Please join us on Tuesday, March 22, 2022 from 3:00–4:30 p.m. ET (2:00 p.m. CT/ 1:00 p.m. MT/12:00 p.m. PT) for the first Minority Youth and Centers for Independent Living (MY-CIL) project webinar. This event is free and open to everyone. After registering, you will receive a confirmation email with information about joining the webinar.
This MY-CIL webinar will focus on promising CIL outreach, collaborations, and practice strategies to engage transition-age youth with disabilities from racial and ethnic minority backgrounds, including out-of-school youth. CILs are community-based organizations for people with disabilities. The main objective of CILs is to empower people with disabilities, giving them more control over the decisions that affect their lives. The Rehabilitation Act of 1973, as amended, requires CILs to provide five core services:
- Information and referral
- Independent living skills training
- Peer support and mentoring
- Individual and systems advocacy
- Transition
The Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act requires CILs to provide services to youth with disabilities who are transitioning to adult life after completing or ending high school. CIL services could be beneficial for minority youth with disabilities who face multiple barriers to living independently as they transition.
Our webinar guest panelists will include the CIL director, youth transition director, and two youth consumers from the Southern California Resource Services for Independent Living (SCRS-IL). SCRS-IL staff will discuss their employment and STEM educational initiatives. Youth panelists will describe their experiences as CIL consumers. We will also provide audiences with information about future MY-CIL learning opportunities.
Webinar speakers and panelists:
- Edgar Cantero, SCRS-IL youth consumer
- Rudy A. Contreras, M.A., chief executive officer of SCRS-IL
- Brooke Curtis, associate director for training and publications for the IL-NET National Training and Technical Assistance Center at Independent Living Research Utilization
- Dave Estrella, director of college transitions with SCRS-IL
- Sharonlyn Harrison, Ph.D., MY-CIL consultant to the Center for Independence of the Disabled, New York and leading scholar on CIL services to racial and ethnic minorities
- Frank Martin, Ph.D., health researcher at Mathematica
- Samantha Mendoza, SCRS-IL youth consumer
Please join us to share your questions and listen. We believe exchanging promising practices is a fundamental approach for accelerating progress among CILs, and we hope you can attend.
If you need assistance before the webinar, please contact us at events@mathematica-mpr.com. We will make every effort to accommodate your participation in this event including the provision of closed captioning, an ASL interpreter, and accessible materials.
ABOUT MY-CIL
MY-CIL is a partnership between Hunter College School of Education; Mathematica and its Center for Studying Disability Policy; the Center for Independence of the Disabled, New York; and Independent Living Research Utilization to generate and share knowledge that empowers CILs to better serve out-of-school youth and young adults (ages 14 to 24) from racial and ethnic minority backgrounds.
Speakers:
Edgar Cantero, Southern California Resource Services for Independent Living (SCRS-IL) consumer
Edgar, from Lynwood, California, graduated from Lynwood High School in 2019 and is currently pursuing an associate degree in child development at Compton College. Since high school, Edgar has used all services available to him to have academic and adult success. He connected with SCRS-IL after leaving high school and received guidance, training, and college support through these services. Edgar joined a college support program, where he found that he wanted to learn about child development and one day work with youth.
Rudy A. Contreras, M.A., chief executive officer of SCRS-IL
Rudy is a Marine Corps Combat Veteran that has served as an advocate for the disability community for more than 20 years. As the chief executive officer of SCRS-IL, one of the 28 Centers for Independent Living in California, Rudy has developed innovative programs that focus on the successful transition for youth with disabilities. His work has primarily focused on developing the first STEM programs for youth with disabilities and designing college and employment programs that ensure successful transition into post-secondary life. While the SCRS-IL founders believed that “Everyone has a Future,” Rudy believes that his mission is to ensure a future of opportunities for all people with disabilities.
Brooke Curtis, associate director for training and publications for the IL-NET National Training and Technical Assistance Center at Independent Living Research Utilization (ILRU)
Brooke has co-authored numerous publications for independent living; co-presented for ILRU’s Disability, Diversity, and Intersectionality project; and facilitated several ILRU survey projects studying CIL management and operations, notably CIL responses to the COVID-19 pandemic and transition from institutions during the pandemic. In addition, Brooke helped plan various learning collaboratives for CILs operated by ILRU, including the MY-CIL learning collaboratives. Brooke received her bachelor’s in biology from DePauw University and her master’s in biomedical informatics at the School of Biomedical Informatics at the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston.
Dave Estrella, director of college transitions with SCRS-IL
Dave is a longtime youth advocate for higher education access and the director of college transitions with SCRS-IL. Since joining SCRS-IL, he has focused on providing youth with disabilities with training and advocacy to continue their education and independence beyond high school. At SCRSIL, he has been instrumental in bringing STEM to the disability community. Currently, he oversees the first Center for Independent Living–led college based program for people with developmental disabilities at Compton and Cerritos College.
Sharonlyn Harrison, Ph.D., MY-CIL consultant to the Center for Independence of the Disabled, New York
Sharonlyn is among the leading scholars on CIL services to racial and ethnic minorities. For the MY-CIL project, she is a consultant to the Center for Independence of the Disabled, New York and is responsible for engaging with the MY-CIL stakeholder advisory group and participating in knowledge translation activities. Most recently, Sharonlyn completed Disability, Diversity and Intersectionality in CILs, a research project for ILRU designed to document best practices in services, programs, and outreach for racially, ethnically, and culturally diverse groups. Previously, she was a transition specialist and associate director for research and evaluation with Michigan’s University Center for Excellence in Developmental Disabilities at Wayne State University, where she worked with schools with diverse student populations on transition to post-secondary education and adult life. Sharonlyn was also a special education teacher consultant developing a program for transition. Currently, she is adjunct faculty at Wayne State University, American University, and Georgetown University, where she teaches or conducts research and evaluation projects around matters of diversity and equity. Sharonlyn has received special recognition for her research in minority communities from the National Center for Cultural Competence at Georgetown University and the Michigan Center for Urban African American Aging Research, and she was an invited chair of the Michigan Developmental Disabilities Council’s multicultural workgroup.
Frank Martin, Ph.D., health researcher at Mathematica and the Center for Studying Disability Policy
Frank’s work primarily focuses on disability policy, vocational rehabilitation, transition-age youth, and independent living outcomes. At Mathematica, he has worked on health and disability policy evaluation projects for federal clients, including the Administration for Community Living; the National Institute on Disability, Independent Living, and Rehabilitation Research; the Rehabilitation Services Administration; the U.S. Department of Labor; and the Social Security Administration. He has direct service experience working with and for people with disabilities. Frank has published articles in the Journal of Vocational Rehabilitation, Disability Policy Studies, Rehabilitation Counseling Bulletin, and Patient Education and Counseling.
Samantha Mendoza, SCRS-IL
Samantha, from Maywood, California, graduated from Maywood Academy in 2018 and currently attends Compton College, where she is pursuing an associate degree in cosmetology. Through her passion for drawing, Samantha became interested in nail art and design. When she graduated from high school, Samantha used SCRS-IL services that helped her plan and set her goal of going to college and opening a nail salon one day. Samantha will receive her certificate of cosmetology in spring 2022.