MICHAEL GALVAN: Okay. I want to introduce to you two people who come out of CRIL. And Ellie Hakala who is from the city of Fremont and a graduate of our leadership academy. And Ramiro Montoya who is a, was a resident of Hayward, but now is in Oakland, but is also a graduate of the academy. And they are going to share with us. I'm going to ask them to start by just telling you how they ended up at CRIL and how they ended up at the academy. Would that be all right? Ellie why don't you start. ELLIE HAKALA: again my name is Ellie Hakala and you got to hear one of my stories. I came to, as an older person, as you noticed the gray hair. I have gotten that legitimately by being over 50. And I came to my disability late in life. I had a accident when I was 40 that caused deterioration which gave me severe arthritis in my legs. And so I used to walk, picture yourself when you see a gorilla walk, when they try to walk upright. That's what I looked like when I walked before I got my bionic knees. When you see an older lady using a walking cane to see in a person. I'm sure that was part of the difficulty because I've been looking for a fulltime paid employment for over 10 years. I have been under employed since 2003. And as I got involved with the department of rehab trying to work through them and I got a suggestion to try CRIL. And when I contacted CRIL, they set me up with Jessica Layman and she got me involved with DAN. I thought oh good. I'm going to have somebody who is going to advocate to help me find permanent, full-time, paid employment. Not. I found out that DAN was an advocacy group and I have an older brother who was born in 1946 with multiple disabilities. He's cognitive, emotional, developmentally disabled on the autism range and 60% hearing loss. So I was raised with his disabilities all my life and how that effected my life. And then when I got into DAN to find out, I'm thinking, oh, they are going to find me a job. I'm still 10-11 years later still looking for full-time, paid employment. CRIL has not helped me in that. But they help me found a voice for people with disabilities and to advocate for others in my community that oftentimes sit in their homes and don't realize that they have a voice in what, how they live and what they need. And through my involvement with DAN, I am able to, I first went to Disability Capitol Action Day somewhere way back in the first time and that was really exciting because we got to go into the capitol, meet our legislators and be heard. And I've been there many times since. I'm also involved with, I'm sorry. I'm trying to do this. My city's planning, I've talked to housing in Fremont where I live, and we've been able to help Fremont take a step forward toward universal design to help incorporate it into at least a number of developments that are coming up to make them aware that this needs to be addressed, and we've even helped our city be aware of special needs for lengthening the street signals and putting in stop people are not able to walk as fast as they are expecting. And, and then so, you know, I've just been doing this advocacy, you know, for a while. And then two years ago I was invited to join the first leadership academy in Fremont that was so I went. I'm also, I've always been a very outspoken person, and I was a girl scout leader for 12 years with my child, and even before I had children and after my daughter graduated, I've worked with scouts, so I've had leadership aspect in that. I've worked on committees, you know, as a team member and creating events, you know, where I've been a team member and a solo participant. So I kind of had some of that leadership stuff going on. But then to sit down and be explained Roberts Rule of Order and the parliamentary procedure to have it explained and learned the different styles that everybody has as far as communication, it would help me be able to find a voice. And personally, I've been looking for all my life is communication to improve my communication. My church offers a conflict resolution class at least once or twice a year because when people find anger in something somebody did, if you don't speak up right away, it can destroy things, and we don't want to destroy the relationships within our church. I also was invited earlier this year through our I also was invited earlier this year through our resource center in Fremont to take a world < class communication class, and that was one of the things that talked about the different styles of communication. When I was a Girl Scout leader, we did diversity training, and this is like 25 years ago because they noticed the change of the environment and the peoples within the bay area and they didn't mandatory say it but they offered it to those who wanted to step up and learn about the diversity of the way different cultures communicate and as well as to be aware. Because when I was doing troop organizations, I realized it was the Asian men who came to the meetings, and they were the ones that spoke for the family. So I had to speak to the men, even though Girl Scouts is all female based. And then the different other aspects. It was nice hearing what Michael said because he gave me some lessons, too, that I need to take into my life. And then after my leadership, I was, the leadership academy, I was less afraid to speak up and then to go into the legislator offices, the state and federal senators and congress people to be able, with no fear to speak with them because it helped me learn to focus and speak succinctly on what I need or we need as a group and what we need to convey, the thoughts. And then a couple years ago I was asked to be on the advisory committee for the Alameda County ADRC, that's Aging and Disability Resources Connection, for those that don't know, it's a coalition of organizations that kind of all fit the same thing that a lot of independent living centers do and give services within the community, and I was really honored to be able to be on that committee, and I have been a member ever since. And then to be invited here to speak to all of you, it really honored me in the fact that my leadership and my openness to share has been recognized and honored, and I think I'm done. MICHAEL GALVAN: thank you, Ellie. And Ramiro, again, the same two questions. How did you end up at CRIL, and then how did you come to the Community Leadership Academy? RAMIRO MONTOYA: hello, everybody. My name is Ramiro Montoya. I am not the kind of person that you put tape signs will come out, so I'm not really a speaker, but I will improvise. In 2001 I had cancer and then I had radiation and then I became really weak and I have an invisible disability, so they call me a miracle man, the doctors, because I survived many things. And then, so when I got out of the hospital, I went to Hayward and a couple of agencies sent me a couple of people to take care of me, and they didn't have no class, no, they didn't know how to cook, no knowledge of human relations or charity for a person sick, so I went, as soon as I started learning to walk again, I walked to CRIL and, in Hayward on E Street and I met Jessica and it was my beginning of school as an activist. And now, I am like a pain for a lot of people. Then in 2006 because of my experience with, the in-home support services I got, I got involved with the public authority advisory board for in-home support services for six years, and I remember Arnold Schwarzenegger as a governor, he wanted to terminate the in-home support services program and it started going to the union and the public authority to Sacramento and talked to politicians, and I learned all that through CRIL, and then so I remember then in Berkeley, this was from 2006 to 2012, maximum term six years. Then I don't know if you heard about Arnie bill from Arnold Schwarzenegger, it made for one month people with disabilities, what kind of disabilities and wheelchairs, we park in the middle of an avenue, Adeline Street, and we called that Arnieville. We asked permission from the city council members and the mayor and the police, and for one month and we have signs there and all that, somebody, a sculpture made a statue resembling Arnold Schwarzenegger cutting, and this was important because we needed to save the program for people with low income, and you can get the person you want that you're comfortable with, it can be a relative, and the state pays for that. So we succeeded in saving the program and now it's changed to QUILL, which I'm involved, community United States in defense of homestead which the Supreme Court decision in June of 1999 said people with disabilities should be taken care of in their homes with dignity and respect instead of being sent to nursing homes. And then I got involved with, so that changed the name Arnieville to QUILL. So we fight all the time for the rights of people with disabilities and we go to federal buildings and et cetera. And then now I'm getting involved with East Bay Housing Organization as a volunteer to learn about the housing crisis and we need more affordable housing, and this is not a commercial but I have, I'm going to give each table one flier which is the repercussion of the impact fee in housing and then if anybody wants to sign a petition, you know, I appreciate that. So this is to ask developers to get, provide money for affordable housing. And then, so now I'm also a volunteer with Eden Housing Information Referral, I want to learn more. So that's basically MICHAEL GALVAN: how did you get to the academy? RAMIRO MONTOYA: because I was already in CRIL and got involved, and it was really, I learned a lot. It taught me a lot because I was just like from my heart, I went there and talked to people and told them the that my in-home support services provider married me, so that's some of the story that I gave to the politicians in Sacramento and, yeah, I still help fight for them for their salary so that they could have sick leave, vacation, because I got involved with domestic workers and the governor signed that, too, about, you know, fair pay. Yeah, and so basically I was lucky to be in CRIL when they started the academy, so I graduated in the first MICHAEL GALVAN: first group. RAMIRO MONTOYA: first class, yeah. And I learned a lot. I continue to learn and it's an honor to be here and thank you for inviting me. MICHAEL GALVAN: thank you. I want to ask the group of us here, do you have any questions that you'd want to ask Ellie or Ramiro about the academy and their experience or advocacy? Yes. Is it Mark? AUDIENCE MEMBER: It is. It is Mark. I want to know from Ellie more about how Fremont got that universal design ordinance passed, because that's in our plan to get some of the communities down in Silicon Valley, which is right next door to start passing those. ELLIE HAKALA: well, in Fremont, we've always, Fremont City Council has been fairly progressive, and in some respects of that. But the universal design, it unfortunately wasn't But the universal design, it unfortunately wasn't what we absolutely wanted, but we got them to address it and to write it into legislation, a modified universal design, but there, because of CRIL and other agencies, we've even had a couple of, I want to say apartment complexes that were created totally universal design, and we are able to present that to show how when you initiate universal design right into the beginning of the construction process, it doesn't cost me 12 bucks more, you know? It's not like it would be the thousands and thousands of dollars after you have to change it later on. And so they were willing to accept that aspect and unfortunately it's modified. I think Dublin had already had something in place, so they were following Dublin's design when. Did that answer your question? AUDIENCE MEMBER: Pretty much. I just was wondering what the process was like to actually get it through council. Did you have like a particular council member who carried it for you? ELLIE HAKALA: we just got involved with the housing authority when they had meetings, and we've been, you know, to have somebody at most of the housing authority meetings to make sure your face is known and they know what you're going to ask or promote when you're there, and to have somebody present at that time. MICHAEL GALVAN: I know in Dublin, and Sheri may know more, there was just consistent presence at the various meetings of the housing commission and then the city council. I mean, and it wasn't fast, but it was a consistent presence that eventually affected some change. And I think Sheri would know more. SHERI BURNS: yes, absolutely, Michael and Ellie. It's a process, but like everything else we've been talking about in the last two days, a lot of it has to do with relationship building, and so you need to find an ally. We talked about the word "ally," too, an ally on the city council who will listen to you and for you to work with them on the importance of a UD ordinance. Also it's helpful to have some precedence, so now certainly in Alameda County we have a few cities that have taken up and have passed a universal design ordinance. They're not all exactly the same. There are, as Ellie mentioned, some tweaks and compromises sometimes that you have to consider, but there are also some cities across the United States that have been able to get their communities to pass such an ordinance. But it's then taking all those principles and materials and information, the importance of the stories, bringing the consumers who have benefited from having accessible housing units being able to age in place, too. We all know that there are plenty of senior complexes that were built in the '70s and '80s that were not accessible from the get-go, and a lot of people ended up having to leave those complexes because there were steps now into their apartments that they couldn't navigate. So as Ellie mentioned, it's a lot less expensive to build those zero step entries and to make sure that you've got your wider doorways in the interior of the home and grab bars that can be installed easily on bathroom shower stalls and tubs. All of those kinds of basic kinds of principles to be from the get-go. And so it's working with city council and the housing commission and the public services department and, you know, across the board and talking to them continuously about this. And also as Michael mentioned going to those meetings regularly and bringing it up. MICHAEL GALVAN: and also, with the affordable housing builders, I know we worked, as CRIL did, very much with, at that time it was called AHA, now it's called SAHA, they're affordable housing associates here in the Bay Area to design the Carmen Avenue Apartments in Livermore which every apartment there is accessible. It's wonderful, and people didn't realize it could be so easy, you know? But it's that process, you need to start at the ground floor. Anyone else? RAMIRO MONTOYA: can I say something? I forgot to say that I had a good experience in 2008. Berkeley Organizing Congregations for Action, it was like 17 / 18 different groups that used their faith for social justice. So it was a learning process. And I became a US citizen just to vote after 30 something years in this country, came from South America and Columbia and I decided this country is famous for racist, for being racist, so I said, well, this is my opportunity to vote for a black guy, and I voted for President Obama. Then they took me to, this is part of PICO, People Integrating Community to Organizing. It's a national organization. They also have a part of Africa and Honduras and Central America, and they took me by airplane to go and advocate for health reform, and it was nice the first time to go to Washington and talk to the senators, congress people, the assistants, bring the message. And then the next year we went by bus with students and people of the community in BOCA and for five days we traveled to Washington by bus, only stopped in Denver, and every city we stopped, we went to different church and people tell, told their stories. I remember in one of those, a person from Belgium said, my children cannot go to a university because I don't have a social security, you know. And then so when we got there, it was nice because it was a nice satisfaction because the day we went for immigration, like 5,000 people from all around the country for immigration reform, President Obama came out of the balcony and announced that the reform passed. And before that I used to work but I was always looking for jobs that have health benefits, because I started my disability in 1991, and so I was always looking for jobs that offered health, you know, insurance. And then, so that was incredible when, you know, going there and I contributed to something success like health reform. And that's all I wanted to add. MICHAEL GALVAN: thank you. RAMIRO MONTOYA: and my vision is, I called this morning Vice-President Biden's office and left him a message after I read in the yahoo news that he spoke up in favor of immigrants, and against Donald Trump for being so ignorant. And then I looked and Googled and looked at Donald Trump, he's Scottish, and I said, well, you know, the Mayflower boat, they came from Europe escaping religious persecution, whatever, and they didn't have documents, so this is a country of immigrants, this is a country of immigrants and the real people for me always is the Native Americans are the real original people from this country. But America, the dream of [unintelligible] to unify countries, remember it was Columbia, Panama, Venezuela Peru, and Bolivia, his dream was the countries be one nation, unfortunately it never happened, but we are all Americans. But what is happening right now in Europe, all these people are immigrating desperate, so we, I have a vision that the government institutionalize, make mandatory teaching the history of immigrants because all the groups, Germans, French, Italians, Chinese, Japanese, all are being discriminators right now is the term for the Hispanics. And everybody who comes from all the world to Mexico but it doesn't mean everybody's Mexican. So thank you. MICHAEL GALVAN: thank you, Ramiro. Are there any other questions? Daniel. AUDIENCE MEMBER: I'm really curious as to what one thing that you pull away from DAN that, the training program, the academy, that really kind of sung to you and gave you the power to do some of the things that you accomplished. What was something that said, okay, it clicks, or, oh, I'm going to use that thing I learned? What was something that was really important to you? ELLIE HAKALA: well, for myself, I think just the whole class itself just being able to, well, learn the structure of Robert's Rules of Order so you know going into meetings that you're going to play the game. That that is how these boards are run, the parliamentary procedure, that, 'cause I kind of had some of that going in, but it gave me a full vision of that, and how within that you can still find your voice, and, too, that you just can't ramble on and be able to, you know, have to get your thought process in a row so you can speak succinctly and to the point and address the issue that's at hand and make sure it relates to what your needs are. And that there are different styles of people and to be able to work with those styles, 'cause everybody is different, everybody is an individual, and to respect that aspect instead of down playing it or, and then being able to, be able to stand up and speak your mind to those that are there and with you. Thank you. RAMIRO MONTOYA: and the Disability Action Network, part of CRIL, it's been an experience because I've been able to go to many events and I've been learning a lot every time I go to, you know, one of those conferences, and, yeah, CRIL also invited, gave me a grant to go to Sacramento the last two years for a conference of transform, an organization I don't know if you're familiar, transform, they want affordable housing close to public transportation, and you know, green and more bicycles. So that's another victory for me to be part of that. And I was able to go there, pay hotel and transportation. MICHAEL GALVAN: yeah. I think what both Ellie and Ramiro are talking about, so you realize, the academy was simply one more thing in a real lifelong conversion to advocacy, because it isn't in itself, it's their advocates who came in because they wanted to learn to do it better, and they have continued to do that. But I also hope you heard a certain word they both used. They were invited to the academy because it's that relationship again of somebody recognizing gifts in them and calling them out that was very, very important. RAMIRO MONTOYA: Michael, you know, something that I learned also, that is very practical is the power is in the relations. So, you know, when you open relations with politicians or like shall we say, you know, your city officials, it makes a difference. MICHAEL GALVAN: no, absolutely. Jarrod? AUDIENCE MEMBER: I thought Ellie brought up a good point about the different communication styles. Does the leadership academy address this and help the individuals to clarify their thoughts? ELLIE HAKALA: for myself, absolutely, because it makes you slow down and form your thoughts. Get your thoughts in a row or get all your ducks in a row, as I want to say. Because if you just go rambling on and you're not keeping the point that you're trying to make in mind and do it within, if you've ever attended a council meeting, you have two to three minutes to speak and then they're going to cut that microphone off. So if you can't say what you need to say to do the advocacy within that two to three minutes and make it heard and make it poignant, then your being there might not be such a good thing. So that's one of the things that it helped me to make sure even right, I mean, to write it down, although I've learned to speak in three-minute segments pretty much for the last few years. But it does help you form your thoughts and get them clear and concise. MICHAEL GALVAN: and part of that, Jarrod, is we practice doing that. And part of it is like for example when investigating what committees you can apply for, we assign, you pick which committees you want to examine in the county, and then you have to come back and present those committees in a succinct way to the group so people can make decisions about whether or not that's a group they might want to be interested in joining. I thank you so much, but I especially thank Ellie and Ramiro for being with us and sharing their stories with us. Thank you so much. They are a great asset to the disability community and to CRIL. And you can pick their brains if you want to afterwards. Go right ahead. RAMIRO MONTOYA: can I say something else? I forgot that now I have a petition also for a crosswalk, but I moved from Hayward to Oakland because there was no affordable housing in Hayward, unfortunately, so I'm in Oakland, but there is a three-days street cleaning, and then so a stop sign or a crosswalk, anything. So I've been going to city hall and now they know me. I've been speaking out there. And I had the courage because thanks to the teaching of. MICHAEL GALVAN: he doesn't stop, does he? That's good. All right. Thank you.