HAGÅTÑA (The Guam Daily Post) — A step forward has been taken for people with disabilities in establishing an independent living council on Guam, which will one day open the doors to an independent living center on the island.
The Statewide Independent Living Council, or SILC, is part of the Guam State Plan for Independent Living, or SPIL, which serves as the blueprint for promoting future advances in independent living on the island for individuals with disabilities – the first step is establishing the SILC.
“So the statewide plan is to kind of give the federal side of the house, the grantors, an idea of what we want to do to incorporate a council. And from the council we’ll be able to hopefully have a nonprofit organization apply for a grant for an independent living center,” Michelle Perez, director of the Department of Integrated Services for Individuals with Disabilities, told The Guam Daily Post.
While establishing an independent living center is in the future, right now, a draft SPIL has been put together delineating the objectives intended to establish the council formally.
“This includes the selection and comprehensive training of council members. Furthermore, the Guam SILC will actively seek collaboration with other states and territories for assistance in center establishment, the adoption of bylaws and procedures, and the assimilation of best practices prevalent in the independent living paradigm,” the draft SPIL said.
“What we did is, we spoke to an individual that is out in California, and she’s trying to introduce us to other councils and independent centers out in California. But we are also trying to partner up with Saipan because they also have an independent living center and a council,” Perez said.
But this first year is focused on goals to establish the council, Perez said, as one has not been in place since 2017.
“With that being said, we just needed to get the state plan in so that way we could get the funding to start training individuals who are going to be a part of the council, so we can kind of know what the council’s roles and responsibilities are,” Perez said.
The council will consist of a minimum of five council members.
“We are going to need people who have disabilities because they are the center, of course, maybe a guardian or parent of an individual with disabilities, some other community partners, perhaps an advocate, or someone that provides services with individuals with disabilities,” Perez said.
A community virtual meeting was held Friday to introduce the draft SPIL and its objectives, she said, and the input received was positive.
“They felt that because it’s basically trying to establish a council, they are very happy with the fact that we are trying to get this up and running. There was a lot of interest in eventually trying to get the center running,” Perez said.
Online registry
The meeting also touched on expanding the emergency online registry for individuals with disabilities.
“The other objective was to reestablish and to revamp and improve the registry for individuals with disabilities, like the islandwide registry and online registry and also improve the disaster preparedness,” Perez said.
The SPIL aims to promote the independent living network by disseminating information to people attending at least two community fairs. Organizers hope to be able to accomplish this by June 2024.
Department of Integrated Services for Individuals with Disabilities Director Michelle Perez, left, testifies during a public hearing Tuesday, May 2, 2023, at the Guam Congress Building in Hagåtña.
