Instead Of California Deaf Agencies Crying Over Budget Cuts......

The above video is not captioned, however, the one below is captioned!



Here I'm at GLAD ( Greater Los Angeles Agency on Deafness ) the west part of the GLAD building. The building behind me is vacant. I only wish deaf agencies will stop crying about budget cuts. They should create new revenue sources than crying for money. Behind me, for example, is vacant can be used as a group home for deaf people with other disabilities. The state I know pays a lot of money for it. Why not GLAD create ideas on how to make up for the government cuts instead of crying about budget cuts.

( Added Commentary )

I have a group home and I'm in the process of buying a triplex and another apartment to expand the group home. The hospital OCDAC partners with keeps calling us they have more deaf people that need placement in group homes. The financial incentives are huge for these types of projects.

GLAD can use that building to take in deaf people with other disabilities and it'll not only create additional revenue, it'll create jobs and job experience for deaf people. Also costs of operating can be brought further down through the use of volunteers and recycled building materials that can be obtained for free. Furthermore, the residents themselves can be trained to produce things that could be sold to raise additional revenue. I believe I'm not going to be the first person to be telling everyone that more than half of the GLAD building itself is very under-utilized by it's current leadership.

Another source of new revenue is our foodstand trailer and we're working with the fairgrounds to place it at events almost every weekend. You can see that at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DB2iEThSHzw and at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nIv5Q1QR7Bs as our positive examples.

The point in this blog post is you see we're not even crying over budget cuts even though were going to be affected, INSTEAD, were using our time, resources, and energies in developing new revenue sources.

I just wish that the larger deaf agencies would rise up from their semi-vegetable state of mind and innovate new revenue sources instead of crying over budget cuts.

Richard

P.S. Someone really needs to tell Scott Hostetler, a past GLAD president, to fix his coughing problem!

Deaf and Deafblind Make Aromatherapy Pillows

Aromatic pleasure you can rest your head on.

We can stuff empty sofa pillow casings with freshly harvested mountain Laurel Sumac leaves for the the fresh mountain smell in your room. These are done by deaf people with other disabilities in our group home.

Here in the video above you can see Cam and Sharky plucking leaves off the branches

A lotta work went into this small pillow. Harvest starts with a 45 mile drive to the hills. Quality branches are harvested. They're cleaned out, plucked, and stuffed into pillow casings by hand. We offer them in different sizes.

These are then sold through websites and swapmeets the money goes to the upkeep of the group home helping make it affordable to the disabled people in an upscale area.

Here's another great video of my aromatherapy pillow http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=teLZDpGZ7J8

Richard

Deaf Blog/vloggers Blinded By Super-sensationalism?

By looking at the great comments I received for my public service announcement video, it is safe to suggest that the sensationalism over a superbowl exposure has made the deaf communities very blind to a key issue in one of their groundbreaking lawsuits.

I'm gonna let you great deafreaders digest it on your own.

Richard

If you have an ADA Title II & III complaint, FILE IT YOURSELF!

Lets not rely on the larger deaf organizations. The recent settlement one such organization got for us actually cheapened the value of the deaf community.

The link to the forms/procedures are right here;

Title II : http://www.ada.gov/t2cmpfrm.htm

Title III : http://www.ada.gov/t3compfm.htm

Improve the value of the deaf community, file the complaints yourself!

Dont make the mistake of selling out the deaf community though these large deaf organizations!

Richard Roehm

Response to Possibility of CSDF Closure

This is my response to
http://fordeafkids.wordpress.com/

I vividly remember Dr. Rachel Stone and the great news she made.

I remember she had little desire to support the disabled at CSDR. Thats is why she made the great news.

Maybe they don't like the old guard deaf synergy that has made CSDF their stronghold so they decide to pull the plug on the whole school.

Thats very appropriate to teach the California deaf coalition a hard lesson for not embracing diversity in the first place.



Richard Roehm