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Below are a few videos to help you relax and unwind at home. Be sure to check out our page for educational videos for families with instructions for getting dressed (part 1 and part 2), putting on shoes, and cleaning up after a meal. Thanks to our behavioral department interns Joanne and Jen for creating these awesome videos!
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Rebecca Kasen, Advocacy Director
Disability advocacy, the Census, and CAU’s response to COVID-19 were among the topics in CAU’s interview this week on 106.7 Lite FM. Advocacy Director Rebecca Kasen spoke with host Nina del Rio.
“We do feel like there is a strong presence in the state government to make sure that our Direct Support Professionals are being paid competitive wages, so while I hope that nothing changes I am very optimistic that everyone is on our side,” Kasen said.
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Juanna Quinn (left) and Annie Sims, individuals with developmental disabilities, are passionate advocates for their fellow citizens.
People with developmental disabilities are ready. As the calendar turns to March, Developmental Disabilities Awareness Month, members of the New American Movement for People with Disabilities (NAM) have an agenda of issues they are taking action on, including pending legislation in Trenton, voter registration, the Census and their general rights.
Developmental Disabilities Awareness Month was created to raise awareness about the inclusion of people with developmental disabilities in all areas of community life, as well as the barriers that people with disabilities still sometimes face in connecting to the communities in which they live.
NAM members are busy this month. Member Annie Sims recently traveled to Trenton to testify at a hearing on a proposed Senate bill to raise the wage rate of direct service professionals (DSPs) who support people with disabilities. While she was unable to make an appearance at the hearing, she spoke directly to Senate President Stephen Sweeney about her belief that the bill needs to be expanded to cover all state-funded workers supporting people with disabilities.
“I have direct care staff work with me only a few hours a week,” Sims said. “But I use a lot of supports from other staff at CAU every day. The Facilities Department takes care of my apartment. My employment support counselor and my supervisors make sure I have what I need to do my two jobs. None of these people are considered DSP but if any of them left to make more money I would not have everything I need.”
Voting is another hot button for NAM members. Sims did not vote until she came to CAU at the age of 32.
Sims met with Senate President Stephen Sweeney in Trenton to discuss a pending bill dealing with compensation for workers who support people with disabilities.
“My mother told me, ‘This world does not have a vote for people with disabilities,’” she said “When I came to CAU my counselor told me I have the right to vote. But I didn’t know what to do so I learned. And the first time I voted it felt good.”
CAU each year holds a voter registration night in March for its members to both teach them how to vote and allow them to register. The agency also distributes a voter guide to its members and the general population of people with disabilities.
This block of voters has a message for state and federal office holders, according to Rebecca Kasen, advocacy director at CAU.
“People with disabilities need to vote and their voices need to be heard,” she said. “We can easily get people to show up at rallies. We are a force to be reckoned with.”
Equally important to NAM members is participation by people with disabilities in the 2020 U.S. Census.
“The Census is very important,” said NAM member Mark Bloom in comments he prepared for the National Disabilities Right Network. “We need to make sure everyone in New Jersey is counted. We are concerned that people who live in supervised settings won’t be counted. Social service funding is dependent on the Census. We also want to make sure we have representation in Congress.”
NAM members also will be traveling to Washington, D.C. later this month to attend the ARC of the United States’ Disability Policy Seminar, an annual event that fosters relationships between Capitol Hill office holders and their staffs to advance the grassroots movement of people with developmental and intellectual disabilities.
Yet while Development Disabilities Awareness Month provides NAM members with another platform to advocate about these and other issues – from airplane bathroom accessibility for people with disabilities to police training on dealing with this segment of the population – they are year-long passions, according to member Juanna Quinn.
“We all have family, a mother and father and siblings, and know how it feels to be the disabled child,” she said. “So we stand up for people with disabilities so we don’t ever go back to the days when people with disabilities were shut out of society.
“Look at how many years it took for us to be able to vote. Look how long it took for African Americans to be able to sit at the front of the bus. We have to keep fighting.”
Join us for Voter Registration Night on March 10 at 5:30 p.m. at the CAU Main Office at 80 West Grand Street in Elizabeth. There will be prizes and a presentation from NAM! RSVP Rebecca Kasen at rkasen@caunj.org.
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We sat down with Elizabeth Mayor Chris Bollwage to talk all things CAU: from how we started, how our programs have expanded, and how the agency is navigating for the future.
Joshua Bradley, our assistant executive director of quality assurance and training, shared that the agency’s main focus continues to be getting people with developmental disabilities and youth at risk involved in the community.
“We have a pretty firm belief that everybody is able to have meaningful employment,” Bradley said. “The challenge is finding that correct partnership that meets the need of that individual as well.”
Looking for an introduction to CAU programs? Our next Connecting Families meeting is March 21 at 10:00 a.m. at Suburban Golf Club in Union. Bring your questions and learn about planning for adulthood. RSVP to Maria Soares at msoares@caunj.org or 908-354-3040 x4579.
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Congratulations are due to a CAU member who now has a condo of his own! Gary Rubin now has a lifetime tenancy at his home in Elizabeth, and will have voting rights in his condo association.
The two-bedroom, two bath condo he has all to himself is a far cry from institutional living at E.R. Johnstone Training and Research Center, where he lived and worked as a young man from 1985 until the institution was shut down in 1992.
“AAMH (now CAU) would check up on me back then,” Rubin said.
In 1992, Johnstone became the first large institution shut down by the state amid controversy over whether institutional residents could survive in a community setting. Rubin became a CAU member in 1990, joining the deinstitutionalization movement and graduating from supervised apartment living to the supportive living apartment program.
A fixture at the CAU main office in Elizabeth as security guard, Rubin has made advocacy his calling card. He was a founding member of the New American Movement for People with Disabilities, which was formed at CAU in 2012 as a movement committed to social, political, and economic transformation for the equity of all Americans. NAM travels to local and national advocacy workshops, conferences, and community events to educate the public about its mission. He also travels across the country as a board member of Self Advocates Becoming Empowered.
Rubin still recalls the bad attitudes and mistreatment he’s seen from some who work for people with disabilities and is determined to help prevent it.
“Don’t let nobody bully you or confuse you- the staff are here for you, you’re not here for them,” he said. “That’s what I try to bring out in people all the time.”
As president of Helping Hands, one of the oldest and strongest self-advocacy groups for people with disabilities in the state, Rubin shared that message on Members Renewal Day on Jan. 25.
Now that he is all moved in to his condo in Elizabeth, Rubin was thrilled to finally sign the last of the paperwork this week.
For someone who left home at the age of 16 and has moved all around North Jersey, settling down in a place of his own is a beautiful new chapter.
“I feel like I died and went to heaven,” Rubin said.
Congratulations Gary!
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Fanning out across the floor of the Academy of Continuing Education, students danced, stretched and moved last week with the direction of a talented local dance company.
Many of the members were no strangers to the joy of dancing as participants in Community Access Unlimited’s annual musical production and other performing arts programs.
Four dancers and choreographer Carolyn Dorfman of Carolyn Dorfman Dance led the class, and two dancers wowed the crowd with a lift-heavy partner dance.
“It was good exercise,” said member Holly Joy Gore, who said it reminded her of her time as a gymnast.
“I used to do dance, so I kind of know what to do,” said another participant, Mel Werner.
Teacher and director of CAU’s annual musical and other arts performances Marguerite Modero was thrilled to have professional dancers offering the class.
“She was excellent,” Modero said. “I love it because it reinforces what we’re trying to do. It’s like an Aha! moment.”
Dorfman shared her passion for the individuality of dancers with the group, speaking about the body as an instrument that we all communicate with, whether we realize it or not.
“It’s been my life’s work to make dances of the human story,” she said.
The dance company incorporated classes and performances at local schools around the Dance Union Festival this month.
“We’re trying to come up with as many ways to as possible to increase access and exposure to our company to people with disabilities,” said Anita Thomas, executive director of Carolyn Dorfman Dance. “We’re trying to build our audience as broadly as possible.”
Thomas said that includes sticking to Americans with Disabilities Act standards and making sure performance venues are accessible.
Community Access Unlimited members engage in dance and performing arts throughout the year: in our summer musical, in classes at ACE, and at our cabaret and other concerts. Call Community Access Unlimited at (908)354-3050 to learn more!
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Crystal Jackson stood before a small audience of other youth at risk and sang Whitney Houston’s “I Look to You,” with its lyrics, “After all that I’ve been through / Who on Earth can I turn to / I look to you.” Jackson is living within New Jersey’s child welfare system and was participating in a local celebration of National African American Read-In along with about 20 other youths at risk who understood her message.
All the youths are members of Community Access Unlimited (CAU), a Union County-based, statewide nonprofit that strives to integrate people with disabilities and at-risk youth into the general community through comprehensive supports. CAU is Jackson’s fourth program and she feels like she has found a home.
The National African American Read-In is the nation’s first and oldest event dedicated to diversity in literature. It was established in 1990 by the Black Caucus of the National Council of Teachers of English to make literacy a significant part of Black History Month, which is celebrated in February.
“National Read-In is about helping our youth members celebrate Black History Month and their heritage and culture,” said Howard Wingard, assistant director in the Transitional Opportunities Program of CAU. “We also want them to appreciate the importance of reading in their education.”
The CAU members taking part sang songs written or recorded by black artists, the works of black authors or their original creations. Jackson said she chose “I Look to You” because it has great meaning to her.
“That is my favorite song,” she said. “It got me through a lot when I was down.”
Barshay Stinson, 23, performed a rap song he wrote.
“It’s about letting people look at my inner life,” he said. “I’ve been through a lot and the only way I can channel that is through my music.”
Brianna Jones, 22, sang the Mariah Carey song, “Hero,” with its lyrics, “You will finally see the truth / That a hero lies in you.”
“I’ve gone through some troubling times but at the same time, everybody is a hero at heart,” she said.
CAU staff member Eva Wright recited a poem by Nikki Giovanni titled “BLK History Month.” The last line of the poem reads, “You’ve got a place here, too.”
It is a message conveyed to every youth member of CAU when they come to the agency, Wingard said. For most, CAU is their last program before adulthood because they find a home, many staying even after they have left the care of the child welfare system, he added.
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Many CAU members are fierce self-advocates fighting for policies that give people with disabilities equal access to opportunities that are afforded to citizens without disabilities. This year we recognize the 30th anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act, which prohibited discrimination based on disability in 1990. The ADA also requires covered employers to provide reasonable accommodations to employees with disabilities, and imposes accessibility requirements on public accommodations.
We celebrate that overall access has improved for people with disabilities since 1990 while recognizing and advocating for equity and inclusion in society, including areas such as employment.
Here’s what CAU member and self-advocate Belinda Malave has to say on one of many issues of concern to people with disabilities and their families.
Background: The Social Security Administration announced a proposal in November to conduct roughly 2.6 million additional eligibility reviews of adults and children currently receiving Social Security disability benefits in the next decade. The Trump administration expects a $2.6 billion drop in benefit payments over that period. Thousands of Americans with disabilities could lose crucial benefits if the change goes into effect.
You can submit a comment on the proposal here (Sorry, link is no longer available). People are requested to refer their comments to Docket No. SSA-2018-0026. Comments are open until Jan. 31.
Response on the Social Security Proposal: Belinda Malave
This proposal is detrimental to people with developmental disabilities and intellectual disabilities. One of the reasons is because our guys cannot physically fill out the paperwork or understand it and they already have the conditions that warrant needing Social Security. They cannot work or they have an illness that prevents them from working. Filling out the paperwork would create more of a hardship on the people and the caretakers as well having to prove yourself every two years when you already have a precondition disability. It’s ridiculous. People with disabilities have a hard enough time going through the system proving themselves every year we have to do it. One example is food stamps- we have to do it but even going through that is very difficult for people who are caretakers and loved ones to understand our system already making another hardship for us.
Social Security to prove that we need it is ridiculous and it’s inexcusable. The second reason is that people do not understand the system and how it works even the people inside of the Social Security Administration. So it’s kind of hard to explain to people that you have to certify yourself every two years when you already know you have three conditions or a disability already. I think this is very unfair and very unqualified that we get penalized for having a disability and needing the services.
The bottom line is we’re not trying to deceive anyone or make it difficult for us to live our lives it’s funny we have to fight a law that is trying to take something away that we need. Yes I agree that we are overwhelmed in the Social Security system. But it’s not our fault for having a disability. We should not be penalized in that regard. We feel like most of our guys are going to reject this proposal because they don’t understand it or think they need it considering they already have a precondition that warrants the Social Security. We are not in this game to play or pretend that we don’t need it because we do. This is a greater hardship than you’ll ever know.
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CAU Community Players in “Hairspray Jr.” in 2019
Place your bets! The Community Access Unlimited Community Players will take on a Broadway classic in three performances of “Guys and Dolls Jr.” this summer.
The popular musical comedy follows gamblers, gangsters and other characters in a Runyonland fantasy of New York City.
CAU is currently welcoming CAU members and members of the general community to come and audition. Auditions for “Guys and Dolls Jr.” are Jan. 28 and Jan. 30 from 6 to 8 p.m., and Feb 1 from 10 a.m. to 12 p.m. with callbacks from 1-4 p.m. at CAU Day Program, 70 Myrtle Street in Cranford. Interested thespians choose one day to audition. The production features an ensemble cast with room for many actors to shine!
Formed in 2012, the CAU Community Players are an inclusive theatre troupe that empowers people with disabilities to act, sing and dance side-by-side with people from the wider community and to be judged for their talents rather than disabilities. The productions also allow individuals without disabilities to interact with those with disabilities and build bonds.
“I try to pick shows that are inclusive of a lot of people,” said play director Marguerite Modero, who noted that all ages are welcome and no one will be turned away from participating in the show. She introduced this year’s musical with a few clues from the lyrical antics of the lovers and gamblers in the show, including playing cards, tissues and a bell.
CAU members were excited for the musical choice to be announced this fall. The production is expected to draw over 1,000 attendees over the weekend of June 26, 27 and 28.
CAU member Kimberly Rosato said she performed in “Annie Jr.” and last year’s “Hairspray Jr.” and met her boyfriend working on the shows.
“I like being characters a lot, I like acting,” said Rosato, who would love to act in a soap opera. “That’s what my future’s going to be.”
CAU member Joyce Cargle said she looks forward to helping out behind the scenes this year and loves everything about classic musicals.
Modero spoke about the teamwork that makes the show possible and stronger each year.
“This is a community theater where everybody has a home…it culminates in an experience where we all grow closer together,” she said.
Those interested in participating in “Guys and Dolls Jr.” can contact Jeanette Lebron at jlebron@caunj.org or Asia Mitchell at amitchell@caunj.org.
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There was a steady bustle back stage Friday night at the Eugene G. Wilkins Theatre for the Performing Arts at Kean University a half-hour before the curtain was set to rise. Musicians tuned their instruments while singers stretched their vocal cords and performers dabbed on make-up in bathroom mirrors.
Yet what was unique about this production was the performers were a mix of musicians and singers both with and without disabilities. All were ready when the curtain rose and lights went on, shining brightly on the 5th annual collaborative concert staged by Community Access Unlimited (CAU), its Academy for Continuing Education (ACE) and Kean’s Music Conservatory program.
The musicians and singers comprised members of CAU and ACE, adults with disabilities, and students of Kean’s Music Conservatory program. Kean music majors have been working with CAU members and ACE students for several years, helping them learn and appreciate music and teaching them how to play instruments. Five years ago they teamed for their first collaborative concert and the production has become an annual event.
This year the audience was treated to a delightful mixture of choral selections, rock tunes and music from Disney productions. Students from middle schools in Elizabeth and Roselle Park also performed.
“We perform songs that relate to our situation in life so we can advocate for greater community integration and how we have abilities that many people might not think are there,” said Marguerite Modero, music director at ACE. “We focus on our abilities, not our disabilities.”
For Maurice Stephens, a member of CAU for 11 years, this was his first chance to play bass guitar on stage in front of a live audience. He used to play trumpet but took up guitar for the collaborative concert as a new challenge.
“I wanted to do something more with music,” Stephens said. “I see a lot of people playing an instrument. I said, ‘Why not play two?’ I’m thinking of learning piano next. It makes me feel good. I feel like I accomplished something and that’s pleasurable.”
Jessie Gaeta, a CAU member for two years, also performed for the first time on stage at this year’s concert. She has been taking singing lessons at ACE but never took the stage until Friday.
“It made me feel really good,” she said. “I’d been singing with my lessons but this was new for me. I was really excited.”
Gaeta’s favorite song of the evening was Blitzkrieg Bob by the Ramones, with its catchy repeated chorus of, “Hey ho, let’s go! Hey ho, let’s go!”
“I really like singing it,” Gaeta said.
According to Lynn Schraer-Joiner, Kean’s music education coordinator, music is the great unifier and equalizer. Friday evening the audience at Wilkins Theater saw this first-hand. While the back stage bustle was commonplace, what took place on stage was very special.
This arts project was made possible in part by a 2019 HEART (History, Education, Arts Reaching Thousands) Grant from the Union County Board of Chosen Freeholders.
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