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                                                                     Joel Taveras, left, of West Haverstraw,
a mentor with the Prime Time peer mentoring program,
meets with client Tyrone Browne of Monsey at the
Rockland Independent Living Center in Nanuet.

Peer mentoring program
What: Prime Time volunteer peer mentoring program
Where: Rockland Independent Living Center, 75 W. Route 59, Suite 2130
(second floor of the Nanuet Mall, next to Boscov's), Nanuet
Etc.: Training consists of three two-hour sessions.
Information: about the program or to apply, contact Peter

Rockland program seeks mentors for the disabled

NANUET - Before interviewing for a peer-mentoring program, Sal LoBalvo wasn’t sure he would make a good role model for others with disabilities. Although he broke many barriers as a disabled student and professional, he always pictured a mentor as someone who was “wealthy or powerful,” not a regular guy in his “mid-30s,” he said. “But you learn, people helped you along the way,” said LoBalvo, a customer-service representative. “Maybe you do have something to offer someone else.” Now, LoBalvo is a full-time peer mentor for three people at Prime Time, a mentoring program offered by the Rockland Independent Living Center. The program, which was developed in 2006, offers support to people with disabilities, specifically developmental disabilities, who want to further their education or career. Mentors advise people who are in a “transitional” stage of their lives, usually ages 18 and older, said Peter Groos, a Prime Time coordinator. The program currently has eight paid mentors and one or two volunteers who mentor 21 people, one day per week. “It was an opportunity for me to do something different and maybe help someone else out along the way,” said LoBalvo, who wanted to “be there for someone else that may not have that fortitude or that self-confidence to do it themselves.”

While there has been “a long history of peer mentors for people with mental illness,” that’s not always the case for those with developmental disabilities, said Bill Cooperman, a senior independent living advocate and the Prime Time program director.

Many people with such disabilities have never worked before, or will continue to encounter barriers in their professional or educational lives, according to Miriam Cotto, the executive director of the center. That’s where the mentor, who must have a disability, comes in.

“Here we have people with disabilities who have overcome barriers that people with disabilities would face,” Groos said. “So they’re someone who’s had a lot of success in employment or education (and) is a role model to another person with a disability who hasn’t broken through the field of work or is struggling against the barriers and therefore that’s someone who’s going to help them through it.”

Paid and volunteer mentors offer professional insight and advice, such as interviewing skills, and help their peers take steps to reach their goals. Tyrone Browne, 65, said that without his mentor, he would be far from reaching his goal of becoming an advocate for the disabled. “I would’ve achieved it, but it would’ve taken me a longer time,” said Browne, who has been in the Prime Time program for a few months. “Without him, it was going to take me a long time. But with his help, I’m getting there.” Joel Taveras, Browne’s peer mentor and a Spanish outreach advocate, said that the program offers people with disabilities a resource to navigate their way to achieving professional and educational goals.

“This is a very good program for people with disabilities who just need to be guided through the system to accomplish their goals,” Taveras said. “The most important thing is when they follow this program ... they feel proactive. They feel like they can accomplish their goals.” And for many in the program, the support and help offered by the mentors has led to success. Thirteen of the 21 in the program have found jobs, Groos said. Now, a little more than a year since it was launched, the program is looking for at least seven additional volunteers.

“Things don’t get better until you start something new,” said LoBalvo, about Prime Time. "That's how inventions come along and better goals and better outcomes. You have to want something."
 

Nonprofit center finds home at Nanuet Mall By Khurram Saeed The Journal News (Original Publication: December 8, 2006)

After Stephanie Soto heard the Rockland Independent Living Center had moved to the Nanuet Mall, she and her 10-year-old daughter decided to pay a visit. For a change, it was an easy trip. Both mother and daughter, who use power wheelchairs, were born with osteogenesis imperfecta, commonly known as brittle-bone disease, which leaves them vulnerable to broken bones and fractures. They took a Transport of Rockland bus, which stops in front of their Eckerson Village apartment complex in Spring Valley. The bus dropped them off at the back of the mall, which leads directly to the second floor. The center was a short distance away, near Boscov's department store. "It was a snap, a breeze," Soto said earlier this week. Ironically, the center relocated from Spring Valley, which was closer to Soto's home. However to get there, she had to use TRIPS, the county's paratransit bus service, which required that she call a day in advance to reserve a seat. The center moved into temporary office space in the mall Nov. 1 and into its newly renovated headquarters three weeks later. Center officials said there were two primary reasons for their move: They needed more room to accommodate a growing roster of programs, and they had discovered mold in the building they had occupied for more than a decade. Their new office is nearly 10,000 square feet, more than three times the size of their previous office. It boasts a large reception area with a glass wall facing out onto the mall. Its Cyber Cafe, which contains specially modified computer stations so people with disabilities can use them, is larger and no longer has to double as a conference room. Almost every employee has an office. "It was very cramped" at the other site, office manager Dora Cabrera said. "There was very little room for people who walked in and wanted to ask about our programs. This is a prime location and not a difficult place to get to." There was some initial concern among staff members that their clients in Spring Valley might not be pleased about leaving the old site. Many of them used to walk there. Cabrera is one of 22 full- and part-time employees working at the office. In all, the independent living center employs 96 people. The center is next to Crafters' Unlimited, which sells crafts and furniture, and across the corridor from My Dear, a clothing outlet. Through the glass wall in her office, Miriam Cotto, the center's executive director, has a front-row view of shoppers shuttling among the mall's three box stores and parents bringing their children to have their pictures taken with Santa. She said her agency was a natural fit. "It's time to merge the two - for-profit and not-for-profit - because I think there's something we can certainly offer each other," Cotto said, as Christmas music played in the background. "We're getting people into this mall that ordinarily would not come." The mall, which hasn't been the same powerhouse since the arrival of the Palisades Center a decade ago, could use the tenants. There are several empty stores near the center, including one with 11,340 square feet of space. Lee Anne Borchard, the mall's general manger, said it was in the midst of "repositioning" itself. "Some other nonprofits organizations have approached us," Borchard said, citing Camp Venture. Borchard noted the mall recently attracted insurance giant Aflac, situated next to the independent living center, and has a mortgage company and other service providers. In a bit of good luck, there is an assistive technology business on the mall's first floor that provides occupational therapy. "They're the perfect neighbor for us," Cotto said. Some of the other places center officials looked at were affordable but not accessible to the disabled. The mall was both. "We've tripled our space, and the cost remained affordable to us," Cotto said, adding the center is paying about 25 percent to 50 percent more in rent at the mall. The center, which has a $1.8 million budget, spent $80,000 for the move and renovations. Cyber Cafe manager Bill Mullin said being in the mall has raised awareness about the center. "We're much more visible now," Mullin said. "You know, most people have somebody in their family who has some form of disability. So people are curious to find out what we do here." About 30 people have already dropped by, Cotto said. Many were over the age of 65, a plus for the center, which has been trying to reach out to people suffering from either vision or hearing loss or both. Cotto said the center needed more space to handle a number of programs that it started this year. They include Primetime, a peer mentoring program; a workshop to improve the physical, emotional and spiritual health of people with disabilities; a support group; and a computer class for beginners. The center serves 200 clients a week. With the extra room, Cotto wants to start a movie night on either Wednesdays or Thursdays. Soto, who visited the center on Tuesday, hadn't been there in almost two years because of illness. She came to discuss the center's personal assistance program, which gives people with disabilities the power to hire, train and supervise the people who care for them at home. The assistants help with everyday tasks such as driving, cooking, cleaning and shopping as well as personal hygiene. While she waited, she and her daughter, Zasia Davis, took a look around. They were impressed. "The setup is not only roomy, it's attractive," Soto said. "You have elbow room. In the other place, you didn't have the space to fit more wheelchairs in at the same time. It's more homey here."

Employers honored during National Disability Employment Awareness Month

By Jane Lerner
The Journal News
(Original Publication: October 28, 2006)

WEST NYACK - When people apply for jobs at the restaurant she manages, Cassandra Edwards is careful to consider all their qualifications. "It's not what they can't do," said Edwards, who manages the Boston Market in New City. "It's what they can do." Her efforts to be inclusive have resulted in people with various disabilities, including cerebral palsy and mental retardation, working at the restaurant. "Everyone deserves an equal opportunity to be successful," Edwards said. Her efforts to make opportunities available to all have also resulted in Boston Market's being among more than two dozen employers who were honored yesterday at the National Disability Employment Awareness Month breakfast, an event held at the Palisades Center mall in West Nyack.

The event was sponsored by the Rockland Employment Network, a consortium of nonprofit groups that helps match people with disabilities with jobs. The organization's goal is to see "a world that recognizes people for their abilities and gives them the tools to make the most of those abilities," said Gwenn Canfield, a vocational rehabilitation counselor at the Spring Valley office of Vocational and Educational Services for Individuals with Disabilities, a state agency.

Many employers find that, with small accommodations, people with disabilities can be good workers, Canfield said. At Boston Market, for example, an employee with cerebral palsy was given a bigger work space that allowed him to do his job, Edwards said. At yesterday's breakfast, the lifetime achievement award was given to Sister Mary Eileen O'Brien, president of Dominican College. "In her role as educator, Sister Mary Eileen has created the programs to educate our best and our brightest to work with people with disabilities," Canfield said as she presented the award. She also noted that under Sister O'Brien's leadership, Dominican College has developed programs for students with disabilities.

"Dominican College supports the needs of students with disabilities and triumphs in extending to them the support that they need to become valued members of society," Canfield said.

She urged other employers to consider hiring people with disabilities.

"We need to let more people with disabilities know that we are here to assist them," she said. "And we need to let employers know that hiring people with disabilities makes good business sense."

New voting machines empower disabled

By SARAH NETTER
THE JOURNAL NEWS Original publication: October 29, 2006)

Bill Mullin waited for 27 years to vote unassisted. But he didn’t wait quietly.

When word came that the county Board of Elections would have to make changes to accommodate disabled voters, just one part of the new state and federal voting reform mandates, Mullin made himself available to test the machines, spread the word about their arrival and teach others how to use them.
And on Sept. 12, primary day, Mullin was able to vote on his own for the first time since 1979, when a spinal cord injury left him paralyzed. “I thought it was very good,” he said. “I had no problem at all.”
Nine people in Rockland used the new disabled-accessible machines on primary day. With one machine in each town, voters with a wide range of disabilities - from paralysis to vision or hearing impairments - were able to vote unassisted.
Voting at Haverstraw Town Hall, where he also served as an election inspector, Mullin was easily able to slide his wheelchair under the adjustable table and use his knuckles to pick his candidates on the touch screen. Because the new machines, which are temporary until next year, are just ballot-marking devices, Mullin was able to review his choices on the screen and on paper before his vote was printed out and put into an envelope for later tallying.
The new machines are part of a compromise between federal, state and local election officials. New York counties were supposed to have an entire set of new machines for all voters by this year’s elections, but delays in the state’s approval of machine vendors pushed that deadline to next year.

Republican Board of Elections Commissioner Joan Silvestri said that next year’s disabled-accessible machines would tabulate the votes instead of just marking them. But both Silvestri and Democratic Board of Elections Commissioner Ann Marie Kelly were disappointed with how few people used the new machines in the primary and hope more people take advantage of them for the Nov. 7 general election.

Mullin said it was understandable that people with disabilities who normally voted from home by absentee ballot felt more comfortable with their old routine. “Some people with disabilities just feel intimidated by the process,” he said. “It’s going to take a lot of education to teach people that it’s simple.”

Though the most visible, the new machines aren’t the only change for this year’s elections.
The county was required, for the first time this year, to take over all election responsibilities from Rockland’s five towns, including storing and transporting more than 300 voting machines. After touring several locations, the county Board of Elections settled on a storage facility in Stony Point. The county has hired a company to transport the machines to the polling places for $65 per machine, Silvestri said.

Though some machines were delivered to the polling locations earlier than expected, Kelly said, “it worked amazingly well.”

The county also was responsible for recruiting and training 1,800 election inspectors - up from 400 in previous years, when inspectors were trained once every three years on a rotating basis.

Helen Hayes Hospital honors patients who've come a long way

By JANE LERNER
THE JOURNAL NEWS
(Original Publication: September 20, 2006)

Matthew Castelluccio receives the Spirit of Achievement award from John McCloughlin during the 106th Honors Assembly at Helen Hayes Hospital in West Haverstraw Tuesday. McCloughlin is a retired Port Authority police officer and is a past recipient of the award.

WEST HAVERSTRAW

Matthew Castelluccio set out from his Thiells home on his motorcycle one day in May 2003, and in an instant his life was forever changed.

"It happened in a blink of an eye," he said yesterday of the crash that severed his spinal cord and left him paralyzed. "I've been working every minute for the past three years to get my life back." Castelluccio and 15 other people who spent time undergoing rehabilitation at Helen Hayes Hospital in the past year as they recovered from devastating illnesses and injuries were honored for their courage and determination yesterday at the center's annual honors assembly.

"They are testimony to the miracles that take place in this hospital every day," Magdalena Ramirez, chief executive officer at the state-run rehabilitation center, said as she welcomed the award winners and their guests. The hospital has been honoring its patients with an annual ceremony for 106 years. The event recognizes patients who have made outstanding progress in their physical rehabilitation programs in the past year. "This is a day of reflection, hope, commitment and faith," Ramirez said. "Our patients are a testament to the magnificent power of the human spirit." Maureen Breyfogle recounted her determination to resume her life and continue caring for her four young children following a freak accident at home in which her neck was broken. Breyfogle was so weak following surgery to repair the damage that when she was admitted to Helen Hayes for rehabilitation, she could barely move. "I couldn't even tolerate sitting in a chair without passing out," the New City resident recalled. After five weeks of intensive inpatient care, followed by two months of outpatient therapy, she was able to walk out of the hospital. "The place is miraculous," she said. Nurses, doctors and therapists recounted their patients' struggles and successes. Frank Azarenok of Congers suffers from amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, a progressive neurodegenerative disease that affects nerve cells in the brain and the spinal cord. Azarenok was honored yesterday for his efforts to learn to control his wheelchair by using a console he can operate with his mouth, one of the few parts of his body that he can still use. Castelluccio, 30, who now lives in Monroe, N.Y., received the HHH Spirit of Achievement award — the hospital's highest honor. The award was presented by retired Port Authority Police Officer John McLoughlin, who knows firsthand how hard it is to recover from a devastating injury. John McLoughlin, the last person pulled alive from the rubble of the World Trade Center on Sept. 12, 2001, underwent months of inpatient therapy at Helen Hayes, where he learned to walk after his legs had been crushed.

McLoughlin's experience was recently dramatized in a movie by filmmaker Oliver Stone. McLoughlin was given the Spirit of Achievement award in 2002. "It's great to be back as a visitor, not a patient," McLoughlin said before the start of yesterday's ceremony. Many of the patients honored yesterday said much of the credit for their recovery belonged to the staff at Helen Hayes.

"The nurses, therapists and staff," said Stan Cherney, a Pomona resident who underwent cardiac rehabilitation at Helen Hayes. "They deserve the awards, not us".

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

August 24, 2006
County debuts voting machines
Lack of a crowd to see handicapped-accessible called `discouraging'

Sarah Netter The Journal News RAMAPO - Talk about low voter turnout. No one showed yesterday at a demonstration of the county's new handicapped-accessible voting machines. "It's discouraging," Board of Elections Commissioner Ann Marie Kelly said. Board of Elections employees and representatives from the Rockland Independent Living Center set up two of the new machines at the Fire Training Center yesterday, hoping disabled residents would come try them out. Bill Mullin, an advocate for the center, "sent out a tremendous amount of letters ... went out of his way to educate the population he deals with," Kelly said. About 500 mailings went out regarding yesterday's event. People with disabilities may be disenfranchised with the voting process, Kelly said, and may not realize that "despite whatever type of handicap you have, these machines will accommodate that handicap." But there has been some interest in the machines, Kelly said, with a few residents coming into the Board of Elections office to practice voting. Joel Taveras, an advocate at the Independent Living Center, isn't yet a U.S. citizen, but practiced voting on the machine to test it's capabilities for visually impaired voters. Taveras, a native of the Dominican Republic who is planning for his U.S. citizenship, is legally blind and was able to cast his practice ballot with the keyboard arrow keys after listening to audio prompts on a headset. "By voice they guide you," he said. Mullin has tried the machines a few times. Paralyzed with a spinal cord injury since 1979, the machines will allow him to vote on his own for the first time since the injury. He showed Election Clerk Meghan Powell yesterday how he could cast his vote by rapping his knuckles on the machine's touch screen. The machines also have a sip and puff device for quadriplegic voters. To vote that way, Powell explained, the voter listens to the candidates' names through a headset and then blows air through a straw when they hear their choice. To cast the ballot, the voter would suck in through the straw twice. "I think they're great," Powell said of the machines. "I really think it's going to get a lot more involvement from the community." There will be one such machine at each of the town halls in Haverstraw, Orangetown, Clarkstown and Ramapo, and one at the Stony Point Ambulance Corps building. The Board of Elections is asking voters who would like to use the handicapped-accessible machines to call before the Sept. 12 primary and Nov. 7 general election to have their polling place switched. But, Kelly said, "nobody will be denied their vote on this machine" if they just show up the day of the election. The machines are part of a statewide compromise for not meeting the state and federal reforms by this year's elections. Though the machines used this year may not be the exact same as those approved for use by next year's deadline, the features will be similar, election officials have said. "In the interim, these are a great solution to the problem," Powell said.

CyberCafe celebrates third anniversary

By KHURRAM SAEED
THE JOURNAL NEWS
(Original Publication: February 11, 2006)

The Rockland Independent Living Center's Cyber Cafe was created three years ago to allow county residents with disabilities to
communicate with the outside world. But cafe volunteer Antonio Caceres doesn't want people doing all of their talking online, be it
through e-mail or text messaging. "The idea of the Cyber Cafe is to chit-chat, have fun and interact with each other," Caceres said.
So each Friday afternoon, he asks the dozen or so Web surfers to turn away from their computer screens and talk. He brings up the
subject — music, the war in Iraq, and in one infamous instance, the Terri Schiavo case — and lets them at it. For his work over the
past year, Caceres, who is 22 and lives in Stony Point, was named Volunteer of the Year yesterday during a celebration to mark the
third anniversary of the Internet cafe.

Rockland Independent Living Center Executive Director  said that, thanks to the efforts of Caceres and three other
volunteers, the CyberCafé had become a popular draw both as a social spot and as a community resource. "It's becoming more and
more a part of their lives," Cotto said. "There are people who come here religiously every Friday." The cafe makes it easy for people in
wheelchairs or who are blind, deaf or have a traumatic brain injury to write e-mails, check their eBay accounts or learn a language.

The cafe has 15 specially modified computer stations — thanks to an $8,000 state grant from state Sen. Thomas Morahan of New City
 — up from five its first year. Its computers have voice-activated software, screens that can magnify words and images up to 16 times,
Braille keyboards and a program that speaks the words on the screen. It recently added an American Sign Language dictionary to its
computers. Cafe manager Bill Mullin has witnessed the growth. He's been with the cafe since it started.  Mullin, who uses a wheelchair,
said the Internet had made life easier for people like himself. For example, he's able to do his grocery shopping online. He pays a $10
 service charge to place his order on the ShopRite Web site, but the $5 delivery fee is waived for people with disabilities and for senior
 citizens. "The computer has become as important to me as my van and this
wheelchair," Mullin said.
Bryan Connor has a computer at home, but he's been a regular at the cafe for the past two years. While Rockland is rich in services for the
disabled, the Stony Point resident said there were not many recreational opportunities. "Since I've been here, I've met a lot of people," said
Connor, who has cerebral palsy that affects the left side of his body. "That's what makes this center so important to me."

Helen Hayes Hospital honors champions of rehab

By JANE LERNER (Original Publication: September 21, 2005)
WEST HAVERSTRAW — Maria Heng arrived at Helen Hayes Hospital last year with severe burns
covering most of her body and along course of rehabilitation ahead of her. "That she is alive to
 join us today is a testament to her inner strength and persistence day after day," Marla Dicker,
an occupational therapist at the state-run rehabilitation hospital, said yesterday. "There was not
one person here who was not inspired by her cheerful approach to therapy." Heng's hard work in
regaining an independent life after she suffered devastating injuries was recognized yesterday
when she was awarded the Helen Hayes Hospital Spirit of Achievement Award.

The award was the highest honor bestowed upon a patient at the rehabilitation center's 105th annual
l honors assembly. Heng, a Poughkeepsie resident, was one of 17 patients chosen by the staff to be
honored for the progress they made in their efforts to recover from serious injuries or accidents.

Two people who know first-hand how difficult rehabilitation can be presented her with the award —
New York City police Detective Steven McDonald, who was paralyzed after being shot in 1986, and
Port Authority Police Officer John McLoughlin, the last person pulled alive from the rubble of the
World Trade Center on Sept. 12, 2001.

"Most of our patients faced what seemed to be insurmountable odds," said Magdalena Ramirez, the
hospital's chief executive officer. "We have been humbled by their will and determination."

The patients, in turn, gave much credit to the doctors, nurses, therapists and other hospital staff.
"They made me feel like I was their only patient," said Joseph DiCioccio, a Montrose resident who
was honored for his efforts to recover from a traumatic brain injury. Nicholas Piazza, an 11-year-old
 born with a spinal disease, was honored for his achievements using adaptive equipment to attain a
measure of independence. Manny Piazza wiped tears from his eyes as he described how the hospital's
center for adaptive equipment had helped his son do many things that healthy children could do. "They
made so many things possible," he said, as his son demonstrated the use of his motorized wheelchair.

People who are just starting the process of rehabilitation should take comfort in the knowledge that the
Helen Hayes staff is highly skilled, patients
said. "If anyone here is new," New York City resident Angela McPherson said, as she accepted her award,
"you have the best people in the world."

NOTE.... New federal programs, such as "ticket to work" and PASS( plan for achieving self support) should increase
employment for disabled. Call us at Rockland Independent Living Center (RILC) for information and assistance.
Table of contents
History of past articles and events 

• Embryonic Stem Cells          Aug    2001

• supreme Court and ADA     July2002                      

• Law for Disabled Puzzling  Nov  2001

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