Hi, my name is Cody Rooney, I am from Amherst MA, I am a college student at Holyoke Community College where I am a health and fitness major. After HCC, I plan to go on to a four-year college and major in human services. I am involved in many programs such as PYD, Easter Seals and head manager for the Amherst High School hockey program. I am also very involved in the Native American community and travel all over the north east, I am from six nations out of NY and southern ON and QC Canada. My goal is to travel the US and Canada and share my story.

This brings me to a personal side of my life, I was born with cerebral palsy the doctor told my mom that I would never talk or walk. I do both! I am very blessed with what is going for me and I plan to keep going till I can’t anymore. I want to end with this, do not ever give up no matter what also I would like to thank you for reading this.

Click below to read more about RBG's impact on the disability community.

MASS will be offering two voting webinars with special guests during Virtual Walk week.

👇October 19, 2020 3:30 pm-4:30 pm

👇October 21, 2020 5:00 pm-6:00 pm

John Mullaly, Brian Kelly, and Melissa Beauregard continue working with WPI and University of Rhode Island on the R3 project. This project is about creating an app to learn about and report abuse.

They are looking into creating more videos to use with the app. They looked at the Awareness and Action popcorn skit and more videos about financial abuse. They are deciding how the app can be more of a learning tool or a reporting tool, or both. Because of our work with WPI, John has been asked to give a virtual yoga class to WPI students.

Pauline Bosma, Brian Kelly, and John Mullaly are the self-advocates on the Mass Rights for Change team!

We are winding down almost 3 years of work with Pathways for Change in Worcester and the Victim Rights Law Center (VRLC). We are committed to ending sexual violence and making sure survivors of sexual abuse get the support they need.

Our big focus is on connection between MASS, Pathways and VRLC.

We support and help each other. We are coming up with some great tools for self-care for all self-advocates to use, including survivors.

We are getting closer to finalizing our MASS Supported Decision Making Agreement Forms! The form is looking really good thanks to the input we got from members and our hardworking task force! We met on September 4, 15 and 23rd.

Our upcoming Task Force Meetings will be on October 14th and November 4th. If you want to get involved, contact Bridget below👇

This month we began training on coding our findings for the research project. Now we are wading into the part where we code (label with our ideas or themes) documents.

We also need to “memo,” alongside our coding. This means writing down our thoughts and questions about our coding. As you can guess we have lots of thoughts and questions! But, the really good news – eventually our thoughts and work will be part of published research.

Our regional group continues to have member presentations at our meetings. In September, John Mullaly made an awesome power point, sharing some favorite childhood memories. He chose “Country Roads” as a theme song. We are amazed at the things John has done, from being born premature to receiving state recognition with a proclamation at “John Mullaly Day!" DDS Central/West Regional Director Anthony Keane attended a regional meeting in September as our guest. He listened and responded thoughtfully as we talked about the budget, COVID-19 changes, visiting rights and policies, group home rules, service coordinators, transportation, working and getting new jobs, the opening of programs, and more! We are lucky to have such a warm and open person thinking about these things in Central Mass.

Some of us joined the NACDD self-advocacy discussion series this month, talking about how COVID-19 has affected people and sharing resources to help people manage their feelings. It is nice to see other self-advocates from around the country!

Happy October from the Northeast Region!

Since our last update, Tim Holmes did a wonderful presentation to our regional group on Human Rights and Responsibilities.

Several NE Members had a Voting Club meeting on September 1st. We talked about how to find out about candidates and how to get to the polls. One member did a live skit with us over ZOOM to practice asking his staff for support to vote in the primary. After practicing, he left the meeting for a moment and asked his staff. He returned smiling with a plan to vote that night!

Sandy, Derek, Therese, Donna, and Joe joined an excellent talk by Rabbi Ruti Regan on “Harnessing the Power of Your Story” sponsored by the Harvard Project on Disability on September 9th.

At our September 16th meeting we went over the ballot questions that Massachusetts voters will decide on. We talked about what a yes and no vote means for each question.

We also had a great group talk on two questions – What kind of support do we want from staff? And what we do not want from staff? We made the answers into two powerful word clouds.

The Merrimack Valley Peer Support Group did a meet up – outside, with masks and socially distanced! The group is small and planned a way to see each other safely.

The group advisor from the Arc of Greater Haverhill Newburyport, Barbara Pandolfi, worked with each person and their provider to find a way to make this happen – kudos to Barbara for not giving up on this idea even with many roadblocks.

Welcome to the Fall season, and relief from the very hot summer we had this year. Everyone has had to adapt this year, and so many changes have been made to their daily routines.

The regional meetings have been happening via Zoom, and we have had some new faces join us. Zoom has made it possible for the Cape Self Advocates to join the regional meetings. Albert keeps everyone up to date on Board happenings. They are looking forward to the Virtual Conference in February of 2021.

Self Advocates, Bex Fillmore, Isa Greenberg, and Cynthia Goldberg, participated in a self advocacy training with a Pre-ETS group at Independent Associates.

Cynthia Goldberg, a CAST member from the Cape has been attending regional meetings. She also is part of the GATOR project with MASS and SANYS. Thank you Cynthia for your hard work.

MPTE Consortium Work Group Self Advocacy and Self Determination has 3 self advocate from Cohasset along with Kamisha Heriveaux. Cohasset self advocates come from the Launch Program in Cohasset, yet they are part of South Shore Support Services.

SE DDS Training team has started back working with self advocate trainers in the region for train the trainer series. Several of our regional meeting attendees are participating.

The buzz word in Metro is ZOOM to your virtual meetings. Recent region meetings have centered around voting, who is attending the voting clubs, and most importantly keeping up to date with all the Governor updates. The self advocates like to be up on current events regarding COVID-19, with the latest updates as they come out in the news.

Some self advocates have reported returning to programs, at least on a part time basis. Arc Minute Man Self Advocates are meeting on a regular basis, virtually. Winthrop Strong is meeting occasionally, but are all staying in touch with each other. The Price Center continues to meet with their new advisor.

Self advocates from the Metro region have been very active in the voting club sessions. In addition to talking about the questions on the ballot in their regional meeting. At the October meeting they plan to discuss the ballot questions with their coordinator, and she has the booklet sent out to Massachusetts registered voters.

Metro Self Advocates wish all Self Advocates a delightful Fall Season.

Looking for groups, members and others to write updates and articles of interest in the Rainbow Corner each month. Please contact Pauline through the MASS Contact Form.

Please RSVP to Ness to get the zoom link: nbellini@wmtcinfo.org 413-887-4205

Is there anything exciting happening in your life that you are just itching to talk about? Want to share it with the world?!

If so, great because I, Kamisha Heriveaux, am always on the look out for interesting events, your hobbies, and topics that interest you - so please don't hesitate to reach out!

I can't wait to hear from all of YOU! Have a great day and keep on reading!

~ Kamisha