Home ButtonEducation ButtonAccessibility ButtonTransportation ButtonHousing ButtonEmployment ButtonCommunity-Based-Living Button
December 2006

We're Networked! is Disability Network/Michigan's quarterly newsletter. Below you will find articles and information from the December Newsletter about what's going on in our network.


New Name New Look-Disability Network/Michigan???

 

Bye, Bye MACIL. The Michigan Association of Centers for Independent Living has officially changed its name to Disability Network/Michigan. The new name and logo arrived after a year-long study conducted by an independent marketing firm, along with DN/M’s marketing leadership team of how people perceived Independent Living.

Ruth Stegeman is the executive director of Disability Network/Lakeshore-formerly Lakeshore Center for Independent Living and chairs the marketing leadership team. “We found that the majority of people surveyed really had no clue what Independent Living is.” They consistently confused us with assisted living, or even nursing homes. We wanted to reflect what it is we truly do, and increase our presence in the community,” says Ruth.


The following recommendations were made by the marketing firm and the marketing leadership team:
• Adopt a common name 
WHY? There is marketing value in a network of statewide offices     operating under the same name (Think of The Red Cross)

• Choose a name that expresses what you do
WHY? It makes it easier for consumers to find you and remember you

• Agree on a common logo
WHY? A common logo creates a visual unified presence, and strengthens our credibility with legislators, donors and the general public.

Several CILs have begun the name and logo change process. The following CIls have transitioned:

  • Disability Network/Lakeshore
  • Disability Network/Northern Michigan
  • Disability Network/Mid-Michigan
  • Disability Network/Oakland & Macomb
  • Disability Network/Metropolitan Detroit

The end goal is that we gain market share in the minds of our customers and are able to more effectively advance to goals of Independent Living in Michigan.


If you have any questions on the new name, logo or the marketing initiative of Disability Network/Michigan, please do not hesitate to contact us at 517-339-0539.

www.dnmichigan.org Goes Live!

By Tai M. Martin

It is finally here! Disability Network/Michigan’s website has been launched, and is ready for you to explore.

The complete rebuilding of the Associations website came at the request of Disability Network/Michigan's Marketing Leadership Team, after it was recemmonded as part of a comprehensive marketing plan for the state Association.


The website boasts features such as:

  • Chat Threads
  • Searchable Subject Forums
  • An Interactive Calendar of Events
  • A Statewide CIL Locator,and
  • Resources available ONLY to Disability Network/Michigan Members

The site has been designed to be completely accessible and is 508 compliant. Happy exploring!

 

What We Do-Understanding the Role the Association Plays

By Tai M. Martin

DisabilityNetwork/Michigan is a collaborative organization serving and representing Centers for Independent Living throughout the state. Disability Network/Michigan works to:

1. Assist CILs in building capacity to serve their local communities.

2. Provide information, technical assistance, staff trainings and program support to CILs.

3. Advocate at the state and national level for disability issues.

4.Promote the Independent Living Philosophy both within the disability community and among the general public.

5.Bring the CILs together to work collectively; resulting in a stronger network and stronger individual CILs.

If you have more questions about the role Disability Network/Michigan plays within our Network, please do not hesitate to contact any of
the staff.

Attention on an Advocate
By Tai M. Martin

In every edition of We’re Networked!, We will turn our attention to one advocates story; learning about and from them.

In this issue I interviewed Tony Wong. For the moment, he serves as Disability Network/Michigan’s Director of Public Policy.

Tony who has been with DN/M for seven years will resign at the end of November to become the Director of Programs for The Arc Michigan. 

“Wa you waan fin nuo Mon” says Tony. He grins broadly and chuckles at my perplexed expression. R. Anthony Wong is an advocate who, at any given moment, can slip into the colloquialisms of his native Jamaican tongue. Tony was born and raised in Jamaica and is kind enough to restate the question: “What do you want to know?”

I want to know a pretty straightforward question, “When did you get involved with the IL movement?”

“Well, see that’s complicated, says Tony. “ Before I broke my back I was involved with disability. I was the treasurer for a non-profit group that ran a school for kids with developmental disabilities; it was called the Sunshine School. And I mentored a boy that had a pretty serious speech impediment.


But I first got involved with disability rights in 1981. Before I even knew about IL, I was the Executive Director for the Combined Disabilities Association. It was a cross-disability group and what we focused on we called, ‘Self-Help”

“So Self-Help, was like the Jamaican version of IL?” I ask. “Yeah, Kinda,” replies Tony. ‘Where I actually first heard about IL was in Singapore. I was invited to attend a conference called Disabled People International. That’s where I first heard the term Independent Living. Ed Roberts was there talking and I learned about IL from him.”

“No way! You learned about IL from the Father of IL,” That’s pretty cool. So you had to go to Singapore to hear about IL, huh?” I ask.
“Yeah, but Self-Help was the same thing, says Tony. We were concerned with the creation of employment for people with disabilities, and being able to make our own choices.” Tony has been consistently working towards these same goals the last 25 years.


“So as an Advocate, what is the toughest battle you’ve fought?” I ask. continuing the interview.

Tony clarifies the question, “What is the toughest battle I’ve fought in my life, or the toughest battle I’ve fought for disability?”

I hadn’t thought of asking the toughest life battle question, so I answer, “The toughest battle you’ve fought for disability.”

Tony thinks for a few seconds then laughs and says, “There’s so many.”  After a few more moments of contemplation he says, “Trying to convince the then, Grand Rapids Center for Independent Living that it should become an individual entity separate from the Hope Network. Some of the GRCIL’s mission was separate, or different from the Hope Network’s mission. I was a board member and saw that there was a serious conflict of interest. But some of the other board members preferred the safety of the financial backing that Hope provided.”

To accomplish his mission he started Advocates for Self-Directed Living, a coalition whose sole purpose was to separate the CIL from Hope Network. Let the history books speak for themselves, GRCIL, is now, of course, Disability Advocates of Kent County, an independent non-profit organization.

The way Tony clarified the previous question intrigued me, “Well, what is the toughest battle you’ve fought in your life then?” I ask.

Immediately, Tony answers, “Dealing with the events leading up to during and after the death of my older brother. See he was a well liked guy. His name was Churchill, but we called him Cork.” When Tony pronounced Cork, he turns on that delightful Jamaican accent and it sounds more like “Caak”. “Do you want to know why we called him Cork?”

I do, so I nod my head yes. Tony continues, “Because he could float in the ocean like a piece of cork. He basically lived in the ocean. He would be in the water for hours upon hours at a time spear fishing and diving.”

I tell Tony how sorry I am that he lost his brother. I wonder to myself if his brother was a Pisces. I think about asking Tony when his birthday was, but don’t want to interrupt the story so I don’t.

“Cork was a free diver; he would dive down, down into the ocean as far as he could, while holding his breath. He loved it. I mean, he spent so much time in the ocean, that he actually had red hair!”

I imagine an Asian-Jamaican with red hair. Not a bad combination.

“He was out diving one day with a friend, after some hours, his friend was ready to go, but of course, Cork was not, so he stayed and his friend went about the rest of his evening.

The next day I had not heard from Churchill which was unusual, and I knew that something had happened. I organized a search party and we found his body that day. He was 32. Churchill had dove down too far and died of asphyxiation. He couldn’t get back to the surface in time to take a breath. In Jamaica you have to have a family member witness the actual autopsy. I had to do that.”

My Goodness, I try to imagine that. I don’t think I would have the strength to witness the autopsy of any of my siblings.

Tony continues, “On the way home from the autopsy, a bloodied man came running out from the side of the road toward my car, At that time there were a lot of armed gunman roaming around the area. The bloodied man was a watch man for a construction site, and had been beaten up and his materials were stolen. I had to turn back around and take him to the hospital I had just come from.”

“Once I returned to the village, the hard part began,” says Tony.

The hard part? I ask. Could there be anything harder than I just heard?

“Because Cork was so good at free diving, and because he was so well loved, people could not believe the explanation for his death. People were in an uproar, they called for an inquest. Everyone had a theory, from voodoo, to bad equipment, to me! Having people probe my brother’s death and living with their unreasonable suspicions is the hardest, most challenging thing I have ever lived through. Breaking my back was easy compared to this.”

In my abelism-induced ignorance, I had thought for sure that when I asked the question, “What is the toughest battle you have fought in your life?” The answer would revolve around him acquiring his injury. As I thought about my own family and tried to insert my self into Tony’s story, I realized that losing my ability to walk would be nothing compared to losing my ability to laugh with my sister.

As Tony and I wrap up our conversation, I ask him what his next steps are.

“I want to make sure that I bring what I have learned about IL to the DD arena. I want to work at building understanding and collaboration between the Disability Community and other communities.”

On my way out of Tony’s office I ask if he has any advice or wisdom for other advocates.

“It is important to build relationships and collaborate,” says Tony. “And have patience, but be ready to seize opportunities when they arise. And don’t forget to do your homework! Understand your issue well-as well any potential opposition to it."

This is great advice from an amazing advocate. I am so thankful for the time I spent working with Tony and look forward to continuing to build our relationship.