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Thank you so much Liz.
I'm here in Ann Arbor, Michigan, right in front of the Ann Arbor Center For
Independent Living.
We're going to be talking with Erin McMan, a local advocate, as well as Tom Hoatlin and
profile a new business coming out, Michigan gifts.
We've got a great interview for you today.
I'm here with Erin McMan.
Erin, how are you?
I'm doing great Zach.
Ah, well it's great to have you.
So here's the thing, I've heard a lot of great things about you, through out the
community.
Erin serves on the committee for the transportation authority, that you're also on
another committee dealing with housing and that you're on various other committees.
What I want to ask you first and foremost, just so our viewers can get to know Erin
McMan of Ann Arbor, Michigan, what is it that motivates you as a person with a disability
to be so active in advocacy for yourself and for others.
I stay very active, because I like to advocate for people.
And it's very important for other people to advocate
for themselves, strong and powerful.
So what would you say to other people that have disabilities that may not be as outgoing or
as energetic as you are about speaking out for what you need or about speaking out for the
resources that you can get, what would you say to them? What are some words of advice?
Well the reason why I fight, I would like to bring out, for an example, is like when you
go to the LSS, for your support services, you have to try like be a little bit
strong and powerful and I say that because it's about advocating and for people with
disabilities, they're afraid or scared to step in.
So that means they need the support and help. Definitely.
And what would say is a good resource for people to find those resources for that.
Could they go on the Internet? Could they look in the phone book?
I mean what would you say is the best method? The best methods are the telephone.
No problem and what would they search?
Would they search for Center for Independent Living in their area or?
That or Michigan Partners for freedom. Okay that's great.
You mentioned to me, when I talked to you a little about some other resources for
people with disabilities you mentioned something to me called a ***, which stands for
a Person centered Plan. Could can you talk, sort
of briefly, about what that is and how someone can go about setting that up.
A person Centered Plan is about an individual, yeah it's about an individual, and it's
also about what their goals are to raise the barriers and it's really important to have
a Person Centered Plan meeting because it takes a two hour long meeting. Okay.
And it's actually kind of important to start when they are like in Kindergarten
because if they wait longer - how is that process going to work? Well there you have it.
Start a *** for your child very early on and for more information on a *** and how
to start one visit Michigan Partners of Freedom dot org. Who were your role models Erin?
I mean what are the people or the influences that really sort of encouraged you
throughout your life. Well, my parents, Christa, Association for Community Advocacy.
All right, do you have any, really quickly, some words, that to live by for other
people with disabilities or anything that you sort of hold dear. I just think positive.
When I'm helping people with disabilities or working with people.
A positive attitude is definitely very important. Well, there you have it.
Think positive and continue to get involved with your community.
Erin McMan, thank you so much for joining me today on A Wider World and it has been a
pleasure. Really briefly, I was in the hotel business for ten years before my career here at
the Center. And I was managing a Comfort Inn twenty years ago in 1991 and a couple of men came
in and jumped the counter and I was shot in the base of the neck in that robbery and ended
up with a spinal cord injury from the gunshot.
So I was airlifted to U of M Hospital and why I tell you that and why it is relevant to
the CIL is that, as I was in Rehab I met a guy named Clark.
Clark came into my room and he had been in a chair for probably about ten years and
started talking about his life with a spinal cord injury in a wheelchair and at first I
didn't really want to listen to him because that wasn't going to be my life.
I wasn't going to be using a wheelchair and I was going to get surgeries and get things
stopped. And then as time went on I realized that his message was
important and what I learned from him is that he was happy.
And I found this to be strange that a guy was what that used to say confined to a
wheelchair, I realized we're not confined but from him, he had a job and he had a family,
and was happy and so from that I learned a lot about disability and I learned about
the CIL. So probably about a year after my discharge I started
volunteering here and then got hired on probably 1995 or so.
So I've been here quite awhile but I've come full circle because I'm now a counselor on
the Rehab unit. We go, the CIL has peers that go over to the hospital and meet new
patients and talk to them about our lives with spinal cord injuries.
Talk to them about the Center and really start laying out resources for them.
Where to get a van. How to make modifications in their home. Benefits that they have coming
to them. Independent living skills so you name it. They come to the Center for all those
things. So I also wanted to mention that we're a great resource
for veterans that are coming home from the wars.
Of course they have new disabilities so we see them just like any other consumer
that comes to us for services.
But we have great counselors here that work with veterans, lining up their benefits and
getting coverage and whether it be housing, transportation, employment, starting a
business, getting into sports or recreation, getting support for their family and even
getting counseling for post traumatic stress and so forth.
So we are seeing more veterans and we're hopefully going to become one of the expert spots
for them to come.
Our website, is really exciting because we have, we still call it a new website, although
it's been running now for almost two years, but we needed a fix and we definitely
got that.
We had an excellent website team of experts.
Many of them students from the University of Michigan Business School and School of
Information that helped us put it together.
But it's just an excellent resource.
We keep getting so many comments and complements from people from all over checking
it out.
But it's a great resource.
You can find out about every program that we do here.
One that I want to mention is that we do monthly gathering place tours.
And those tours are an hour-long tour of the building.
Learning about our programs but you learn about our programs not from us listing
what they are but by us talking about the people that we've worked with in that
specific program.
So we might say when we get to Independent Living, we might talk about the hospital
program.
When we get to the small development area we'll talk about somebody who's launched
a successful business.
You know last year we helped launch forty-two businesses for individuals.
We placed over a hundred people in employment, in jobs.
We raised hundreds, thousands of dollars to support the Center and our work that we do
and so our website is www dot Ann Arbor CIL dot org.
And I encourage anyone to visit that.
They're going to see it.
They're going to want to get involved.
Call us to volunteer or call us for services or just gives us a call and ask us what you
need.
A lot of times folks, will all of a sudden disability will enter their lives.
Whether they be an Aunt or an Uncle or a relative or a neighbor and they'll call and
say, "Somebody in my family was diagnosed with this." Or, "Can we come in and get
information." And they come in and their like sponges because they wan to learn as much as
they can.
And they come to us because CIL's are made up of the Board and Staff are more than fifty
percent of the folks by charter, have disabilities and so we're designing our
programs for people with disabilities by people with disabilities.
And I think that's what makes us a unique expert in the community for people with
disabilities.
This package is great.
It works for any occasion. Michigan Gifts is a joint
enterprise between the Ann Arbor CIL and the Rodnick Company.
A maker of Gourmet Fruit and Gift Baskets based in St. Clair Shores, Michigan. Their
goal is to create a company staffed by people with disabilities at the Ann Arbor CIL.
Through this initiative they will provide training and ongoing support to individuals
with disabilities. To learn more please visit Michigan Gifts dot org.