The Independent Life

We’re joined today by Joe, Jody, and Beth to learn more about what the independent living network is and why centers for independent living are an important resource for emergency management professionals and community based organizations who are looking to do better in the area of making sure people with disabilities are better prepared for disasters. Joe Didomenico and Jody Armstrong joins us fr...

Laura George is a disability advocate and a liaison between the disability community and emergency management, first responders, health care organizations, and other community-based organizations in the area of disability and disaster preparedness. With year of personal and professional experience in this area, Laura provides us with insight on how we can ensure that the most vulnerable people hav...

Chris Littlewood is an instructor and instructional technology coordinator who teaches Effective Strategies for Communicating with People Who Are Deaf or Hard of Hearing and Others with Access and Functional Needs at St. Petersburg College. The next class is in Pasco County (Aug. 24-25, 2021) and another TBA in Sept 2021 in northeast FL. Under the same grant/project are 20 more class titles/offeri...

Laura Lee Putzback has over 30 years experience in health and human services, working with folks with mental health, substance abuse, developmental disabilities, dementia, Alzheimer’s, elderly, homeless, and the economically challenged. Laura is a service handler and has a service dog named Riley. Together, they travel throughout the state of Florida to help educate and conduct free trainings. In...

Peter Newman is the Director of Emergency Management for the Florida Department of Education. On this episode, we unpack the skills, values, and leadership that is needed in the area of emergency management. Peter discusses the role of local response at the county level, the state level, and the federal level when a disaster occurs. He talks about common access and functional needs, in terms of me...

Steeped in experience in disaster preparedness, Tony talks to Tyler, Jane, and Ciawanda about the impact they’ve had through their involvement before, during, and after disasters. Their stories illuminate areas of access and functional needs. The centerpiece for this episode is collaboration- why collaboration is so important between emergency management professionals, community based organization...

Leigh Wilsey and Eric Anderson joins Tony to kickoff the Emergency Preparedness Miniseries here on The Independent Life Podcast. Over the next few weeks, we’ll be discussing how we can collectively come together to meet the access and functional needs for people with disabilities, how their members can get better connected with centers for independent living, and reach the community of people with...

This miniseries is brought to you by the North Central Florida HealthCare Coalition and Center for Independent Living of North Central Florida. This series of 8 podcast episodes will unpack what it means to have a disability, address the access and functional needs for people with disabilities, and how collaborations between different agencies, departments, community based organizations, and the c...

Emily Berndt, Ashlyn Michael, and Alex Cavalcante have been leading the charge on conducting outreach to schools within the Center For Independent Living’s catchman area of 16 counties, which include 16 different school districts. They’re beginning a process of connecting to schools where CIL currently does not have a presence within, to get to know their students and parents and to offer CIL’s va...

In this episode, we reflect on the past year as we wrap up season 1 and look ahead at how we can continue to be the best version of ourselves so that we can better provide for those in need. Shera Curtis, Mark Brisbane, and Kevin Towles joins Tony in reflecting upon the things they’ve been doing, challenges and issues they’re seeing in the live of people they serve on a daily basis, success storie...

Dr. Bea Awoniyi is the Assistant Vice President of Student Affairs at Santa Fe College, overseeing the disability resource center, serves as Ombudsperson, and helps to oversee grant awards among many other different aspects of her role. Dr. Awoniyi has a long career in higher education, previously having worked in other universities at their disability resource centers and serving in vast leadersh...

It is a time to celebrate. In a collective and true grassroots effort, we have achieved a lot. But even if we hadn’t achieved the things that we did, this brings cause for celebration because this has been a session where we’ve witnessed all of our members of Centers for Independent Living, JPPAS participants, come together and work together towards common goals.   2021 Legislative Session Weekly...

This week we bring you a very special episode from our Independent Life community of advocates who join us to share their personal stories in an effort to demonstrate the human and economic return on investing in the JPPAS program. This will be accomplished  through meeting several of the recipients of the program and learning why JPPAS has been so instrumental in achieving their dreams and Indepe...

Weekly Legislative Update w/Jane Johnson: April 19-23   This week we witnessed a direct affect of advocacy by grassroots efforts from the CILs, specifically Tony (Lake County) and Liz (Polk County), for contacting Senator Stargel, who represents counties within their catchmen area. As a result of Tony and Liz sending emails to the chair of the senate appropriations committee to express the importa...

Ciawanda McDonald is the Executive Director of Disability Solutions for Independent Living, covering Volusia and Flagler County. She is a voice for the independent living movement, in terms of equity, diversity, and intersectionality, spearheading a group comprised of folks throughout the state to advance the conversations related to equity for all groups of people with disabilities. She unpacks t...

Weekly Legislative Update w/Jane Johnson: April 12-16

Kathy Elkins supervises Sign Language Interpreting Services at CIL. Kathy has had 18 years of experience working at a center for independent living, of which 15 have been in the sign language interpreting program. She joins us to today to discuss why these sign language interpreting programs are so important. Kathy shares what a situation that requires sign language interpretation looks like and e...

Weekly Legislative Update w/Jane Johnson: April 5-9

Sarah Goldman is the Director of Administration and Youth Initiatives at the Florida Independent Living Council. Having previously worked as a legislative aid and being a voice for people with disabilities, she talks about her experience and journey in advocacy. Sarah unpacks what it takes to be an advocate for people with disabilities, the challenges she’s faced and how its helped to shape her in...

2021 Legislative Session Weekly Updates: http://floridacils.org/news

Whitney Harris is the Executive Director for the Florida Alliance for Assistive Services and Technology, Inc. (FAAST). Whitney is passionate about creating a reality in which all people are equal and have equal access. Her disability advocacy work started in 2008 when she joined the Florida Youth Council and became a volunteer at the Florida Youth Leadership Forum. Being inspired by others who hav...

2021 Legislative Session Weekly Updates: http://floridacils.org/news

The Youth Leadership Forum (YLF) is a unique leadership-training program for high school students with disabilities. ​Students participate in a multi-faceted series of online leadership training, role playing, mentoring, job preparation, career exploration and activities to build social and communication skills. We’re joined this week by two previous participants of The Youth Leadership Forum, who...

Weekly Legislative Update w/Jane Johnson: Mar. 15 - Mar. 19   2021 Legislative Session Weekly Updates: http://floridacils.org/news

Ariella Bak, NREMT, pioneered and manages the Community Resource Paramedicine Program within the Gainesville Fire Rescue department. She created this program while working as a volunteer  for GFS and attending The University of Florida. Her team goes into the community to address the complex needs that are present and helps to identify the needs that align with the services that CIL provides, such...