a whole lot about language.
If you can put your literature out there, your website, all of that would be really helpful in terms of reaching out to the community.
And then conduct more research on the unique struggles of disabled Asian Americans as a product of both disability and Asian American identities.
So that's where that sense of intersectionality comes in.
Have you them coming from India, China, Japan, wherever it might be.
Coming in as an immigrant.
So you have all of these layers of intersectionality and really important to see the individual.
A couple of resources I think if you click one more time, thank you, Sierra.
So there are a couple of resources out here that might be helpful in terms of just kind of you know, just increasing knowledge around awareness around Asians with disabilities.
And the three of them are there on the slide for you.
All right.
Thank you.
>> All right.
Thank you for that.
We are going to now turn it over to Brenda and LaKesha.
So I'll go ahead and share your slides, as well.
>> Hello, everybody.
I am Brenda Steinbuck and I am the Director of SPA area independent living services in Hot Springs Arkansas.
I am a white woman with white hair and so, I will be, and I wear glasses.
And, um, I didn't see LaKesha online.
Maybe her ‑‑
>> I'm here.
>> You're here?
Ok.
There you go.
Do you want to do your description?
In.
>> Yes.
Hello, everyone.
My name is LaKesha Whitman, I am in Whitehall Arkansas at the southeast Arkansas independent living center.
I am a Black female with curly locks and I wear glasses.
>> So, before we get started today, I just wanted to give everybody a snapshot of our two centers.
Between the two centers, we have 15 staff members.
And we have 10 women, five men.
We have three team members who are white or Caucasian.
We have eight team members who are Black or African American.
We have two brown members who are Hispanic.
We have one remain immigrant.
And one person of mixed race.
We have five wheelchair users, four with "other" physical disabilities.
One with a brain injury, one with learning disabilities.
Four with mental health issues, one who is neurodivergent and one disabled vet who was homeless and one who is still active in military, she's in the National Guard.
So, that's just in our center, we speak English, Spanish, Romanian, and ASL.
So, that's just kind of a snapshot of who we are.
Do you want to go to the first slide?
Or the next slide, I guess?
One back.
Ok.
So we will go with hiring staff.
Next please.
>> Ok.
This is LaKesha.
I will read the slides.
Benefits of hiring people within minority communities.
>> It should say within minorities.
>> Ok, what is that word?
Ok.
Shows minority populations your organization considers them worthy.
>> And, um, you know, when looking at trying to serve the minority communities, one of the best things that you can do to welcome them into your center is have a person within that community that works in your center.
That does show the minority group that, hey, you know, we know you are out there.
We want ‑‑ we want to include you.
In our organization.
>> Respects the culture and value.
>> And, first, I would really like to thank our fellow speakers for their information and their passion.
And, respecting the culture is so important.
And like Maria said, you need to embrace the full culture when you are hiring staff in your centers or serving people from minority groups.
And it is important to make sure that they have that ability to communicate and that they feel comfortable speaking their first language and to include things that are important to them.
Like ‑‑ like Hispanic history month.
And Black history month.
And all those other things.
It doesn't take any money to do these kinds of things.
It doesn't take a whole lot to embrace the culture and the values of minorities.
>> Removes language barriers.
>> And that can be either with hiring staff or as Maria said, paying for interpreters.
>> Improves access to community.
>> And of course when your staff is more diverse, again, it is going to open up access to those diverse populations.
>> Next slide, please.
Barriers to employment for people of color.
Seen as less qualified.
>> LaKesha you can read all of them if you want.
>> Ok.
Racism.
Have to be more qualified.
Assumed to be less dependable.
>> So I think that we have heard that from all of our speakers.
Before us.
About these barriers for people of minorities and, um, you know, it is something that is based on a daily basis.
Faced on a daily basis.
And it is something that think that we, as centers, need to address when we are helping people look for employment.
And maybe how to answer questions in interviews.
We need to make sure that nothing in our applications makes any assumptions about people or disqualifies anybody.
>> Next slide, please.
Attracting diverse applicants.
Use consumer base.
Job descriptions.
Focus on lived experience versus education.
>> Um ‑‑ so, I have always tried to open up our job openings to our consumer base first.
I think that that is another way of helping people to reach up optimism independence.
And who better to come into your center and help people the way that they have been helped?
Who better to know the services you provide and the benefits that they offer?
And in centers for independent living, especially, think that for me, anyway, that lived experience is so very important to what we do.
It adds to the peer support, peer mentoring part of our organizations.
And what better way to foster serving diverse communities than to look at your consumers and when looking at applicants for jobs.
For job openings in your center.
>> Next slide.
Sustaining staff.
>> So, I thought last night that I wish I had taken a picture of our staff instead of looking for a stock photo.
Of a happy staff.
Because, it wasn't easy to find one that had people with disabilities in it.
And I thought that was really an important thing to mention.
Because in the stock photos, there were two that had people with disabilities in it.
One had a person like an old time metal wheelchair.
And then the other people were all white.
And then there was this one that had a little bit of diversity and a person in a more modern wheelchair.
You know, Ken was talking about as centers for independent living we need to look about our communities, we need to, you know, look around ‑‑ here in Arkansas, Walmart's huge.
You know.
So, go to Walmart.
Look around.
See the different minorities that you are seeing.
And, you know, your center staff needs to represent your community.
>> Next slide.
>> Educating staff on different cultures.
Staff sharing culture.
Integrating different culture into workplace.
In service training.
>> So one thing that we do at our center is we will once a month, a staff person is in charge of our staff meeting for that week.
And, we want people to share their culture.
Whether it, whether that is about their disability or their race.
And again, like celebrating different holidays, not just the standard ones.
You know.
I know that we switched out Columbus day for Juneteenth.
And we can do other celebrations as Maria was saying, you know.
There's no reason not to have an event around Cinco de Mayo or other holidays that are important to others.
>> Next slide.
Moving on up.
Leadership.
Advertise internally.
Leadership is more man management.
>> So again, at our center, we advertise internally first.  And always would like to see members of our staff advance.
Another thing ‑‑ when I say leadership is more than management, I am not talking about managers versus leaders.
What I am talking about is leadership can happen at every level, not just the director or the co‑director or that type of leadership.
You know, being a small center with limited staff, there are opportunities at all levels for your staff members to take that leadership role and begin to foster those leadership skills in your staff.
>> Next slide.
I think that's all.
>> LaKesha, do you have anything to add to any of that?
>> Yes.
Just a few things.
That I would like to add is ‑‑ one thing that's important is defining the difference between power and privilege.
In a workplace.
And most individuals that do have privilege, most of them don't know that they have privilege and in fact, it could be invisible to them.
And so, having different trainings, getting out in your community, knowing what's in your community.
Let your community see your face.
If you go out, if you are at the store, they will know hey, that's sales.
And this is what they ‑‑ that's CILs and this is what they do.
It's very important to learn that.
Also we talked about language earlier in the slide, but one thing you can do is changing the language in your job description.
And just with different words.
Some words may be strong and may be just geared toward men and some more toward women.
For example, strong, um, lead driven or support.
Patient.
Group versus manpower.
Typical versus normal.
So, those are some things that you can ‑‑ that you can put in and also, when you do ‑‑ don't try to start so large.
When we do go to trainings and we, you know, you have all these great ideas and when I get back it my center, these are the changes that we are going to make.
And sometimes it's better if you start small.
And really involve all of the staff and find out what's important to them and what they want to know more about.
Because you can learn a lot from the people at your center.
You know.
If you would just have meetings and talk about different topics.
And maybe send those out beforehand so they can kind of think about it.
You know.
Sometimes if you bring up a topic about privilege and barriers in a workplace, it's uncomfortable.
Some people don't want to talk about it.
But it needs to be talked about.
One other thing I want to end with, I put this in my bio.
It is a quote from Stevie Wonder.
And it's about just because a man lacks vision, lacks the use of his eyes, doesn't mean he lacks vision.
And sometimes we can judge and assume and sometimes, most of the times when you assume, you miss out.
You may have a person that walks in your door for a job and you may look at their mannerisms the way they dress, their vocabulary.
And it may be the perfect person for your center and for that community.
But you just assume, just by looking at them, or the way they made you feel, and you miss out on that.
So really, take the things back that everyone has talked about and take those things in consideration and take them back to your center.
Thank you.
>> Thank you all.
So what we will do now, now I am going to ask if everybody will just kind of jump on camera.
We are going to move to like the next part of this where we are just going to have a panel discussion with everybody that has shared today.
First off, I want to thank each and every one of you for sharing your thoughts, your experiences, your knowledge, your expertise.
With everybody that's been on and those that will watch the recording, as well.
So what I am going do is I will throw out a question to everybody.
And if you want to talk about how this affects your community or maybe from Brenda and LaKesha how you have experienced in your CIL and that experience, as well.
So, my first question ‑‑ is ‑‑ what are the benefits for advantages of hiring people within minority communities?
I'll throw that out to anybody.
>> I unmuted myself if that's ok.
>> Yeah.
>> [Maria] I think this has already been sorts of touched on a little bit, Brenda was speaking, but, there are many advantages to hiring diversity and that is, one of them is it allows us to see life through a difference lens and bring different perspective into the movement and also helps us embrace differences a little bit easier.
So when we invite people to join us at the table, you know, it's important to actually have a space made for them.
Made for us.
So ‑‑ if you invite me over for dinner, make sure that I have a place to sit at the table.
That's what I wanted to say.
The advantages of hiring minorities and diversities, they come with a great benefit of learning different cultures, bringing just something different to the organization.
To the movement.
To the space.
And it makes just the world a bigger place.
Just by the nature of it.
So, yeah.
>> And I would like to just touch real quickly, you know, Maria had said in her presentation that it brings spice.
It brings color.
It brings spice.
And, um, in all different ways.
You know?
From food on down.
You know?
It really does.
And it makes your center so much more welcoming to the people that walk in the door.
>> It's collective growth at its best.
>> Anybody have any other thoughts on that?
>> Yeah.
The thought that I would add is you know when you think about diversity, it makes ‑‑ it's good for the organization, but it also, in addition to that, it makes each of us smarter, as well.
Because it really challenges us to think differently.
Just to use a simple example, let's say you host dinner on a monthly basis for a group of friends and you know exactly what everyone eats and you go out there and you know every month you have the same shopping list and you go there, you shop for dinner.
You come home and prepare the meal.
One day, a friend calls you up and says you know what?
Can I bring a friend along with me?
And this friend is vegan as an example.
Now when you go out shopping, have you to think differently.
You have to think about oh, a different recipe.
Different dishes.
And just the thought of having someone with a different dietary need challenges us in a different way so it is a lot for individual growth, as well, as well as good for the organization.
>> Thank you.
So we actually had a question I will jump to one of the questions ‑‑ Ansuyah it came in when you were speaking but I think it will apply to a couple of you.
What is the best way to approach the topic of independent living without offending family or culture of the individual?
>> Maybe I'll jump in with that first, Sierra, if that's ok.
You know I think one of the ways to look at it is I would recommend to talk about the center.
Who we are.
And what we do.
As versus you need our help and this is what we can do for you.
Because that's when families can tend to become a little defensive.
How do you know who I am?
What do you know about my culture?
How do you, you know, how do you all of those kind of questions.
So, to kind of prevent that defensiveness, that might come in, I would definitely recommend putting the center first and what do we, as a center, can do.
Or what we do as versus what we can do for you.
I would recommend inviting families to come into the center.
Walk around, just see what you have to offer.
Meet other folks.
So try to make it as comfortable as possible.
I think Ken talked about that.
In his presentation.
In terms of when they walk in and they see that sense of welcoming.
They see that sense of value that people, the way in which people are treated and so on.
That might break down some of those barriers they have and they may start opening up to having those conversations.
>> This is Ken.
And I am used to saying that.
So, and I am kind of taking part of what she just said and it kept going on through the conversation.
I keep thinking that is the independent living philosophy.
And just use that.
Instead of this being a philosophy, kind of use it as a way of life.
One of the things I am suggesting and you may want to consider is when we are talking to people, perhaps not thinking of people as them and they, and start thinking perhaps as we and us.
It's inclusive.
And we use that in the independent living philosophy.
We are saying that there's not a group of wheelchair users, it's not a group of blind people or a group of people with cognitive disabilities.
But it's a disability community.
And the same thing might be inclusive as when we were talking about different cultures, different religions, different races.
And when we are talking to people instead of saying, you know, this is ‑‑ dadadada and how are you guys doing it?
Perhaps accepting as Arkansasians, I don't know what the word is, this is how we are approaching it.
And you being whatever segment of the community you are in, is inclusive of that.
That's just a suggestion.
>> And Maria, did you have something you were going to add?
>> Yes.
I just wanted to piggy back on what's already been said.
But, only adding that perhaps one of the things that could be done and just from personal experience what made things easier for me when I came in as a young consumer with a mom who was afraid of the independence and what that would do to me, I think that it's important representation really does matter.
So if you have a Latino or a Spanish speaking person who comes in, you know, even if it's a consumer who does speak English but they come in with a parent which is a tradition.
Families don't just let it go.
So it would be being honest about it and recognizing hey, we recognize that is new to you try it make sure that the person is speaking to the consumer of that particular background.
Able to understand even without words.
Just the fact that you have someone who represents the population enough to open the path of communication and trust.
When I came n I saw disabled people but I didn't see Latinos there.
I didn't see people, you know, brown people.
I didn't see ‑‑ so, it was a little bit more threatening.
I guess.
So yeah.
I just wanted to say that.
>> Thank you all.
I would love to say that we can continue this conversation for another three hours.
I will say that when we all met to kind of do a review, I didn't want that conversation to end either.
I have continued learning through this process.
And I just thank you each for sharing your perspectives, your experience.
I think APRIL is continuing this growth as well as all the centers that are on today.
And the SILCs that are on today.
I think it's not a one and done.
Unfortunately, we could have had 15 presentations from each person today to crack the surface.
Our biggest hope today was that we did identify there was, you know, several communities that were not as well represented within IL.
And this was our hope, is so that when you walk away today, that you understand more about this community.
Some of the barriers and that yes, you are welcoming them to the door as consumers, but you are also considering them as employees.
Potential employees or people that you are hoping to recruit as employees.
Because, you have ‑‑ you see their value in your organization.
And so, I just thank you all for coming and joining us and then thank you so much to our sign language interpreters, thank you to our captioner today.
And thank you all for the speakers.
I just ‑‑ it's ban really fun summer for me to try to reach out and then get time to spend with each of y'all and learn more about you and learn more about your communities.
I really thank you for each of those times.
I do have, I am dropping in a survey into the chat.
This just continues to help us to know how we can continue to improve.
What else do you want to learn about?
This is going to be the first of many conversations when we start talking about diversity, equity and inclusion.
And so this is something that we are putting as a priority within APRIL.
And in order to know what you want to learn more about, this is how you do that.
So, thank you all for coming.
The recording and all the slides that were shared will be on our website.
Under the training section and that will be diversity, equity and inclusion sub tab.
There's a whole place where we have lots of resources and if you have questions, please reach out.
I can connect you to maybe some of the speakers if they are open to that.
Or we can continue the conversation and welcome you to our committee, as well.
So thank you all again.
I hope everybody has a great afternoon and thank you so much for this time.