2015, 06-017, Committee on People with Disabilities Minutes

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a way to help. But then it’s still not enough. There are too many people with different disabilities in various places making it hard to do. J. Floyd stated that when events happen, follow-up is always a challenge. It is important to allow the community to provide input about what was done well, what can be improved, what services and supports were lacking, and also allow the agencies involved in the emergency the opportunity to share with the community the events, the things that they did and seek input. In the future, it also allows for better training, not only the emergency responders but also the citizens that live in a certain area that has the emergency. Events are opportunities to grow as a community and to leverage your resources. Dr. Alameda summarized it by saying there is a small pocket of people that nobody is covering, not the churches, not the community, not the neighbors or buddy system. It seems like not all family and friends are going to come to the aid of somebody with a disability. They have their own to take care of. That’s the one group that we need to worry about. Update from Gena Avilla Regarding Kona Representation. G. Avilla In Kona, meets with the National Federation for the Blind. The group was very excited and interested in the committee, but transportation is definitely a problem for all of them. They are not able to travel to Hilo to represent. S. Nagasawa informed Kimo that everyone is from the Hilo side, but the committee does represent Kona too. According to Laura, in the past, the committee did meet in Kona every couple of months. The locations were rotated. Hilo would go to Kona with a van or with whatever vehicle that was available. The Kona representative moved to Waikoloa and later resigned. Basically, the problems were transportation, housing and accessibility, same as the Hilo side. A few names were suggested as new members – Joshua Pratt and Larry Scandon. NEW BUSINESS Introduction of Executive on Aging, C. Kimo Alameda, Ph.D. Dr. Alameda introduced himself and gave a brief history. He started with the Office of Aging on April 1. He came from Adult Mental Health. He is a psychologist. Before that he was at Children’s Mental Health. He worked alongside with Development Disabilities. For a while he was a school counselor, then a special education teacher. Then he worked with the State Adult Mental Health and for the last five years in the Office of Health Equity. He has been always a fighter for people on the margins. He’s just happy to be in this position advocating for people with disabilities, and people who are older adults, our kupuna. He has seven children of his own, all from the same wife. They are all two years apart, the first went off to college and the last entered kindergarten. 3