Independent Perspective 1736 with guest Todd Vaarwerk on a series of Civic Empowerment Program classes.

Host:  Welcome to Independent Perspective, a public affairs presentation of Western New York Independent Living (WNYIL). Our guest today is Todd Vaarwerk, Chief Policy Officer of WNYIL, and I’m your host Ernie Churchwell. Welcome to the program Todd.

Guest:  Nice to be here.

Host:  We are pleased to have you. And I gathered that in some of your preparation for advocacy in Albany this week, you've discovered that there's a lot of people that are just not aware of how broad the rights of individuals with disabilities actually are. And so, you're going to attempt to do something about that deficit. Why don't you tell us about disability rights??

Guest:  We've actually been doing it for a little while, but you're absolutely right. Regular listeners will know that part of my job is to educate people with disabilities about the rights that they're entitled to under law. And every year around this time, I always get some people that asked me about how to do a legislative meeting or when should they call a state legislator versus a county legislator versus a city councilman versus a town board member. So a number of months ago, the advocacy agency kind of got together and decided that we needed to kind of do an ongoing program about that so that we can get people engaged in what their rights are and how the government works. So, we do have an ongoing civic engagement program. The next class for that is February 16. At 4:00 p.m. Maura and I are going to specifically be talking about issues related to the state budget and issues about how to do legislative advocacy and kind of get that discussion started. That's an ongoing class so you sign up for it and you'll get additional notices about other classes we do covering other subjects.

Host:  Before we go any farther Todd, although she has been on this program it has been a while. If you could remind people who Maura is.

Guest:  Maura Kelley is the agency's peer engagement person, she does my job with public policy, specifically focusing on recipients of mental health services.

Host:  Great. What are some key points that you'd like to use these remaining moments to discuss?

Guest:  Well, I want to encourage anybody who wants to learn more about civics to give us a call and sign up. I don't care what your previous knowledge is. I want everybody to be engaged. So, all they need to do is email us and let us know that they want to participate. They can always email me at tvaarwerk@wnyil.org or they can give me a call 716-836-0822 extension 101. And I'll forward you and get you all started.

Host:  All right. And it's very important that people become engaged because what is it that elected leaders start to pay attention to?

Guest:  Well, elected leaders pay attention to customer stories, individual constituents’ stories are the things that have the greatest value to them. And we want to get as many people as possible to feel comfortable with providing their stories.

Host:  And so, if a particular legislator one day discovers 50 emails in his box saying fair pay for home care, that's going to grab his attention.

Guest:  That’s correct because anybody who writes a personal message, they think about 10 other people that might have wanted to do that but didn't.

Host:  And there's probably at least one or two other important issues that you would like to bring up in the 30 seconds remaining.

Guest:  Well you know as we said, we're going to be talking this meeting about the state budget. So if you've never figured out how the state budget works, or what the big deal is between what the governor talks about and what the legislative talks about, and the final thing that they pass in April, we're going to talk about all of those details and how that stuff works. So, this is definitely a meeting where if you care about issues in the state budget that you want to be at.

Host:  All right, and if you could remind people of the phone number for more information once more.

Guest:  716-836-0822 extension 101.

Host:  Thanks for being with us Todd.

Guest:  Always a pleasure.

Host:  You’ve been listening to Independent Perspective, a public affairs presentation of WNYIL. Our guest today was Todd Vaarwerk, Chief Policy Officer of WNYIL, and I've been your host Ernie Churchwell.