Guest Blog: Community Living
To kick off Community Living Week of National Developmental Disabilities Awareness Month, we are pleased to welcome guest blogger Dina Garcia, a Systems Change Advocate who has been part of the UCPLA family since she was a poster child for United Cerebral Palsy back during our telethon days!
My name is Dina Garcia. I am a Systems Change Advocate Communities Actively Living Independent and Free (CALIF), which is an Independent Living Center in downtown Los Angeles. My mission is to make various programs in our society more accessible for people with disabilities.
For example, a couple of years ago, Los Angeles Metrolink was considering changing their policy so that PCA’s (Personal Care Assistants) would no longer be able to ride for free within L.A. County as was the policy. The Metrolink Board was reacting to widespread fraud by people who were claiming they were someone’s PCA in order to get a free ride. As a result, Metrolink ticket sales were decreasing.
I brought a group of people with disabilities to a Metrolink Board meeting and we explained how changing this policy would limit so many with disabilities from going out because many PCAs cannot afford Metrolink tickets. After listening to our testimonies, the Metrolink Board, realizing the policy would do more harm than good, did not enact it.
Many of those who came with me to give their testimony learned how to do so by taking a class I teach with a coworker called Leadership Through Advocacy. Our goal is to empower our students to advocate for their rights.
The main focus of my job is advocating for more accessible transportation, so I work a lot with Access Services and Metro. A major issue right now is L.A. Metro’s plan to restructure its whole bus system in an effort to add more riders. Its system hasn’t been restructured in a quarter of a century. Metro wants to add and/or move around bus routes to better accommodate today’s riders.
In an effort to guide Metro through this process, I have been serving on Metro’s NextGen Committee, which consists of a group of 40 to 50 people from many different communities, each giving input about the public transportation needs of their areas. I bring to the committee the voices of Metro riders with disabilities. After three meetings, Metro is now holding countywide public forums to hear from additional riders. Since I know that, often, people with disabilities do not feel as though their needs and concerns are heard, I partnered with the Independent Living Center in Van Nuys to host a community forum on February 28 for riders with disabilities. I am now going back to Metro with a proposal to host a second forum at our center in downtown L.A. If you would like to learn more about how you can get involved, go to www.metro.net/projects/nextgen.
Another project I am working on is an effort to save plastic straws in California. The state is trying to replace the plastic with paper straws, or completely ban straws altogether from businesses, including all restaurants, as another help the environment. While I am very pro-environment, many people with disabilities need plastic straws to drink. I understand the reasoning. I know that the plastic is a hazard to the environment. The Los Angeles City Council just approved a policy to ban all straws in restaurants, unless someone requests them. Larger businesses will implement the ban on Earth Day, April 22. Other businesses will wait until October. I will be going to the City Council to strongly urge council members to DEMAND that businesses continue providing straws to people with disabilities.
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Dina Garcia began her speaking career at the age of three.
It was at that age that Dina was chosen as the poster child for United Cerebral Palsy. Most children only serve in that capacity for a year or two, but Dina was so effective at tugging heart strings and personifying the UCP message that she remained for ten years. Over that decade, she appeared on the annual UCP telethon, met many stars and donors at cocktail parties and photo shoots, as well as appearing on a CBS movie-of-the-week, “Marion Rose White” with Nancy Cartwright, now the voice of Bart Simpson, and Katherine Ross. She also played a role in the prime time soap opera, “Knots Landing” with Lisa Hartman.
As Dina got older, her role quickly changed from actress to advocate when she encountered discrimination in junior and senior high school due to her disability. She had to fight for the right to do her homework with a typewriter rather than having to write it out. She even had to fight for the right to go to her neighborhood high school, against the wishes of some members of the faculty. She wound up graduating with honors.
Dina’s advocacy skills continued at Cal State University Northridge where she was president of the Students with Disabilities Connection. She transformed the basically inactive organization into a vibrant and progressive social group. Upon graduation in 2000, there were 40 active members.
In keeping with her love for advocacy, Dina got a full-time job at the Westside Center for Independent Living as a System Change Advocate. She taught self-advocacy skills to people with disabilities, educated local, state and federal legislators on the needs of their constituents with disabilities, generated communication between Los Angeles County Paratransit system and the riders and helped stop proposed cuts to the transit system that would have limited the rights of the riders.
She also served for two years on the Los Angeles City Commission on Disabilities under Mayor James Hahn. As commissioner, Dina worked to install an audio signal on a busy street, to ensure the safety of pedestrians who are visually impaired.
Dina has made several trips to Sacramento to participate in rallies, speak with legislators and give testimony at hearings to fight against cuts to services that help people with disabilities live the independent lifestyles they are entitled to.
After taking a six-year break from working, in order to be a stay-at-home mom to her son, Dina has now picked up where she left off as a Systems Change Advocate, at CALIF. She is very happy working with another passionate advocate, Cynde. Together, they are trying to change the system in order to accommodate the needs of those with disabilities. In an effort to bring more strong advocates into our community, Dina and Cynde have created a 9-week course called, “Leadership Through Advocacy”, including topics such…what is the ADA, Disability History, Boards and Commission, Community Organizing and participating in a Legislative visit.
Dina’s most recently endeavor was auditioning and being casted in a new HBO Drama Series, LUCK, starring Dustin Hoffman and Nick Nolte. The show aired in January 2012 for one season and Dina was in four episodes.
In addition to all this, Dina is married to her husband, Daniel, owns a house, and is a mom to son, Brandon. In her spare time, Dina enjoys snow skiing, water skiing, jet skiing, parasailing, wheelchair dancing, traveling, and, of course, spending time with her family and friends.
Dina is pursuing a career in motivational speaking because she wants to share her knowledge and experience with others. She has also just started writing a book about her life. If you would to read more about Dina and her adventures, you can check her blog at: http://lifewithdinagarcia.blogspot.com/