MICHAEL GALVAN: I'm Michael Galvan. I'm the director of CRIL at Hayward and we're going to talk about how we at CRIL adopted Bob I wanted to talk about the question of enculturation and cross culture elements that have surfaced a little, and I wanted to mention my background a little. I'm Native American. My mother is first generation out of the village and my father is second generation out of the village, which means I was raised in a very conservative fashion. Though they are an off the wall liberal democrats politically, so good, good people that way. But there are some things that need to be thought about and recognize that when we start talking about different cultures, and that is things do not always work in one culture or one center that would work in another. So for example, I spent, for about the last 30 years I’ve done a lot of work enculturation with teachers who are going to work on reservations, and I worked for a number of years in a two-week immersion program for teachers, usually nine times out of 10 it was their first year out and they were excited examine and they were going to go off the to the reservation. And I had this one goal who came through our program, and she was absolutely wonderful. I thought, I want you as my first grade teacher," you know, I would have fun. And she left, and you know, you think about, I wonder how she did.” Next year I go back. Guess who signed up for the program again? And I thought, I guess we did really well, because here she is. She wants to come back.” And so when I asked people to introduce themselves and why they were there, she said she needed to learn better what we were teaching because she had not been successful. And I said, well, could you tell me what you mean?" She said, well, as first grade teachers do, and all teachers, I gave a test.” Nothing wrong there, is it? She corrected the test. That's good. She handed the test back to the students. That's good, right? One student, I’ll call him Johnny, got an a. That's wonderful if you're Johnny, right? And one teacher, she's in Navajo now, took the test and put it on the bulletin board as many teachers did and said if you want to look at Johnny’s paper because he did so well. Johnny gets home and he goes to his parents and he says, I got an a on the test today. And he was expecting just great kudos from his family, right? Except his dad said, how did Jimmy do? And Johnny said, well, not as well as I did. And his father said, Jimmy’s grandfather gave our family food when we ran out of food and had no money, and we would have died without jimmy's grandfather's help, and this is the way you repay him? Navajos don't compete. You don't do things where this individual got an a, this individual got a b. We have to learn to first find out who we're talking with. Right? Because otherwise, we're going to make tremendous mistakes, not because we're mean or anything else like that, but just because we don't understand something that's going on in the group of people with whom we're working. So I’m going to ask you, in your tables right now, and do this as a group at your table. A simple thing. Think of a time when you were in a meeting, an activity, in a classroom where somebody did something that was totally opposite what you were ever supposed to do. It's like if you ever saw the movie version of To Kill a Mocking Bird and the boy who lives out in the country pours syrup on his roast beef and scout goes, what are you doing? And the kid was used to doing that. When did somebody do something that just threw you for a loop or offended you or acted against everything that you think is important but you didn't realize it? Just take a couple minutes. 30 seconds. And I’m going to call you back together and just remind you that you do have the rest of your time here if something interesting came up, but we're going to bring you back to the group, we're bringing you back to the group. Would anybody want to share something that came up in your group? Anyone at all? Daniel see, you didn't even have to raise your hand. AUDIENCE MEMBER: My name is Daniel and we have a consumer who often shows up to our events and he has, he's on a spectrum and in every meeting that he gets a phone call, he interrupts the whole entire meeting by standing up and answering the phone call right there in the might get, and there's nothing we can do to make him either leave the room or to end the phone call quickly. It just, when the phone rings, he's going to answer it and he's going to answer it by standing up. MICHAEL GALVAN: that would drive me crazy, but I’d have to learn to work with it, right? Anyone else? Yes. MICHAEL GALVAN: When I worked, before my work at the CIL I was in special education classrooms in Pittsburg, and it was one of my first days that I met a four-year-old boy who felt the need to act out but really tried to look out for other people as he would do it, and he would say, "oh, no," and he would throw a chair. And he would say, "Look out," and he would throw another chair. Woo. And the good news is he said it fitters first, but you had to get used to it pretty quick. MICHAEL GALVAN: and one last one, if there's one last example. I'm going to ask you, do any of you here have challenges with consumers being late to meetings? Only a couple. Oh, okay. I'm going to tell you something then that might horrify you. This is generally will Lakota, that's north of South Dakota, clocks are generally not the big thing. So you're never late for a Sunday rise service because you can't join it if you are, but it's easy to tell when the sunrise service begins because it begins when the sun rises. And if you have a meeting that's on Tuesday, it is after the sun rises and before the sun sets. MICHAEL GALVAN: even though you can say till you're blue in the face it is at 4:00 o'clock. Some will arrive at 10:00 and some will arrive at 6:00. Culturally different, isn't it? They're not being rude. It's just a whole different way of dealing with things. And so what we need to do is in our CILs or ILCs we need to find out who we're working with. And one of the greatest things that I find is, and I’m going to use an old, an old image. We are not missionaries. People who work in ILCs or CILs are not bringing other things to people. That's not our role. If that's your role, you're probably in the wrong place, especially if you want to do leadership development. What people who work in CILs or ILCs do is we bring out of people the gifts they already have. We don't give them anything. They already have it. But what we do is help them open it up. It's like when Amina was talking about that treasure chest and box that everybody has, what the great thing is, is to help somebody through leadership development learn to open up their treasure box and find out what's already inside. And it's a great thing that happens when you watch somebody who was not very talkative or expressive before go through an experience and at the end of it be able to say, this is what I believe and this is why, and I’m going to advocate for it. That’s our goal, right? But remember, did we give that to that person? No. It was already in the person. So when we talk about what we did with the academy, leaders without limits, is we said what we need to understand what we're trying to do, and there are some points that I really want to point out. We want to include the disability perspective in decisions on general public welfare. And let me give you an example. A recent one here in the bay area. We're getting new BART cars. Yay! Guess who they forgot to take into consideration with the new BART cars? Wheelchairs. Us. MICHAEL GALVAN: wheelchairs, visually impaired, especially a scooter, right, with these crazy poles they put in the doorways, right? Well, there are several ILCs in the room, I who fought for modifying the BART cars. But why? The disability perspective was not involved. Or you take, some of you may know Jessica Layman. She was with us at CRI for a number of years. In Dublin, I remember going there in 2006. Dublin was one of those fast suburbs that like 10 years ago there was 10,000. There was no house being built in Dublin that had a bedroom on the first floor. Which means there are going to be a lot of people who aren't going to be able to move there, right? And so Jessica a was really good with a number of our Dan people getting Dublin, the city of Dublin to adopt a universal design policy. We can only do that when the disability perspective is involved. The reason I mention this is you may be saying: How do we get people to get involved? You get people involved when you find out what they need and you help them get it. The goal is not to have them do what we want them to do; the goal is to help them do what they want to do, right? Remember, we're not bringing something to them; we're pulling it out of them. So when we find out that you like riding BART but you like to get in the car, you like to live in a house but you'd like to get in the front door, you're going to get people involved. We want to use natural leadership strengths. Don't ask people to do things they don't like doing because, guess what? They're not going to do it. You ask people to do things that they like doing. For example, I like getting up early in the morning, so if you have a 7:00 o'clock breakfast meeting, guess whom you send? And if you have a 10:00 o'clock coffee meeting, I’m going to send Dolores, right? Cause she's wide awake. I'm already in bed. We have to work on our strengths. We have to understand the functions of a nonprofit board. That's a really deep one. The Roberts Rules of Order, why do we have to? Do you stay away from things where you feel like you're going to make a mistake and you're going to look foolish? Yeah. If you learn the Roberts Rules of Order, you'll go to the meetings and you'll learn what's going on so you don't look foolish. Gaining an understanding of legal and ethical issues. This is a big one, a hard one, and remember, this is only the beginning. The ethical issues always come up. You know, should we be involved in this? Should we advocate for this? Well, let's talk about it. What are the issues that are involved? We want to network and we want to connect interests, okay? Remember, it's always important to ask what you need because if you ask what you need, who are you talking about? The consumer. And that person finds his or her needs very fascinating. Okay. Each participant is expected to engage actively in the discussion. That seems so simple, but it's not. Now, I’ve used a method that, again, I steal from my ethnic background. If I have a group there with two people talk and the other five don't, "all right. We're going to do it this way. We're going to start with Matthew, and Matthew you get to start the next time after Chad and Roger have spoken but not before.” Okay? Guess what that does all of a sudden? All of a sudden Matthew is saying, come on, Roger, share, share, and when Roger has been very quiet and doesn't want to talk, guess what he's now being encouraged to do? Talk. MICHAEL GALVAN: Talk. By whom, by me? No. By his peer. It's a wonderful thing that happens. And all of a sudden it's not the instructor/facilitator that's encouraging conversation; it's the group. We had five four-hour sessions. Must tell you, that's long. I might do it a little differently next time. Everybody was tired at the end of it. We did it in three different cities and therefore three different ways because Hayward, which is our main office, is very much still a blue collar suburb. Fremont is very much a techie suburb with lots of money. Not as much as Silicon Valley but lots of money. And Livermore, wineries, country, rural areas. Lawrence Livermore lab. There was a study done in the early '90s. Livermore had more Ph.Ds percentage-wise than any other town in California because of the lab. They build bombs, you know? Get a degree and build a bomb, you know. Well, what did we do? Now, as always, we had 31 registrants. Yay. Ordered 31 of everything. I said wait. 21 began the series. This is not bad. This is about right. You're always going to have a drop-off, even before it shows up because most people will say yes to everything until it becomes a reality. And then it becomes difficult. I forgot my mother was coming to visit. How can you forget your mother was coming to visit, you know? Of the 24, 21 completed the series. That's excellent. That's better than any college where you're paying money to go, okay? Five members of this group were part of our Disability Action Network, they work with Dolores, and two were former DAN members. Of that now, one is a member of the CRIL's action for youth and one is another organizer for a CIL. Isn't that neat? That's why they had to drop out of the program. Isn't that a shame? They got a job. One is on the bay area rapid transit accessibility task force. I think that's kind of important to be on, right? One is on CRIL's board of directors. Not bad. One is a member of a partner agency, our Community Action Network CAN. He was a homeless person. He came every week, got there early, left late and was super involved because why? He really saw the need to mobilize and organize his fellow homeless people because they were being driven around, I mean run out of where they were by the police. One is an active in the Asian American Pacific Islander community, and two have worked with nonprofits. Well, since then, two of them became members of the Alameda County Aging and Disability Regional Connection, the ADRC Advisory Board, and Ed Willy is back here. She's going to be talking with us later. She's one of them. One is the member of the disability organizing networking advising, wasn't that, I think that was with Romero, and he's going to be talking with us. One was a member of the IHSS advisory board, oh, he was, and that was Romero also. What's that? MICHAEL GALVAN: in-home support services. Now, the youth graduate, we had one high school student. Guess what she went on and did? She became a member of the Pleasanton youth commission and serves on the Pleasanton human services and housing commission. Let me show how that can change things. Guess who we have to convince CRIL to give us money. The housing, the human services and housing commission. It was a weird meeting. There was Alison. She was with another group of people. You want to give us money, don't you? And, but isn't that good? Somebody who is going to make decisions about whether or not disability organizations are funded and we've helped her in that process, and one young adult graduate has become a regular volunteer at CRIL’s Hayward office. You know, so, god, we got lots of stuff out of that, you know? Now, as I said, we graduated 21 participants. These are the different organizations, and all the graduates or participants have demonstrated a willingness to get involved. That's what's wonderful. But I still can't get over that of the 24, 21 finished. One didn't finish because he got a job. Another one didn't finish because he had a medical problem, and the third one I can't recall right now. I'm sorry. Now, what are we going to do next? Well, remember I said we have to adapt. This is our next adaptation. We are going to in the Tri-Valley area, that is Livermore, Dublin and Pleasanton, I got some grants for this, we are going to do the Disability Action Network for Youth in those three towns, but the way we're doing it is we're going to use the academy to develop the core group. Dolores is doing the individual contact. I'm doing the contact with the school programs. From that we'll get the youth together, have an academy with them, adapt them, do you think I’m going to do a four hour session with. We'll probably do 10 one-hour sessions. I'll goal is to create a Disability Action Network with them and next fall have that network go through the schools and those three towns and do the presentations for disability history week. Michael, could I just ask you a favor to have you cue the slides when you change? Just say audibly next slide. MICHAEL GALVAN: oh, I’m sorry. Yeah. We also, in terms of cultural things, we have a group that meets every Tuesday. They have met now. They had their fifth anniversary two or three weeks ago, and they are a Spanish speaking group, and I love it when they meet because they never eat meat without food. Wonderful the different cultures, you know? But I want to mention something that's really important if you work with immigrants. Anybody have immigrant populations in your neighborhoods? Now, the strange thing about it is when we have huge European immigrant populations coming in, we have the exact same problems we have to do except we are real stupid. We forget our own history. Anyone here know what the know nothing party was? Oh, yeah. MICHAEL GALVAN: what was it? Donald Trump? MICHAEL GALVAN: it was an anti-immigrant party in the 19th century. When the Irish came in, what was the most popular sign in Boston? Irish need not apply. When you go to New York, I’ll bring this out of the catholic experience because a number of those immigrants were catholic, you would have on one corner an Irish church, on the next corner Italian church, across the street a Polish street, and across the other street a German church. And the Irish went to the Irish church and the Italians went to the Italian church and you prayed to God that your daughter did not marry a German. And why? Because what do immigrants do? Do you like going where you're comfortable? Yes. MICHAEL GALVAN: yeah. So if you meet with your own people and they know your language, oh, and they come from your hometown and they had the same history as you do and they eat the same foods as you do, and when you say something, they understand and they don't go and say, what? Or, you eat that? Like I tell people, do you know to native peoples, dog is a delicacy? Because the Vietnamese will eat the dog when they run out of other food. Native peoples, you come over, they want to honor you, I tell you right now the thing to really avoid is buffalo nose. That's the highest honor you can get, when a buffalo is killed and then cooked, but it tastes like kidney. And it has a texture, just awful. So we have to remember who we're working with again. And remember, immigrant works with going to want to work with inside their own groups. The goal is to help them be in such a place that the second generation will begin to integrate. Oh, and by the way, it's what every immigrant group in this country has done, so it's not new. It's just we haven't had so many at one time speaking one language, and I’m going to go forward. The next thing we want to do, and this is two years from now, is we want to start an annual convening of graduates, because we found out that of the groups that we graduated, they all wanted to stay in contact. Not bad, right? Because the idea is if you learn and support, how do you want to act? I mean if you learn in a group, you want to continue working in a group, right? And so what we want to do is bring back all our graduates, those who want to, to get together how things gone, where do you want to go forward from, what have you learned, what do we need to add to do that collective wisdom again, okay? Because remember, who do we learn about leadership from? Our leaders. MICHAEL GALVAN: our leaders who happen to be our consumers. Because remember, they are there. Do you think Rosa Parks grew up thinking she was a leader? Was she a leader? Just because she had the courage to say what needed to be said. Somebody had to support her in that and people did. That’s the next piece we want to do that. We want to continue networking among graduates and then we want to determine a project. What are we going to undertake as a group to advocate for in the bay area or in the state of California. And that's going to be a project that I’m not going to suggest, but our consumers are going to suggest. This is a need we have, and this is what we need to go after. Because as I said before, if it's a real need, what are they going to do? They are going to be interested in it and they are going to commit to it. And now I’m going to ask if you have any questions. You don't have to. Daniel? You see, I didn't need you to raise a hand, did I? [Laughter] It’s your face. Do you know that? AUDIENCE MEMBER: thank you. Thank you. MICHAEL GALVAN: I used to teach junior high. AUDIENCE MEMBER: the student now and thin. MICHAEL GALVAN: everything we ever started doing in life we started doing in junior high. AUDIENCE MEMBER: I was thinking in what you said especially populations. In order to talk to them? MICHAEL GALVAN: no, not willing to judge that special population. So for example, if you are, anybody here from Hawaii? No. Hawaii had a leper colony on Molokai. And domain was not a leper. Not at the beginning. Did he work with them? Yes. Why? Because he was one with them. He was there willing to learn from them. He didn't go to help them. God help us from do-gooders. But he went to be with them and to learn from them and as a result, that was anybody, you don't speak Spanish, go work with a Mexican group. It doesn't matter, if you have a good heart and you care about them, guess what, they are going to think you are incredible because you took the courage to walk in the room without speaking their language and tell them that you care about them. Yes. Tory or Toby. It’s okay somebody called me Tony for the first time. I have a question for you and Bob and Sheri. In the data driven society that we are in and applying to grants and making this a rate in our communities. Do you collectively have that date and those who went through the this program that we can access and when we go back to our communities we can write grants and show the positive outcomes that are coming from it. MICHAEL GALVAN: Bob, somebody from your center called. The centers that are participating collecting their own data but we are also supplying that information to Bob so you can talk about that Bob. BOB HAND: we have given information to others who have applied for the grant. The lady in Kansas, not only that, we give you grants that we've applied for before so you can see what we have written, and yeah, we don't have perfect data on it because some people will never contact us. We have a good chunk of it. I wanted to add is that the next step beyond because you can see some of the outputs that Michael listed up there as far as what kinds of commissions and boards and advisory councils that are graduates are participating in. But we also need to start talking about the outcomes and the impact of their work. And so that's the next level. And I know one of the ongoing grant sponsors over the last several years that has helped us move in that direction is giving us some guidance is catholic charities. Any of the organizations or foundations that do funding for advocacy work, this is a perfect fit for that. Sometimes it's hard to get money to do advocacy work but there are organizations out there that will fund specifically advocacy efforts. I don't know if you want to share anything else on it. MICHAEL GALVAN: and Catholic Charities it's the campaign for human development. It's a national campaign. You do not have to be catholic to apply for it. We apply as an independent living center. They don't want theory. They want action items with an outcome that can be evaluated and quantified. So like with our Dublin pleasant Livermore Dan-y group we put in, I cannot remember, I think it's 15 youth go through the academy of academy two will join boards. Six of them will become members of the Dan-y group and three or four will go to the disability capitol action day. It shows things actually came because the campaign for human development sees itself as seed money. We do not fund ongoing projects but rather new projects and we like to do it for once and once that once happens you become independent and self-sufficient. So at the end of ours we have a Dan-y group, right. Maybe next year we stay in the same location, we would like to add a Dan group that's a different outcome isn't it and you can go and apply for money for that. Roger? Can you hear me. Roger. My question is where and how do you do recruitment for the academy? MICHAEL GALVAN: I’m going to ask you, Robert. Maybe you did to this. Did you come to this workshop because you read a flier or got own e-mail. How many people came here because somebody you know suggested it? The majority of us. Most of us are not going to join anything because we got an e- mail. You are unique. Most of us go to somebody because somebody we know invited me. That includes fundraisers and parties and all those types of things where you get an invitation. What we did is we invited first group or Dan group who were involved with advocacy, you want to build on that and structure it more so we individually invited them. I would say invitation primarily. Tory. Another question. What age range are you looking at or what age range do you focus on? MICHAEL GALVAN: 16 up. Because we want somebody that can get into the advocacy work and sometimes mother and father say no, but, you know, what do you do? Our young graduate her mother came with her and got really involved. Loved it. Great. Anyone else? Thank you so much for listening and Paula, do I turn it back to you? Or me. AUDIENCE MEMBER: the floor is yours. MICHAEL GALVAN: oh, God, the floor is mine. All right, now, this is where we are going to find out something that becomes really weird because people have different definitions of leadership. For example, some people think Vladimir Putin is a good leader. It is a style isn't it. Some people will say that. Donald Trump. Challenging you. MICHAEL GALVAN: you live in Arizona, don't you? The heat has gotten to you. I'm just charging now. We all are. MICHAEL GALVAN: you take somebody like Gandhi. Is he a leader? Why was he a leader? People followed him. MICHAEL GALVAN: why? He stood up and successful. MICHAEL GALVAN: not afraid to speak up. People followed him. Why? Trustworthy. He was what you saw was what you got, right? He walked the walk. He just didn't talk the talk. What we want to do is ask ourselves in terms of leadership, in your small groups, maybe five minutes for this. What are notions that you have of the way to develop leaders? How would you say we can go about doing that? Everybody understand the question? How do we develop, encourage, inspire leaders? And you have to have an idea otherwise you will never work with me on leadership development. How can you do it if you don't have an idea how to do it, right? All right. Go to it! (Discussion at tables) One minute. Okay. We are coming back together again. Isn't this wonderful. And we are going to have an initial ground rule. And the initial ground rule is only people that have not raised their hands since lunch can speak now. Daniel, even with your hands under your legs, your face still shows it. Alex, say what you want her to say. So I’m going to ask you, what ways did we say we might be able to develop leaders? How do we develop leaders? What did we come up with? Come on. Yes. Our table said that you have to model the leadership skills and you also have to provide the chance to fail. And realize that's not the end of the world. MICHAEL GALVAN: absolutely. You know our, one of our biggest problems, I think especially with our young people is we don't allow them to fail in the first grade and when they were 35 and have three kids and what do you do when they have the first failure. How to cope with failure is an incredible gift. Empowering others. MICHAEL GALVAN: tell me what you mean by doing that? Use the microphone. Just giving other people the opportunity to have input. You know, without criticizing it. MICHAEL GALVAN: excellent. I can tell you how important that is. If you are scared because you are afraid that somebody is going to think what you just said was not worthwhile and you get up all the courage that you have for the last 15 years and you say something and you get shut down, guess what's going to happen for the next 15 years. You are going to shut down again. AUDIENCE MEMBER: I think, can you hear me? Just giving them the chance to lead and letting them know that their voice is just as important as anyone else's voice. I know with me, I was, when I first started working at the CIL, I was very passive. I would let other people speak and I just sit around and someone would say what I wanted to say. Oh, they touched on it. And I was always told to speak up and be, not forceful, but be assertive in what I’m saying and just know that what you have to say is just as important as anyone else. MICHAEL GALVAN: just remember there's a big difference between assertiveness which is really good and aggressiveness which is really bad. We don't want to be aggressive, but we do want to be assertive. Anyone else? Yes. I have the list from our table. So a few of the things that we came up. Teaching disability history and the path to access laws so people feel empowered and part of a movement. And also having sort of different levels of victory. Working with them on small victories and moving on to medium victories as far as advocacy and larger victories. MICHAEL GALVAN: Ellie, use this story about the friend at a restaurant. I speak loud enough, who needs a microphone. Hi, I was eating lunch with a friend at a restaurant that had been open maybe a week or two. And she's a large woman and so she uses the disability stall because it fits her size. And unfortunately this new bathroom when, they had the changing table in it as well, so mom can go in with her infants and change diapers and stuff. And they had left the tray down or whatever they call that part. They left it down and she had to struggle to get into the disability stall. And when we were leaving, she came out of the restroom and she's grumbling. I don't know if I’m ever going to come back here because when the tray is down or the table is down you can't get into the disability stall. I said, wait a minute, wait a minute, so we were checking out this time and I spoke to the clerk. And/or the cashier. And I said, "Is the manager available" and she went and got the interim manager because the restaurant had only been open a couple of weeks and I explained the situation to him. And all you had to do is make the door from an innie to an outie and that would take care of the problem if the tray is down or up it makes it easier to get into the disability stall. [inaudible]. It should go both ways. She was not going to go back to this restaurant ever again because of that difficult and we have been back several times since and that problem has indeed been rectified and therefore she's able to get into the stall as she needs. MICHAEL GALVAN: we really do need to have access to things, right. And be able to do that. I don't know. I'm sorry. Maddie, were you finished? Yes. MICHAEL GALVAN: anyone else, Kathryn. I just wanted to share that in multicultural settings it's important to know what the different definitions are leadership is. White western culture being assert is important. But in others it's the leader who speaks last and everyone in the room has a chance to speak and is comfortable is the greatest sign of leadership. MICHAEL GALVAN: isn't it fun that we will be living in a multiculture, diverse society. I think it is. As you can see I missed many a meal in my life. Anyone else? Chad. I believe it's important for a leader to not just have a vision, but also they have to be realistic. MICHAEL GALVAN: yes, don't be so far ahead that nobody can follow. It's really, really important. And a vision is important because if you don't have a vision, anybody here read the novelist Ellie Vazel. He wrote about the holocaust which he survived. He starts out with the understanding of story or vision. A people without a story are not able to go forward. You have to have story. You need to know who you are and be able to say that. That’s why, I love what Dolores does with the disability history week. If you don't have a history, who are you? You are someone with am niche yeah and our young people need to understand that as people with disabilities we have a story and they can be part of that story and therefore move forward. All right. Now someone who talked before and wants to talk again may. Daniel. Go ahead. We like you because you seem so happy all the time. Thank you. MICHAEL GALVAN: are you? I think so. It's ambiguous. Well, the question is still definitions of leadership. And I kind of had two things that I talked about but the first one was, I used anger as a good motivate for to step outside of someone's comfort zone and Ron pulled it up with passion also something very strong and moves someone outside the comfort zone and a vested interest in something they are encouraged by. So something that makes them step out of their comfort zone. And the second piece I talked about is giving people roles and as they take on those roles they can lead from those roles by owning and seeing accomplishment in those rolls. All of a sudden they can find that self-confidence to stand up and take a piece, more piece and bigger piece next time. MICHAEL GALVAN: and one of the things that roles, you do this role can you be the one who speaks here. You do have a role and become an actor. Acting is a way to get involved in becoming more expressive because you are safe when you are acting, right, because it's not really you and all of a sudden it becomes you. How many are ED's here besides Bob and Jesse and Sheri and Bob. He's gone. And would I be correct in saying that ED does the jobs that nobody else on the staff wants to do. Sometimes. MICHAEL GALVAN: sometimes. If it gets really, if push comes to shove, I’ve seen Sheri and Ron doing things that, and that's a real definition of a leader. You don't do things that you would, that you would ask somebody else to do, you do it first and that becomes really important because then your staff or your group buys into what you are doing because you have also done it. That whole thing, I remember at one job interview and one of the interviewers asked me, "Would you be willing to step out of your office and help with an intake form? Of course. Why wouldn't you? Because we know several people that won't. That's not my job.” A leader fits in where needed. That doesn't mean being codependent but when needed we fill in. Are we okay then? What I’m going ask you to do before we move to our panel is ask you to stand up for one minute or move around in some way and just stretch. By the way, you may not know it. Amina is the stretcher. Doesn't that feel good to move around the body for a while? I’m going to ask Ellie to come up. Ellie and Ramiro to come up. MICHAEL GALVAN: all right. We are back together again. Is it all right to stand for a moment or two? Yes. MICHAEL GALVAN: good. Good. Okay. I want to introduce to you two people who come out of CRIL. And Eleanor Hakala who is from the city of Fremont and a graduate of our leadership academy. And Ramiro Montoya is a graduate of the academy. And they are going to share with us. I'm going to ask them how they ended up at CRIL and how they ended up at the academy. Ellie why don't you start. ELEANOR MAKALA: again my name is Eleanor Makala 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. That's what I looked like before I got my bionic knees. When you see an older lady using a walking cane not be the picture people expect 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 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 go good. I'll have someone find me full-time employment. Not. I found out 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 paid employment. CRIL has not helped me in that. But they help me found a voice to help 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 signs where people are driving and in areas where 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 being held there, and I said, "Oh, that sounds cool.” 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 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 ledge similarity's offices, the state and federal senators and congress people to believe, with no fear to speak with them because it helped me 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 Age and Disability Resources Connection, for those that don't know it, 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 a and it was my beginning of school as an activist. 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 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 we need 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 CRIL. So we fight all the time for 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 story and all that, and, yeah, one part of my story was 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. [ applause ] MICHAEL GALVAN: 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? 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 route next door to start passing those. ELEANOR MAKALA: 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 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 CIL 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 they were seeing how effective that was within their city limits. Did that answer your question? 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? ELEANOR MAKALA: 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 house 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 an 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 were 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 cil 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 where 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. There was an organization called BOCA in Berkeley, Berkeley Organizing Congregations for Action, it was like several or different groups that used their service for justice. And I became a U.S. 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 also 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 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 is always the Native Americans are the real original people from this country. But America, the dream of money to unify five countries, remember it was Columbia, Panama, Venezuela and Bolivia, his dream was the countries be one nation, unfortunately it never happened, but what is happening right now in Europe, all these people are immigrating desperate, so we, I have a vision that the government institution lies, 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. Hi. 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? ELEANOR MAKALA: 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 CIL, 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, CIL 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 bitter, 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. Jar read? 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? ELEANOR MAKALA: 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 attend add 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, jar rod, is we practiced doing that. And part of it is like for example when investigating what committees you can apply for, we assign, you pick which meets you want to examine in the county, and then you have to come back and present those committees, and so it's a situation to the group so the group can make a decision if that's a group they might want to end up joining. I thank you so much, but I especially thank you Ellie and Ramiro for being with us and share their stories with us. Thank you so much. They are a great asset to the disability community and to cil. 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.