For many individuals the concept of Living independently is taken for granted. But, for a great number of individuals with significant disabilities the concept is ever challenging…Do I have access to parking? Can I receive housing assistance? How can the Veterans Administration help me with my disability? Can I find help with employment assistance?

The questions are too numerous to write about in this article, for certain; as numerous as the many different disabilities that our citizenry have.

I was recently appointed by Governor Abbott to serve on the Board of Directors of the Texas State Independent Living Council, and just got back from Austin after my first quarterly meeting of the Council. It is indeed an honor and privilege to serve the people of our state, and my first meeting was really intense…hundreds of acronyms to learn, associations with other councils and organizations, rules and regulations, etc…really a lot to digest.

Since passage of national legislation concerning persons with disabilities in the early 1970’s, there has been considerable changes in our concepts and practices regarding them. I remember when I began working with persons with mental illness diagnosis, persons with substance abuse disorders, and persons with developmental and intellectual disabilities; there was not a lot going on in the implementation of services and accessibility for those individuals.

I was asked to be a part of city development plan for accessibility for persons with disabilities in one city I worked in. We began installing ramps for wheelchairs, taking out curbs at city intersections, installing handicapped parking signs (with the cooperation of many businesses), etc. I must admit that the city did an excellent job in their accessibility efforts.

Getting the general public to be aware was yet another matter…progress was slow. For example, I remember watching an elderly person with a physical disability having to walk across a parking lot to enter a store because the accessible parking was taken up by individuals without a handicapped placard or license plate (this type of behavior is still with us to this day, unfortunately, despite the displayed fines that may be imposed).

There are literally hundreds of disabilities that our citizenry encounter…individuals with congenital disabilities, the person with Down syndrome, the person with paraplegia, a person unable to speak, the individual who is visually impaired, the person with a mental health condition, and individual with an intellectual and developmental disability, a student who receives special education services; and a host of others.

The usage of “first person language” is so important; emphasizing the person first rather than the disability.

The Rehabilitation Act of 1973 (and as amended) was the precursor of the State Independent Living Councils and the State regional Centers for Independent Living. The Centers for Independent Living, of which there are 28 within our State, provides information and referral services; independent living skills training, individual and systems advocacy, peer counseling, and transitional services for persons with disabilities.

The Centers for Independent Living are not places for persons with disabilities to live, are run by people with disabilities to assist people with disabilities to live their lives as independently as possible, provide direct independent living services to individuals with disabilities, and are actively involved with assisting individuals moving out if institutional settings and back into community-based, consumer-directed programs.

The Center of our region is the Valley Association for Independent Living (VAIL), located in McAllen, and covers the citizenry of Cameron, Hidalgo, Starr, and Willacy counties.

The State Independent Living Council serves the purpose of developing the Texas State Independent Living Plan; with the prime emphasis being how the network is going to improve independent living services for individuals with disabilities. The mission of the State Independent Living Council is to ensure that all Texans with disabilities have access to quality Independent Living services by providing a framework for service delivery.

The State Council envisions a Texas where people with disabilities make informed choices and direct their own lives, have the opportunity to assess and incur risks, are viewed as individuals and not stereotypes; and live, work, and play in the least restrictive environment possible. Other roles that that the State Independent Living Council have are systems advocacy, education of the public regarding disability-related topics, and establishing a provision of technical assistance concerning the Independent Living philosophy and approach.

The Texas State Independent Living Council is a non-profit entity that is mainly funded through the Administration on Community Living and the Texas Department of Assistive and Rehabilitation Services. The Council members are all volunteers appointed by the Governor, and of which the majority must be persons with disabilities; 10 voting members and no less than four ex-officio members, and who come from all regions of the state.

The Council meets quarterly at differing cities and regions throughout the state, and comes together with other entities at a State Conference once per year.

Want to learn more? I encourage you to go to the Valley Association for Independent Living (VAIL) web site at Vailrgv.org or the Texas State Independent Living Council (SILC) website (which also has a Facebook page). Until next time, Stay Healthy my Friends!

RAYMONDVILLE — Audrey Hernandez rode her horse gracefully through the tight curves, hooves kicking dust into the air.

Ripping around the last barrel yesterday, the 8-year-old contender raced toward the end of the arena, winning the clover-leaf barrel competition for her division at the Willacy County Youth Rodeo.

Her light brown hair waved wildly in the breeze, sun glancing off her horse’s sleek brown coat, a jubilant smile on her face.

“You have to keep prac-ticing and practicing,” said the Lyford resident. “You have to keep on doing it no matter what.”

The youth rodeo was part of the 2016 Willacy County Livestock Show and Fair. However, it was organized by the Willacy County Riders and Ropers Club for students too young to participate in adult rodeos. The Profes-sional Rodeo Cowboys Association says riders must be at least 18 years old.

The riders yesterday competed in three events: cloverleaf barrel racing, straight barrel racing and pole bending. They com-peted in each event in four divisions separated by age.

While some young riders new to rodeo were simply led by their parents around the barrels, others took full command of their mounts.

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HARLINGEN — For every resident who thinks he or she has a better idea of how things ought to be run, now’s your chance.

Officials here are putting out a call for volunteers, hoping to fill 47 openings on city boards, ranging from the advisory commit-tee for the animal shelter to the zoning adjustments board.

Those vacancies are on 15 of Harlingen’s 26 mu-nicipal boards. Almost all are filled with volunteers with some expertise about the board’s mission.

“Board appointments are sometimes difficult to make because you want to find someone willing to volunteer their time and who can contribute a special talent to that par-ticular board,” said Mayor Chris Boswell. “It is not always easy to find the right fit.”

The nearly four dozen openings on Harlingen’s boards seem to be on the high side. By contrast, the city of Brownsville has 21 active committees. It has six vacancies.

Harlingen’s board open-ings, Boswell said, may not be an accurate measure of the reality of the true makeup of those boards.

Some of the “vacancies” are the result of a board member’s term having expired, yet he or she continues to sit on the board and help make decisions until a new board member is chosen as a replacement.

For the rest of this story and many other EXTRAS, go to our premium site, www.MyValleyStar.com.

Subscribe to it for only $6.99 per month or pur-chase a print subscription and receive the online version free, which in-cludes an electronic ver-sion of the full newspaper and extra photo galleries, links and other informa-tion you can’t find any-where else.

HARLINGEN — Homelessness appears to have declined in Harlingen.

But many residents are living on the brink.

Those are conclusions drawn from a survey on homelessness conducted by Loaves & Fishes of the Rio Grande Valley.

Workers with the multi-service social service organization took to the streets Jan. 21 to count and survey homeless persons. Clients at the center’s shelter also were counted.

They found 53 individuals, including 27 at the shelter. Statistics for last year’s count were not available.

But the count this year was lower than last year.

Not everyone surveyed met the strict definition of homeless — a person staying in a shelter, staying in a place not meant for human habitation or living doubled up in a temporary arrangement.

But the survey included some people who can be described as being in danger of falling into homelessness.

Pastor Bill Reagan, Loaves & Fishes executive director, said the survey shows some improvement on the homeless front, but perhaps not enough.

“I think what it really says is, times are better, but they are only marginally better. There are a lot of people who are still living right on the edge,” he said.

“They’re one prescription away, one month away or just one misfortune away from really falling through the cracks.”

The poverty level in Harlingen is still about 32 percent, he said. For Cameron County, it’s 36 percent.

Loaves & Fishes is one of numerous social service organizations across the country that participate in an annual count of homeless persons called the “Point In Time” count. The survey is taken on one day every year in January and is intended to provide a snapshot of homelessness in America.

In Harlingen, three-quarters of those surveyed are men. Most have been divorced or separated from a spouse.

Of the 53 counted, the longest anyone had been homeless was three years.

“Most of them have been experiencing their first episode of homelessness and most have been homeless only for a few days or a few months,” Reagan said.

“And that surprised me a little bit. I would have expected more long-term homelessness.

“That’s probably a good sign, so many are not chronic or repeat homeless.”

One 16-year-old reported he had been kicked out of his house and then kicked out of a friend’s house.

“He came to us basically because he ran out of other options,” Reagan said.

Reagan was surprised by some findings of this year’s survey.

For one, one-quarter of those surveyed are older than age 50.

“By the time you’re 50 years old, your life has pretty much settled down. You make mistakes as a young person and sometimes get yourself in trouble,” Reagan said.

“Or even if things have been rough in your life, usually by the time you get to 50 you’ve found some way to keep yourself stable.

“So I’m surprised there are that many who over 50.”

The homeless count for Cameron County was not available this past week.

HARLINGEN — For every resident who thinks he or she has a better idea of how things ought to be run, now’s your chance.

Officials here are putting out a call for volunteers, hoping to fill 47 openings on city boards, ranging from the advisory committee for the animal shelter to the zoning adjustments board.

Those vacancies are on 15 of Harlingen’s 26 municipal boards. Almost all are filled with volunteers with some expertise about the board’s mission.

“Board appointments are sometimes difficult to make because you want to find someone willing to volunteer their time and who can contribute a special talent to that particular board,” said Mayor Chris Boswell. “It is not always easy to find the right fit.”

The nearly four dozen openings on Harlingen’s boards seem to be on the high side. By contrast, the city of Brownsville has 21 active committees. It has six vacancies.

Harlingen’s board openings, Boswell said, may not be an accurate measure of the reality of the true makeup of those boards.

Some of the “vacancies” are the result of a board member’s term having expired, yet he or she continues to sit on the board and help make decisions until a new board member is chosen as a replacement.

“What happens is board members serve until their replacement is appointed, so sometimes people will just allow them to hold over, thinking that they might replace me in six months or a year when they find a good replacement,” the mayor said.

Those who sit on one of Harlingen’s boards, which are only advisory in nature but often have a major influence on how city departments operate, say they have found their experience to be eminently satisfying.

“We have a really good board,” said Jacob Montalvo, who owns and teaches at the Harlingen Jiu-Jitsu Club and sits on the Harlingen Proud Advisory Board. That board, also known as the Keep Harlingen Beautiful Board, has nine vacancies.

“I think it’s a great thing to show community involvement, to show that you’re interested in your community and try to help out any way you can,” Montalvo said.

Kenneth Pruneau has been a member of the Parks and Recreation Advisory Board for four years.

Prospective board volunteers, he said, “have got to have some feeling for the city.

“It’s not that you just live here,” said the 85-year-old Pruneau, “you are part of the city.”

“Your age is not going to make a difference,” he continued. “You can, in some way, contribute. It’s what you can do for the city of Harlingen.”

With the arrival of a new year, Boswell and other city officials want to put the word out for interested citizens to get involved.

“We welcome all volunteers to submit their names for consideration,” Boswell said. “We appreciate all of our outstanding volunteer board members for the service they give to the city of Harlingen.”

MCALLEN — With less than a month under her belt as the program director of Silver Ribbon Community Partners, Janie Maldonado is still learning the ins and outs of running an organization that aims to help seniors and children with disabilities.

But her 15 years of working for communities and with nonprofit organizations prepared her to lead the organization forward.

“I realized that I liked working in the community, giving back and making a living off of this,” she said.

Maldonado is one of only two paid staff members in an organization built completely from the work of volunteers.

Some of those volunteers worked with Adult Protective Services and came across many clients who needed assistance with a light bill, were homeless or were facing eviction, so they started the program to fill that need.

Silver Ribbon, a nonprofit United Way Agency that services Hidalgo and Starr counties, is one of 21 groups selected to receive funding from AIM Media Texas Charities as part of its second annual fundraising campaign.

AIM Media is the parent company of the Valley Morning Star, The Monitor, The Brownsville Herald and the Mid-Valley Town Crier.

Maldonado took over the position in the beginning of January from Rose Ramirez, who began her tenure as the program director in 2010. Now, Ramirez serves as the community outreach specialist with the responsibility of spreading awareness about elder abuse to the community.

“A lot of people don’t know what elder abuse is or that it exists,” Ramirez said. “People say, ‘You mean someone actually hits their grandma or takes their money?’ and I say, ‘Yeah.’”

The two work out of two cubicles within the Adult Protective Services building, and their proximity is mutually beneficial because Silver Ribbon receives referrals from APS and vice versa.

To qualify for the program, the person needs to be over 65 or over 18 and deemed disabled by the state. Those people are the ones most vulnerable to abuse.

Often, their cases involve people who need assistance paying a utility bill or rent. One case, Ramirez recalled, involved a homeless, disabled veteran who was referred to them from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. The VA gave him a voucher for an apartment, but he couldn’t afford the deposit.

“I’ve been here six years. I’ve never really had to turn anyone down because of lack of funds, and that’s a big blessing,” said Ramirez, adding that cooperation from different agencies is a big part of why they are able to help so many people.

Another big source of help is the donations they receive from the community. In addition to their two cubicles, they have a Silver Ribbon Room, where they store blankets, adult diapers, clothes, fans and hygiene products. They also receive donations from medical supply companies, which might donate wheelchairs or walkers.

In the winter, they hold a blanket drive, gathering blankets from the community, and in the summer they have a fan drive. If they’re lucky, they even get air conditioners.

“If the request is financial assistance, we also try to assess the whole situation,” Maldonado said. “We need to make sure that they have food and that they have someone who’s caring for them or helping them.”

“If we find that they don’t have someone like that, then we automatically refer them over to APS.”

Ramirez said when people hear “Adult Protective Services,” they fear they will automatically be taken away and placed in a nursing home. But it doesn’t work that way.

Unless the abused person wants to be removed or the state decides the person does not have the capacity to make those decisions, the government cannot forcibly take them away.

However, a big problem is that many people don’t speak out because they’re often trying to protect a family member.

“They don’t want to admit that a family member would have done that to them,” Ramirez said. “Especially with sexual abuse, it’s very, very rare that it’s a random act of violence.”

Ramirez estimated the agency has about 200 to 300 cases a year but said that over the years there were more than 3,000 reports of abuse just in Hidalgo County.

Moving forward, Maldonado plans to help the program develop sustainability and expand awareness; they hope to bring on a team of volunteers that can assist with outreach and help in educating the public about the abuses that occur throughout the Rio Grande Valley.

One case the group took on involved an elderly woman who refused to admit she was being abused despite the physical evidence.

“We got agencies involved. We had providers being put in the home, and the alleged perpetrators knew that people were going to be dropping in,” she said.

“That’s how we celebrate our successes — if someone isn’t hit again or hurt again.”

McALLEN — The corner occupied by the Whole Woman’s Health Clinic was flooded by pro-life marchers early yesterday morning.

By 10 a.m., the abortion clinic’s property became a symbolic battleground between the Catholic group and pro-abortion rights supporters.

The anti-abortion march has been orchestrated by the Catholic Diocese of Brownsville for the past four years in opposition of Roe v. Wade, the U.S. Supreme Court decision that legalized the procedure in January 1973.

The group traditionally marches down Main Street, stopping at the clinic to pray and ending at the Sacred Heart Catholic Church. The event is also held ahead of the “40 Days for Life” campaign, which is meant to draw people away from supporting the procedure.

For the last three years, pro-abortion rights organization South Texans for Reproductive Justice has rallied outside of Whole Woman’s Health Clinic to counter the marchers.

Both groups garnered more members this year than ever before. More than 200 anti-abortion attendees were packed into the corners of West Houston Avenue and South Main Street. Some kneeled or stood at a makeshift altar, feet away from the clinic’s entrance.

Pro-abortion rights advocates trickled into the area as the morning went on. After more than 150 supporters arrived, they began chanting and working their way to the front of the clinic as well, where they remained after the marchers left to Sacred Heart.

A small faction of the anti-abortion group stayed behind to pray across the street, McAllen resident Sandra De La Tejera among them. She said that she is not protesting anything, but is instead praying for women to make the right choice.

“What I would like is for people to realize that this is not a fight. We don’t need to scream at each other,” she said. “We just need to look inside ourselves and feel ‘Is this the right thing for the baby?’ I think this debate is about life.”

This marked De La Tejera’s third straight year of marching, but she often stands outside the clinic to discourage patients from going through with the procedure.

Rebecca Arjona, a member of South Texans for Reproductive Justice, is a volunteer escort at the clinic who was present at the event. She helped coordinate the rally and guided patients into the clinic throughout the day.

“This year our goal was to raise our numbers … so we could surround the clinic and take up the side that (anti-abortion marchers) usually do and not even give them the chance to stick around, which worked because they really didn’t stay very long,” she said.

Mimosa Thomas, who also stood with the pro-abortion rights group, was adamant about defending the clinic and women’s reproductive rights.

“This Whole Woman’s Health isn’t going anywhere,” she said. “We wanted to send the (anti-abortion supporters) the message that we’re here to stay, and we will defend this clinic.”

Whole Woman’s Health was shut down in March 2014 after state legislators passed House Bill 2, which tightened abortion restrictions. It reopened in September 2014 after a federal judge struck down parts of the bill.

The pro-abortion group handed out condoms, buttons, flyers and pens to guests after the marchers moved on and the rally was done.

De La Tejera looked on to the cluster of largely college-aged pro-abortion rights attendants between her silent prayers.

“It’s sad to see so many young people stating it’s a choice — and it is,” she said. “It is absolutely ultimately your choice, but killing shouldn’t be anybody’s choice.”

BROWNSVILLE — Gladys Porter Zoo has implemented a no-open-carry policy in the wake of the state’s new “open carry” gun law, which makes it legal to openly carry a firearm in places that previously only allowed concealed carry.

Patrick Burchfield, the zoo’s director, said his institution has allowed concealed carry for years without incident, though open carry is something different.

“It would affect attendance, particularly since we serve people from all over the country that are not from South Texas and don’t have quite the same take on open carry,” he said. “We’re trying to balance it. We don’t want to infringe on anyone’s rights. At the same time, we can’t afford to lose zoo visitors who would be fearful.”

Although some zoos around the state have elected to allow open carry, Gladys Porter Zoo’s policy matches that of the Houston Zoo, whose management argues that they’re on firm ground legally because of the zoo’s role as an educational facility.

According to the Texas Penal Code Sec. 46.03, among the places it’s still not legal to carry a firearm openly are “any grounds or building on which an activity sponsored by a school or educational institution is being conducted.”

“Since the zoo’s inception, education has been one of our top missions, and is probably our number one mission, as we work with several school districts,” Burchfield said.

He said Gladys Porter Zoo offers formal classes to 22,000 students a year and each summer gives out large numbers of tickets to every school district in Texas Education Agency Region 1, which includes seven counties including Cameron, Hidalgo and Willacy.

“We serve Brownsville Independent School District, we serve San Benito Independent School District, we serve every school district in the Valley,” Burchfield said. “On a daily basis, we have school groups.”

In places where it is allowed, open and concealed carriers alike must possess a concealed handgun permit. Zoos in cities such as Dallas and Forth Worth have gone further than GPZ, banning concealed firearms as well as open carry. Those policies have generated a number of complaints to the state attorney general’s office from gun-rights advocates.

Burchfield said he’d rather not have to fight the issue in court but suspects a court battle — somewhere — is inevitable. Meanwhile, Burchfield, who holds a concealed carry license and is rated an expert with a pistol and a rifle, questions the effectiveness of open carry in an active-shooter situation.

“The very first person who is a target by a bad guy is the person with the firearm,” he said. “I think it’s a bigger deterrent to know (guns) are out there but not visible.”

Burchfield said GPZ’s open carry policy hasn’t drawn any complaints yet, but that doesn’t mean it won’t.

“I would hope that reason would prevail, and that a reasonable person would assume that not everyone reacts the same way to weapons,” he said. “And in a place where you have small children, like amusement parks, zoos and so on, that’s not where you parade around with guns.”

BROWNSVILLE — Gladys Porter Zoo has implemented a no-open-carry policy in the wake of the state’s new “open carry” gun law, which makes it legal to openly carry a firearm in places that previously only allowed concealed carry.

Patrick Burchfield, the zoo’s director, said his institution has allowed concealed carry for years without incident, though open carry is something different.

“It would affect attendance, particularly since we serve people from all over the country that are not from South Texas and don’t have quite the same take on open carry,” he said. “We’re trying to balance it. We don’t want to infringe on anyone’s rights. At the same time, we can’t afford to lose zoo visitors who would be fearful.”

Although some zoos around the state have elected to allow open carry, Gladys Porter Zoo’s policy matches that of the Houston Zoo, whose management argues that they’re on firm ground legally because of the zoo’s role as an educational facility.

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SAN BENITO — Poet Julieta Corpus will be in town Feb.12 for a reading of her poetry in English and Spanish starting at 7 p.m. at The Narciso Martinez Cultural Arts Center.

Corpus describes her poems as attempts to encapsulate a moment, an emotion or an event which, hopefully, will leave an indelible mark on her readers.

Her poems have been published in Tendiendo Puentes, The Mesquite Review, University of Texas-Pan American’s Gallery Magazine and Festiva: The Writers Issue.

She also has been included in various poetry compilations, such as Writing to Be Heard: Voices from the Chicho, STC’s Interstice, four Valley International Poetry Festival Boundless Anthologies, The Thing Itself and the Texas Poetry Calendar.

Her latest compact disc, titled Corazon Parlante, is a compilation of 12 love poems with musical accompaniment by local musician Mario Mora from Dulce Toxico.

She’s currently pursuing an MFA in Creative Writing and teaching first grade at Bowie Elementary School in Harlingen.

Poet Edward Vidaurre also will be reading a selection from his latest book “Beautiful Scars” and music will be provided by Mora.

The event is free and open to the public. Refreshments will be served.

For more information contact Soledad A. Nunez at 956-244-0373.