ROUGH EDITED COPY
NATIONAL CONFERENCE ON DISABILITY
INCLUSION & NATIONAL SERVICE
BREAKFAST PLENARY
BOB WILLIAMS & Santa Perez
8:00 A.M. EST
DECEMBER 9, 2005
CAPTIONING PROVIDED BY:
CAPTION FIRST, INC.
PO BOX 1924
LOMBARD, IL
60148
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This is being provided in a rough-draft format.
Communication Access Realtime Translation (CART) is
provided in order to facilitate communication accessibility
and may not be a totally verbatim record of the proceedings
* * * *
>> Bob Williams:
Our first panelist is Santa Perez
from AmeriCorps VISTA in Nevada. Santa is originally from
Southern California where she earned her bachelor's in
psychology at Cal State Northridge. She has lived
independently in Las Vegas for six years with her young
son.
Before joining VISTA, Santa worked as a computer
instructor, then as an advocate. She likes helping people
to learn about their rights and to become better Nevada
citizens. Santa, it's really great to have you with us.
Please begin.
(Applause)
>> SANTA PEREZ: As Bob said my name is Santa Perez. I
have been with AmeriCorps VISTA for two years. And I'm
going on my third year. And when I moved to Nevada there
was no self-advocacy. And I knew I had to change that. I
was very active in people first in California. I know it
had to happen in Nevada.
I tried to start a people first on my own, but it failed
after a year. And after that I went into partners and
policy meeting. It was a wonderful program, and I met Mary
Bryant. After scaring her we became good friends. After
that, Mary worked for the university in Reno. I got a call
from her saying she was going to start a VISTA program
about people first.
And she wanted to hire me. Yeah! Yeah!
(Laughter)
(Applause)
I feel it is very important that all people have a voice
in their life no matter what their rights and disability
are.
VISTA has helped me grow and I've met people that have
really proven that we have a voice, we have right to be
heard.
I am also a parent, a very -- a parent of a four-yearold who is very mad at me because I'm not there. Thank
you.
(Applause)
* * * * *
This is being provided in a rough-draft format.
Communication Access Realtime Translation (CART) is
provided in order to facilitate communication accessibility
and may not be a totally verbatim record of the proceedings
* * * *