Carla Valpeoz
I am a dedicated and enthusiastic optimistic advocate seeking a challenging environment with a variety of opportunities where my knowledge and passions of justice and community will empower minority youth and their ability to grow and adapt. Self-realizations, as well as cultural exchanges with people of different identities and backgrounds, allows me to embrace diversity. Immersing in the culture through taking both a fish’ eye perspective, as well as a bird’s eye perspective interchangeably, helps me be in tune with consistent patterns of any particular group of people.
Presentations from Facing Race 2018
Surviving Racism and Abelism 101
This workshop analyzes the systematic structure of ableism through a person of color living with a disability lens. Participants are given the opportunity to explore solutions on how to address these systematic structures. Our goal is to create a community of people who are interested in advocating for others who face discrimination as a differently abled person and ethnically/racially different. The session will begin with introductions of people who hold different identities and how they are treated in the greater society. For example, an undocumented disabled Latino girl, a black young adult living with mental illness, an Arab Muslim woman living with disability and a woman who uses a wheelchair.
Participants will come up with a list of ways in which society may see those in these marginalized communities. Following this brainstorming activity, participants will be broken up into smaller groups and be given different real-life scenarios of what a marginalized person may face holding a certain identity, like those listed above and how this individual is viewed/held back in the real world. This blurb, along with a copy of the ADA papers, will be used as a guide to come up with one or more solutions on how to address such a challenge. This workshop will finish off with the sharing of real-life results of these challenges and those involved, and what steps were taken to overcome the obstacles placed in the way. There will be time for Q&A at the end of workshop.
Speakers: Tameka Citchen-Spruce, Carla Valpeoz, Brenda Rodriguez