Independent Perspective 1706 with guests Stephanie Orlando and Katie Cotter on the ADA celebrations in Batavia and Niagara Falls

Host:  Welcome to Independent Perspective, a public affairs presentation of Western New York Independent Living (WNYIL). Our guests today are Stephanie Orlando, Chief Operating Officer of WNYIL and acting Director in Niagara County. And Katie Cotter, NY Connects Outreach Specialist with Independent Living of the Genesee Region (ILGR). I'm your host Ernie Churchwell, welcome to the program ladies.

Guests:  Thank you for having us. Thank you.

Host:  It's our pleasure. You're here for a similar topic to what we discussed on last week's show, which is all about the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), the single most significant civil rights legislation for people with disabilities in the nation's history and much is available online if anyone wants to hear more details, but you're bringing it to the local audiences in your respective cities. Since yours starts earlier in the day, Stephanie, what can you tell us about the open house and ADA celebration?

Guest:  All right, so we're welcoming people at our office at Independent Living of Niagara County (ILNC) at 746 Portage Road. We’ll be having events in the parking lot, and also in our offices so people can come in and get to explore our new additional space as well as our spruced up original space and get to know our programs and services that we're offering, all while celebrating and learning about the ADA. And how our services connect to that and really making sure that we understand that these rights are important and could be rolled back at any time. So, we want to make sure our community knows about them right here in our parking lot, right here in our office, easy to access, free food, fun, prizes, games. We're gonna have games, to learn history, not just like, talk at you the whole time. We're gonna make it interactive, fun, give out free stuff at all of our tables as much as we can. We have lots of resources for people. We'll be doing Narcan training, giving out free resources and information and definitely would love to have people from Niagara County and the surrounding area come check us out, learn about what we do here and build their knowledge base around the ADA.

Host:  All right, and a quick question. Narcan is of course, opioid overdose remedy that can be administered if people are concerned about that.

Guest:  Yes, we have an addiction recovery program called Addict 2 Addict and we make sure that substance use disorders are covered within the ADA. Part of our philosophy here within an independent living and want to make sure these resources are available to people.

Host:  Terrific. And you're bringing it home to the people in Niagara County and moving to the Genesee region. Katie What can you tell us what's going on in Batavia?

Guest:  Well, I can tell you that we are also going to have free food. So, come and get some free food. We're also going to have tons of fun, tons of games. We're going to have, myself and the other employees there, so that we can tell you all about our different programs. I love that I'm piggybacking off of Stephanie because she basically said everything that I would want to say. So, I'd like to just say same. But we won't be in the offices. That is one of the big differences. We are going to do ours in the park. We are doing it at Kiwanis mini park. It's at 3808 West Main Street Road, Batavia, New York 14020. And if you do plan on coming, which I hope everyone that's listening is saying to themselves, we're gonna go, we would love for you to RSVP to Kathy our receptionist at 585-815-8501 extension 400.

Host:  And what time is your event?

Guest:  Oh, almost forgot that. It is 4:00 to 6:00 p.m. on July 26. The same day but just later in the day.

Guest:  I didn’t mention our time either it's 11:00 a.m. until 2:00 p.m. in Niagara Falls. You could potentially come to both, but we are targeting our main population that we serve in each of our agencies, but we'd love to have people come out. We aren't requiring RSVP for ILNC. However, it does help. So, if people want to call 716-284-4131 and RSVP to Ryan, that would be helpful.

Host:  Thank you so much for being with us. Ladies.

Guests:  Thank you for having us.

Host:  You've been listening to Independent Perspective, a public affairs presentation of WNYIL. Our guests today were Stephanie Orlando, Chief Operating Officer of WNYIL and acting Director of ILNC. And Katie Cotter, NY Connects Outreach Specialist with ILGR. I've been your host Ernie Churchwell, and thank you for listening.