Marily Gonzalez is an active disability advocate who resides in New Jersey. She is a New Yorker whose parents hail from Puerto Rico. Marily works for the Heightened Independence and Progress Center of Hudson County, New Jersey – a Center for Independent Living (CIL). In this article she gives an overview of the Center’s services and her views on challenges that face the disabled Latino population in New Jersey.

MG: I am the Independent Living Specialist in the Hudson County branch of the Heightened Independence in Progress Center. We have two offices in New Jersey –Bergen County and Hudson County. Consumers can access four core services at the Husdon County branch: peer counseling, independent living, skills training and information provision.

Hudson County is home to one of the largest Spanish-speaking communities in the state. Nearly 50 percent of our consumers at the CIL are Latino. Their needs vary but the most common concern of Latinos with disabilities is legal status. Unfortunately, there’s very little we can do for those who are undocumented because services available to them are very limited.

In terms of independent living, our goal is to integrate all people with disabilities into the community by providing a wide range of services.

LC: How many people do you serve annually?

MG: We provide service to people with disabilities, all types of disabilities. We have about 400 consumers. We also provide services to consumers’ families.

LC: How are your programs funded?

MG: We are federally funded through the Department of Education.

Staff and outreach
LC: How large is your staff? Do you have someone on staff who can easily handle inquiries and referrals in Spanish?

MG: We have two full-time employees: the director, Cathleen Wood, and myself. We also have an advocacy coordinator and an administrative assistant who work part-time. More importantly, perhaps, is that the specialist who deals with parents in the schools promoting independent living skills and transition skills is bilingual, and so is our information and referral specialist…and I am bilingual. Everyone who works with the public is bilingual. In addition, our brochures, flyers and applications are in English and Spanish.

LC: How do you reach out to Latinos to inform them about your programs?

MG: I do all the outreach here. Because we have such a large Latino population, most of the agencies we work with are attentive to the Hispanic community. Also, since Hudson County is predominately Hispanic, it is not hard to reach out to this sector. We also publish all materials in Spanish and English. We maintain a good relationship with community-based organizations including churches and schools.

LC: What do you do if you are not able to provide services to a Latino with a disability?

MG: We refer individuals to agencies that provide specific services if there is a need that we cannot meet. As far as the Latino population, it’s really based on the need, not the ethnicity.

Major issues
LC: What are the major issues for Latinos with disabilities and their families?

MG: Affordable and accessible housing are two prominent issues. Unfortunately for our consumers, their biggest needs are the most basic: housing, food, assistance with their utilities, and employment. This is even more complicated for mothers of children who have disabilities because it is difficult to find an employer that provides childcare.

LC: Are the issues facing the Latino population different from challenges faced by other groups?

MG: I don’t think so. My experience has been – and I’ve been here 11 years – that many of the folks that are living at or below poverty level have similar needs regardless of race or ethnicity.

Most important for children: high expectations and independence
LC: Proyecto Visión is focusing on how to assist disabled Latinos prepare for and find employment. What do you think are the most important actions Proyecto Visión should take to improve the chances for disabled Latinos who want to work?

MG: It is important to give children with disabilities high expectations of themselves and more independence. I am Latina and have considerable personal experience with disability. My grandmother was blind, my aunt has multiple sclerosis and my brother has cerebral palsy. Culturally, Latinos often want to shelter disabled children and they have lowered expectations for themselves.

I’ve also noticed many people follow the “I need to care for my disabled mother, father, aunt, cousin, child” philosophy, instead of teaching them the life skills necessary to care for themselves. There is a great need in the Latino community for enhancement of daily living skills.

LC: Do you know of model employers in Hudson County that hire people with disabilities or help them find jobs? Are Latinos included?

MG: We work with the Division of Vocational Rehabilitation (DVR) on employment issues. That’s where we refer individuals with employment queries. The goal of the Division of Vocational Rehabilitation – which works through the Department of Labor –
is to train or retrain individuals and help them secure gainful employment.

Importance of building networks
LC: Do you feel there are ways in which Proyecto Visión and the Heightened Independence and Progress Center can work together to assist the Latinos with disabilities in the community?

MG: Information always equals power. The more the community understands and realizes what is available to them, the better chances are they will seek out the assistance they need. Sharing information through networks such as Proyecto Visión and the Independent Living Centers is a great way to assist the Latino disabled community.

Some people assume that we only deal with people who have mental illness or people who use wheelchairs, but that’s not the case. Independent Living Centers were designed to be a hub for information on just about anything – from needing a plumber to information on legal rights, or for a child with a learning disability going to school.

LC: What others services would be helpful to the Latino community?

Educating families should be a priority
MG: School teachers and administrators are very influential over parents of children with disabilities including Latinos. When I was a kid, my cousin with cerebral palsy went to a special school. If her teacher or physical therapist said “Hang her out the window by one leg,” my aunt would have done it. She really believed that the school specialists knew what was best. But that’s not always the case. So, programs that educate families about disability and related issues would help empower them.