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Being Frank.
Fright were the only way to be is Frank. Hello everyone, and welcome to being Frank. We're the only way to be is Frank. I'm your host, FRANKL. Born On, and i'd like to thank you for joining us on what we like to call the Intelligent Conversation Podcast, where no conversations out of bounds and all points of view are welcome. Regular listeners to the podcast know our routine is to record live to tape and I give you the dates so you have some context and relevance. And it's the
third of December. The height of the holiday season is upon us entertaining and being entertained by family and friends is what makes the season so special. But what if you had a disability and made that joy nearly impossible? Well, let's have some intelligent conversation on the side object with the CEO and Executive director of Bridges, an organization dedicated through advocacy and leadership to the premise that everyone deserves
to live an independent life. Carlos Montinez LMSW is the chief executive officer and executive director of Bridges, a local nonprofit organization in Rockland County, New York, guided by its mission of advocacy and leadership towards the creation and development of a universally designed community for all people, including people with disabilities. He has been with the organization since twenty
ten and became CEO in twenty eighteen. Bridges and Minister's programs in the community that serve various members of that community, including veterans with PTSD, TBI and other disabilities, people with chronic medical conditions, multiple disabilities, mental health disabilities, and individuals diverted and or are re entering the community from the criminal justice system. Welcome Carlos Martinez. I know you're a busy man and took time out to be with us
and we appreciate it. Thank you for joining us here and being Frank.
I'm excited to be here. Thanks, Rank Carlos.
Is my custom. You know, we kind of get the nuts and bolts in a CV, a curriculum, VTA, a little bio, but let's get a little bit behind them. Man, tell us a little bit about a typical day for you. What is it exactly that you do?
Yeah? Absolutely, you know, as I'm fortunate and in a really amazing position to you know, sort of steward an organization that has for many years founded by people with disabilities to ensure that the community has the right resources through the folks that work here Bridges to experience independence for themselves whatever that might be.
Right.
If you you find a barrier you know, finding a job, or you know, because of a disability, or you find a barrier finding a place to live because of a disability, this is what Bridges is here.
For, you know, to help remove those barriers that unfortunately are placed by societal what we're societal norms or societal attitudes, or or physical barriers that prevent people from accessing public places for example. That's what we're here for. We're here. We're here to help remove barriers so that people with disabilities have equitable access to care, to services, to opportunities that many of us take for granted in the community.
So I think that's an important part. What are some of the methods you know, it sounds wonderful, but it takes work. What are some of the methods that you have to apply to get these things done and make some reality again on a daily basis. I mean I'm sure on the broad lobbying, funding, et cetera. But on a daily basis, what is it that you do that literally helps accomplish these things?
Absolutely, I mean it from time to time. It can be at the very individual level. I mean it's helping someone build their confidence and understand that they two have a voice, that they can use it to advocate on their own behalf. Sometimes it's just a matter of speaking
up depending on the situation. For example, you know a person who is employed and seeking nothing special but a reasonable accommodation, for example, something that by law is able to be granted and support someone career, you know, or job circumstance. It's teaching them how to ask the right questions, how to bring it up and be confident about those things. And sometimes it can be broader. It could be working with a group of people who are experiencing similar discrimination
or similar circumstances. We always go at it in a non punitive way. We are first approach to government, to public places, and even to business owners and jobs is to be nonpunitive. Is to provide education, to provide support to that business in whatever fashion or way they need it in order to help the two come together in
a very amicable way. Very few times do we go the extent of litigation, which we've done in the past for businesses that don't want to comply with the a DA, which is a law that affords people with disabilities equitable access to opportunities.
That's the advocacy that you mentioned in your brochures, et cetera. Okay, but you know, I think within the name itself, it's was formerly the rock Weed Dependent Living Center, which certainly is descriptive, but so is Bridges in a sense. And the reason I brought it up now it seems to be what you're talking about. You're looking for a bridge between these people and their needs and the community. Yeah, talk a little to that that, you know the name is. It is a metaphor, if you will.
Absolutely you know, you know, we a few years ago we changed the name from Rocklin the pend the Living Center to Bridges. In fact, we didn't really change it. Rocklin Dependent Living Center is still our legal name. The DBA is Bridges doing business as is an add on you can tie into the legal name of any business, and we did that because Bridges was synonymous with the
work we did. It's sort of bridging the gap or connecting people to the right resources, or getting folks from a place where they didn't achieve independence to achieve independence.
And that's where we hope the add on or the name change was able to do, is to give people the clarity on what Rocketing and the Pendolic Center did, because most of the time we were confused with and assisted living facility, a nursing home at times, even a hospital we got one time, and that's not what we do are it's actually against our very charter as a nonprofit and it's as a center for independent living to
provide any housing. Our work is community based. It's to help people find the resources the housing that they need in the community and or to fight to make it available if it's not, so that people with disabilities have the opportunity to live with dignity in the community. So Bridges was a way to broaden the you know, the ideation and the perspective in the community of who we
are so that people understood what we did. And hopefully Bridges does a little bit of that, and if not, then Rocket Independent Living Center is just that, it's a center that enhances independent living and that's what our purpose is. In the community is to help people achieve independence. For anyone who walks through our doors.
Well, so you mentioned doors literally to talk about it as a little bit, as a physical place, as a campus. It is a thing. It doesn't just exist in people's minds. It is a place. Talk a little bit about that.
Yeah, so you know, we're located here in the palis State Center Mall for those who don't know, and it's you know, it's our home base. We used to be located in New City and Route forty five in New Hampstead if people might be aware of that area. But you know, we we thought a lot and hard about where our next location would be and it you know, it may have come to a surprise a lot of people when we moved to the Palistate Center Mall, but it was one of the best decisions we made as
an organization for a number of reasons. Number one, the mall is central in the county and you can reach the mall from any point in the county through public transportation if you took the bus, and also the roads to get to the mall as well. You know, if you're driving, it's it's a pretty easy road down whichever whether you're in Harvestrow or Suffern or Niak. And it made it that much more accessible for people with disabilities who were looking to connect with us and receive our services.
We thought it was going to be an issue at first, because you know, we thought, you know, who wants to go to the mall?
We know the kind of a commercial kind of feel to it. It's like, what are we what are we selling here?
Quote unquote right, And then you also have the public image of the mall that's not the greatest at the moment, you know, with where it's.
Going rebating and the emptiness and yes.
Absolutely, you know, but the reality is it's central location. It's one of the most accessible locations as long as the technology works and uh and and it has been a really amazing place for us to meet and garner support from our community members and garner support from other And it's here in the mall. I mean, we have a great relationship with Target, with Macy's and some other storefronts near us that have never known about us and now wants to support the work that we do.
And that's been a very you could place, how convenient you could place clients for work there?
If yeah, Wow, and that's exactly what's happened. I mean, for employment purposes, we've helped folks achieve employment goals here in the mall and in various locations. So yeah, to your point, Frank, it has been such a fruitful relationship. And the mall management, you know, has been a good partner to us, truthfully, and that's been something that has been helpful for us as well.
Carl, you mentioned your wide range of services. Let's talk about the people who take advantage of those services. Tell us a little bit about your clients and the range of clients that you actually see there. Yeah.
Absolutely, you know, it's there's a misno more about organizations like ours, uh, disability service or organizations. We serve the whole gamut of disability, right, so the youngest to the oldest disabilities. You don't see disabilities. You see cognitive mental health, uh, chronic medical conditions, you name it. Uh. And and the other part of it is that it doesn't matter if
you're rich or poor either. At the end of the day, if you have a disability and you have a need and you have questions and you need support, we're here for you. Uh. And that's the beauty of our organization. It was founded by people with disabilities, and to and to this day, more than half of our governing board are people with disabilities, more than half of our staff are people with disabilities. And that's intentional because that was my next.
Question, But both do both? And what are your clients like? What are your employees like? But but please continue, I want to develop that a little bitco That's exactly right.
It's intentional because you know there has been you know, I'm a licensed social worker, and let even licensed social workers know the value of the peer approach. You know, there's value in someone who has been there, done that, has has understood the challenges that life is brought because of a disability, and now it's helping you walk through that process. There's nothing better than having a peer that's
helping you do that. And I've seen it in every area of our services, including our vision services, where we have folks who are coming in for help, who are developing some level of blindness or impairment to their vision and they're walking through this process through the help of folks who understand and there's nothing more empowering and more encouraging when they're meeting with folks and then getting the help they need the way that they need it. And
that's where the peer approach is so valuable. And that's what our independent living centers are known for. It's the peer approach. And even with the social workers, and there's values in the psychiatrists and the social workers, and we make those referrals as needed, you know. There the our organizations thrive on the peer approach, and every grant and program and service that we provide, uh comes with that that angle in mind.
Yeah, I'm sure at a daily basis, you get and see inspirational things, you get inspiration. Is there one in particular that that sticks out in your mind that really inspires you and kind of captures the message of bridges? Can you share that with us? Or or more than one?
Oh my goodness, there's so many.
I'm sure if there might be one or two whatever, that's something that really what just the top.
Of your head right away, I'll share, I'll shore, I'll share a couple. You know, they're the Our organization's mission is obviously achieving independence. As I mentioned earlier, is it's helping folks achieve independence. The one of the staples of what we do as a center for independent living. It is is sort of going against the traditional model of healthcare that has existed for so long in the nursing
home arena. You know, I am a person. This is just my personal opinion that nursing home is an antiquated environment of healthcare and that it needs to be updated substantially. I mean, I've worked in a nursing home as a social worker, and I don't have anything good to say about it. In many ways, it vegetates perfectly capable brains to something that of a of a young child, and it's disheartening to see when you see that interaction, and it's it's.
Been on the other I've been on just to chair with I've been on the other side with the f family member. It's they're not generally speaking, they're not pleasant places, and they're not conducive to good living. But please continue starts. It's got to add that I'm relating totally to what you're saying.
Absolutely. I mean, as humans, we thrive on connection and community building, and unfortunately, in nursing home facilities it doesn't happen as often as it should, and too often, because of underpaid workers and funding, it becomes scarce, you know, and that's that's dangerous for the human personality. And so independent Living Centers have made it a mission to get people out of nursing homes and back into the community
with the right resources. And so we have one of our staff members, her name is Katricia, who works hand in hand in working with folks that are in nursing homes and getting them out of there and back in their own place. And we have a couple of stories there that are inspirational where folks have been in the nursing home for eighteen months, two years, three years, waiting
to get out and back into the community. They're there, you know there, you know, their somber expressions, their their their frustrations and being in the nursing home and not wanting to be there for much longer. You know, it gets to you and and I and I've seen the work that Katricia has done to make sure that they feel encouraged to empower them. Hey, we have more a couple more steps here to go to get you out. We're working with you and the beauty is when we
finally get them out. We have established an apartment, we have furniture that we have purchased for them all included a part of this program and grant that we're a part of, and and finally seeing their face when they're walking into their apartment for the first time, knowing that this is their home now in the community that they're in, is one of the most precious things that that we
see every single time. You know, we want one transition from a nursing home to the community is an amazing thing, and we get to do several throughout the year, which is awesome. And then another one I'll share on the side of our veterans. We have a Veterans Department services that we provide to our veterans with PTSD traumatic brain injuries.
You know, we had an individual. You know, our veterans do walks in the mall, you know, and they scale all different levels of the floors of the mall to do several miles and do that together as a point of camaraderie and point of building connection and getting working with each other and avoiding isolation. We had a veteran that was stuck in their home. We got reports and a referral. He was stuck in his home for for months. He wouldn't come out the individual never reached out to us,
but we got calls from friends and family. When we went to go visit the veteran, it was one of the most scariest circumstances. So you can imagine the veteran was sitting on his couch with a gun right next to his couch on a table. You know, we know the veterans suicide. I mean, I think the numbers twenty two or something of that nature, every every hour, every day.
It's atrocious, yes, And this program under the Veterans Department called the Joseph P. Dwyer, named after a medic veteran Army veteran who is known for and his pictures all over. He's saving a young boy but comes back home without an ability to transition to civilian life and unfortunately dealing with his own demons and mental health, and you know, overdoses and loses his life at trash.
To Carlos, my brother in law, my sister's husband, a medic in Vietnam, the exact exactly. So I am so relating to what So forgive me for interrupt but I just had to so emotional for me to hear. These are real people, real stories. But please continue on the pop citive side here please.
Yeah, no, and Frank, please interrupt whatever, you know, But I.
Just wanted to share with you that we're out.
There definitely, you know. And that's something that the Dwire program strives to do every single day, is to is to eliminate veteran suicide the best way we can. So in that circumstance, our team went in and saw this individual, was able to have a really good conversation with him to get him from that dark place. And it didn't take long before now that veteran is not walking with the group of veterans every week here at the mall,
you know. And it was so inspiring to see that because who else could have done that, aside from the brothers and sisters that served alongside in the military. Knowing his circumstances, knowing what he's going through his head, there was nothing better than to have folks go in and help him get out of that dark place. And that's
what the Dyre program does every day. I mean, we work with justice involved veterans, veterans that are involved at the police or involved or you know, incarcerated or you know, or have mental health breakdowns. And our team is going out there called by a call to help support these veterans and let them know they're not alone, that they're here to help support them, and to just connect, just
to talk. You know, even if it's just as simple as that, it's all that's needed to help, you know, undo a burden and help hopefully bring some healing to that veteran.
He just answered part B of my next question, which were the rewards, which are pretty obvious and if you can see people can't see us, they can only hear us. But the smile that comes to you say, knowing that you do have successes. But of course with the success there are challenges. It's not easy. It can't be. Obviously you're dealing with people who have difficult it's become your difficulties. What would you say that personally and professional? What are
the greatest challenges that you fix? Yeah?
Absolutely, I mean I think the challenges you know, and and I hate to say this, but it's it always boils down to how do we get this job done right if if we don't have the funding for it.
You know, we're going to talk about that after the break in detail.
Please it now, please definitely, you know, and I think that's one challenge that impacts us as a nonprofit and is not uncommon to every nonprofit out there, you know. And I think the other challenge is making sure that people know that we're here right every time we hear of a veteran losing their life, every time we hear that a person with a disability couldn't get out of a nursing home and ended up passing away there, every time we hear of someone losing their job because they
weren't afforded the opportunity towards reasonable accommodations. Those are areas where we just wish and hope we could be known to these people before these circumstances reach that point, uh, and where we could be a guiding voice and support. That's why, that's why our services is not just for individuals. It's for businesses too. Businesses can reach out to us and say, hey, you know, I'm hiring folks, some folks have disabilities. How do I work with these individuals to
make sure they're set up for success? And you know, and and and it takes a lot to do that because as a business owner, we understand you've built something that you want to grow. We understand that it's your baby, and you know who is ever anybody else to tell you what to do right right? But at the end of the day, you're hiring humans. We're all humans, and we all have needs, and we all have desires, and we all have dreams, and you know you can't fulfill those,
but you can work with us. And working with each other just helps you become that much better of a of a boss, of a leader, of a business owner that cares for its community. And you're not we're not talking about giving things away, but but working with folks at their level and where they need it is just one step and becoming a more accessible and even an inclusive employer.
So a perfect segue, I asked one.
Uh oh, I love your sweater. I'm I'm a graduate.
And I can't see I got my fore, I got my forum, my forum, sweat, my fordum swag. We knew we had a lot in common.
Before even I got my master's. There it's great.
I just actually I thought last night my teaching day is and Monday evenings at Lincoln awesome, Uh, Carl, I I like I like to put my guests on the spot before a commercial break with rhetorical question, and for you today is and I think it's really related very much to our conversation into what you said. Do you feel people today with especially with the internet, the way we exchange both good and bad. Are we more or less tolerant? You've been doing this for a while, what's
your feeling. Are we getting better at it or are we getting worse?
Yeah, that's a great question, Frank. Wow. You know, here's what I do know. I think I think people are learning, but I also think people are talking past each other. And that's probably one of the biggest challenges we have
as a society. And and while we're learning, like we're you know, Bridges is out there at every school district, every school district, and we're sharing the different types of disabilities that exist and why it's so important not to discriminate and and not to bully your your neighbor or your friend because of a disability. It's a natural part of the human existence. We're imperfect human beings. We're bound to have disabilities.
You know.
We need to make the world a little more accessible, and we need to make sure that we treat our brothers with and sisters with respect and with dignity. So there's there's a lot more of that happening, and I think it's it's happening for the better, which is great, but I think we still do have a challenge where instead of talking with and for one another, we're talking past each other and that doesn't help unfortunately. And so so we have, you know, another one. On hand, we're
learning and and education is getting out there. And on the other hand, there's a communication problem I think in our society and that that has to get better.
So we needed some intelligent conversation. I get a little I get a little plug in there, Carlson. Seriously, that's always been our mission here is let's talk about it. All points of view are welcome if you can talk about it, and I think you know it's it's worth stating and not just as a promotional thing. Carls. We're going to take a break when we come back more to talk about and you mentioned funding federal cuts, how you're dealing with that. I know you've got a lot
of projects going on. We got to talk about that and how people can contact you, use your services, help your services. A lot more to go, so I know I have you there. You can't go anywhere remind our audience not to go anywhere. This has been an absolutely terrific informative show. My very special guest is Carlos Martinez. He's the CEO and executive director of Bridges formerly still
the Brockland Independent Living Center. This is Being Frank. I'm your host, Franklbono, back with more right after these brief commercial messages. Don't go anywhere yet.
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Welcome back to Being Frank, the Intelligent conversation podcast. Thanks for sticking with us. I'm your hosts Frank Ubono and as always our engineer as the mailman, mister Neil Richter. We bring our audience a fresh topic every week and we stream from Hudson River Radio, located and beautiful and historic Stony Point, New York. But remember you can catch Being Frank anywhere you get your favorite podcasts like Apple, Spotify,
iHeartRadio and all the others. And because every Being Frank is archived, you can listen to any of our programs anytime you like. You can find a link to Being Frank on the Hudson River Radio Facebook page or at our website Hudsonriverradio dot com. Just click and you're there. Welcome back, everyone to being Frank. I'm your host, Frank Lebono. Our very special guest is Carlos Martinez. He's the chief executive officer and executive director of the Rockland Independent Living Center,
which is also known aka as Bridges. We're having a wonderful conversation. We found out we have so much in common, and we're going to continue conversation, including our Fordham University connection. That's the story for another day. Carlos, you mentioned a little bit. I mean you have a place to run and that requires funding money. Where do you get your funding? How are you funded? And with that in mind, we know what's happening cuts in federal spending just about everywhere.
So if you're relying on that, how are you going to make up for that difference? But first, how are you funded and how are you going to go forward?
Yeah? Absolutely, you know, part of our financial struggle already came unfortunately this past year. Our largest funding funded program is through our state Medicaid program, which allows people with disabilities to live at home and hire their own family member or friend to take care of them. It's called
CDPAP or Consumer Director Personal Assistance. We've been doing that as a nonprofit for over twenty six seven years, and this past year, unfortunately, our governor changed it and removed the program from over three hundred providers and gave it to one statewide entity to run it. It was a
very frustrating process. We were involved in a lot of advocacy in lawsuits because we felt that it was the wrong The intention was to save the state money and and even to this day, since the one organization has taken over, we haven't seen the fruits of that. We haven't seen the savings, and so we are, you know, we're we're in the process of adjusting to that because that was unfortunately seventy five percent of our budget. Wow, and we lost that entire thing.
Wow.
And as difficult as that was, we had to make pivots and some changes and restructure a little bit. And we're still in the industry. We're still providing services under under contract with the entity that took over. But we are hoping that we see things change for the better and not for the worse as has been witnessed to this day with the changeover.
What are some of the things that you can do, Carlos, What might I mean, that's seventy five percent have your funding. That's an extraordinary amount of money to try to make up.
How can you do that?
Yeah?
Absolutely, I mean we took a strategic step a couple of years to go to add another area of service that's very similar to that one. So from a business perspective, what we decided to do was add similar program funded by a different industry altogether. And so from CDPAP we added a program called VDC Veteran Directed Care, and that program does the same thing where it allows veterans to hire a family member or friend and someone they trust and they get paid through this program that is funded
by the VA. And so it's a little bit different where through CDPATH we were funded by state dollars, where with the VDC program, we're now funded by VA dollars.
Now that could always come into play at the federal level in next year's budget and we'll see what happens, but at this time, making adding that program has helped offset a little bit of these changes to allow us to repurpose, allow staff to you know, uh, to work for the VDC program so that don't they don't lose their jobs and repurpose some administrative structure so that we have support for that program as well. And that program has grown substantially within the last two years that we've
had it. But even with that, we've lost I mean we you know, in the in the department that we have for the CDPAT program, we lost about seven staff altogether over the course of the last year.
Uh.
And you know, and and while we did lose that, we also gained you know, because we had we gained new grants with creating new contracts, you know, at county and state levels to provide services uh the way that we do in different ways for the community. But you know, to answer your question even further, we're not just funded by Medicaid dollars. We're also funded by state grant dollars, by county dollars, grant dollars that support all the different
areas and facets of our organization. Whether we're serving people involved in the justice system and coming out of incarceration re entering the community, or we're serving people who are blind or visually impaired, or we're serving our veterans these are all grant dollars that come from the state and some county dollars to help support the work that we do in the community. And so at the federal level, we don't know exactly based on what we've seen, how
that's going to impact us. We're sort of waiting and seeing. We're sort of in that period of time. But you know, as as an as a nonprofit, we're businesses and we you know, we take that approach of making sure that we can protect the business and make sure that we
can protect our organization long term. And we're doing that by making decisions that helped respond help I guess what I mean is help put us in a position so that we're not responding, but we're proactive in dealing with these potential situations that can put any nonprofit at risk of closing your doors.
Now, you mentioned your community involvement. What about the community's involvement with you? How do people get involved with bridges or do you accept donations? In other words, how do people become in.
Froned with absolutely? I mean that's you know, there's never been a more pivotal time to help nonprofits and the work that we do. I mean there's a there's a really absorbit in number out there that if nonprofits didn't do the work that they did, the costs that the government would have to dish out to do it would be astronomically higher.
I know Diane's sarritory of people people for your regular guests, she she regularly harps on that why are we always doing the government's job without us? But police continue to mean.
That's exactly right. I mean, there's there's the perspective here that has to be viewed by the community that if the nonprofit organization, these businesses didn't do the job that we were doing, it would cost the government twice, if not three times as much to do it.
Uh.
And so there's value in having us. We also provide jobs, you know, we also provide career opportunities, and so you know, your support there's you know, the community support is really optimal and really uh, you know, amazing, and the way that people are involved with the organization. They we have corporate donors that donate on an annual an annual basis, we have individuals that donate to specific programs to help us with our shortfalls, and we have individuals that are
involved even from the point of volunteering. We have a program called the Chore Program where if you're a handy person, we will send you to a person. So I'm a senior or a personal disability who needs help perhaps putting a light bulb or taking out the air conditioner for the winter season, or any small handyman work that could be done reasonably. We have volunteers that go out and do that and they are phenomenal in helping folks stay safe in their home.
Tell us you know, I understand you have a number of current projects that Bridges is involved with. Tell us about them in some detail. Please.
Oh, absolutely, Yeah, we have an extraordinary project that I'm excited to talk about.
You know.
One of the issues, there's two main issues with housing in general. Right everybody knows affordability is an issue with house. The other issue that people don't talk about as often is the fact that housing there isn't enough accessible housing. When you think about the only accessible housing that exists are for seniors and senior housing or low income housing in summers in some ways and not always or have accessible units. But at the end of the day, we're
really doing a disservice to our community. When we don't really talk about that at the same time as we are with affordability issues. And it doesn't mean that everything that's accessible has to be affordable, although everything affordable should be accessible. But the idea is that, and I like to share it this way, right, I have a board member who is a wheelchair user, and he said to me, Carlos, I'm not poor. I just can't find housing that's accessible,
you know. And so for him, he have to buy home and then retrofit it or add on to it and completely spend money that he doesn't want to spend to get a home built so that it meets his needs. And so what we're doing right now in New City, we bought a house and we are we brought it down to its foundation and we're going to rebuild it
with universal design principles. What universal design principles speak of and have to do is is to design spaces to ensure that the largest body of people can access it. So let me give you an example. Right accessibility only goes so far. The ADEA, the Americans of Disabilities Act, is the law that enacted that every public place should be accessible to people disabilities. Right, you should have ramps.
You should have doorways that are accessible, right. It doesn't go into the residential realm.
Right.
So universal design number one is taking away the stigma that is related to accessibility and disability, because too many people think disability or accessibility, and they're asking us, are you building a group home? Are you building a nursing home? And we're going no, that's not the point of universal design.
I said, think simpler. Think a parent with their stroller, right, how much more convenient would it be for them to be able to get in their front door without having to go up any steps, to allow their stroller to access easily, right, or maybe even their one or two year old that's walking now that they don't have to worry about a step and the potential of getting injured. Right. Think about a grandparent that's coming to visit you that
can't go up flight of steps. A universally designed home takes into account all these different scenarios, not just a wheelchair user, not just a person who's blind or visually impaired, or death or heart of hearing, or someone with down syndrome, or someone who's autistic. Right, we're talking about the entirety of our community and the idea that a thirty four inch doorway is good for anyone, and that a ramp or no step entry is good for anyone, or levers
instead of doorknobs is good for anyone. Right, it's if you think about it this way, we think about uh, there'sn't There's a really cool image online and if you if you, if you're hearing it, and you can google it. There's an you can google image of of of janitor shoveling the snow in front of the school, and you'll find an image that clearly shows that this person is
shoveling the steps first and not the ramp. And a student in a wheelchair goes to the janitor and said, well, why didn't you shovel the ramp first, And the janitor just says, I'm I'm just trying to get the snow off the steps so that these students could get in. And then she responds saying, but if you shovel the ramp, we can all get in. That's that's universal design. It doesn't. It's not about treating someone more special. It's about making
sure that everybody has access at the same time. So simple, it's so simple, and that's what universal design is and what we're doing with this house, and we're going to showcase this so we can the community has a chance to come in and see it, because there'll be things that are so simple in practice that you wouldn't have known as part of the universal design concept, because people have a tendency to go too far into a normalized way of thinking where everything has to look a certain way,
like it has to look like a nursing home, or it has to be a group on me if you're building it with accessibility. Now, we want more inventory of homes to be available that have universal design principles build in place, so that if you or I wanted to buy the house, Frank, we could. It doesn't mean we
have to be disabled to buy it. It just means that if one day we have a party and we have a friend, that friend who uses a wheelchair or a friend who uses crutches, maybe temporarily disabled, they would be able to access the home just as well as we do. And that's the whole idea, and maybe we acquire this ability later in age. The home is built
for us. It's truly a forever home, as they like to call it, right and that's the idea is to showcase what this means so that we can advocate for more homes to be built with these principles at the very least the first level of each home, so that people can live there with dignity and not have to build out or move out in order to find something that meets their needs.
You know, it's kind of funny, not funny, but getting of the age. And my partner Amanda is starting to suggest that maybe we'll start looking for a single floor place. So again, you know, it's it's you know, say, it's kind of tongue and cheek, but there's a certain level
of seriousness to that. Absolutely, at a certain point as you age, do you want to be dealing with a bunch of stares so that you know it's a simple thing and it doesn't necessarily instead of separating us from those who are so called disabled, it's something we really kind of share exactly. Yes, closed, what does you see as the future for places like bridges and for people who to use your services?
Yeah, I mean we you know, well, I guess our vision for the future is that we have a more barrier free society, you know, and that's that's really what our vision is actually, you know, and the and and we hope that through the work that we're doing more and more that Rockland. You know, if there's any place that could be the leader in universal design and accessibility and equity for people with disabilities, it's Rocke And I
mean it's in the name, It's rock Land. You know, it's one of the most hilliest, rockiest places here in the Hudson Valley region. And the more that we could show the rest of the state and even the country that regardless of landscape, we can be more universally designed. Uh, that would be the dream. I mean, that would be the goal ultimately.
Uh.
And so and I know that we can do it. We can and hopefully this house can be an example of the future. And and and maybe even incentivizing legislation for builders that they can be incentivized if they build with universal design principles. That's what we want to have happened, so that there's more availability of places that meets the needs of anybody who wants to live in it. And uh, and yeah, I mean for for bridges, I mean, uh, you know, I see as growing we have ideas to
expand as an organization to help smaller nonprofits. You know, I think the day and age is coming where nonprofits really have to work together and collaborate.
Great great point offing made and mentioned Diane Servitor from People with People. Oh yeah, that if you created synergy, that's a great point to be made.
I'm sorry, there's a reason why I love Diane. You know, we think we do very well. No, we all, she really is awesome and uh, you know so I absolutely agree with that. You you know, we we have a responsibility to thrive as organizations. We don't have to try
and survive all the time. If we have partnerships and collaborations that work, you know, we can we can work together and do it right so that we're not constantly trying to chase after uh, and that we're thriving instead and doing the work that we've been wanting to do for the community. And we do it there. You know,
there's different ways to do it. Our way of doing it is through sort of a management management a service management organization model which allows smaller nonprofits to collaborate work with us under a management agreement where we can provide the administrative supports, payroll, HR and all that and allow folks to do what they're experts in and so they
don't have to worry about the rest. And so that's the type of thing we're building and right now and and I'm looking forward to that for the future.
Okay, let's talk about how people can contact Bridges. You websites, phone numbers, whatever you choose to give. How can people get in touch with you and.
Bridges Absolutely, I mean, first and foremost, check out our website. It has it's it's uh got great level of information and detail on our programs. You know, We're fortunate in the way that people donate to us, you know, because they meet our organization, they see what we do, and they always have a favorite, you know, Like we have donors that love to give towards our vision services. We have donors that love to give towards our veteran services, you know, and and so that's the beauty of who
we are. There's an area that that hits home for you, you know, check out our website and you can give towards that programming, you know, so that it can help us with any areas of shortfalls or any areas of support that we need. But you know, our website is www dot bridges RC dot org. You can visit us there or you call out. You know, I'm always here
in the office. You can talk with me. You can talk to some of our team members our numbers eight four five six two four one three six six and uh yeah, I'd love to talk to anybody who wants to get to know more about us, understand what we do and how they can support well.
Carlos Martinez, CEO and executive director of Bridges, we want to thank you for being frank with us in your tallent conversation today and for talking with us today. It was really great. I really learned a lot. I really did.
Thank Yeah.
Some of the things so simple and yet so sublime and singing effective. We do our best to make them happen.
Yeah. Sometimes we overthink things as humans, and we have to remember that. You know, with the right support of the right guidance, things can be a lot simpler than we imagine than to be great terrific. You know.
We offer special thanks to our listeners as well. They take time to give us the voice in their lives. We offer fresh topic just about every week and catch us wherever and whenever you get your favorite podcasts that includes Apple, Spotify, iHeartRadio, Speaker and all the rest. Check us out on the Hudson River Radio Facebook page. Like us, leave us a comment, and consider sharing a podcast with others. That's how we get the word out. We would appreciate that,
you know. Always leave you with the last two little things. Some original music and we'll have that in just a moment. But before that, a little slogan, something to kind of fit with our conversation today. And who better to go to than Nelson Mandela when he said for to be free is not merely to cast off one's chains, but to live in a way that respects and enhances the freedom of others. Okay, so there it is, all right. Some original music from my friend Ria Vogel and her band.
They're terrific. They're called the Scoop and it's a song about overcoming obstacles. It's called Another Sunrise. Hey for our engineer, he's the mail man, mister Neil Richter. I'm your host, Frank Lobono, and we hope to have you join us on the next being Frank, We're the only way to be is Frank. Thanks everyone, good.
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