– Join us for the last Judi’s Room of 2023 –
Challenging the Broken Guardianship System
Wednesday, December 6, 2023
3:00 PM Pacific
4:00 PM Mountain
5:00 PM Central
6:00 PM Eastern & Atlantic Standard
6 AM Eastern Australia, 12 PM Hawaii, 7 PM Brazil Standard, 11 PM in Ireland & UK
Pre-registration is required. To register, click
HERE
Advocates for independent living such as those at Roads to Freedom Center for Independent Living (RTFCIL) in Pennsylvania take their mandate seriously, to assist their clients to live as independently as possible in their communities, in accordance with the Olmstead ruling.
Originally, guardianship/conservatorship provided a means of protecting vulnerable individuals from harm and neglect. But what if the guardians themselves, are perpetrators of abuse? Increasingly, guardianship and conservatorship is a mechanism by which predatory individuals can force individuals with disabilities into institutional settings, while subjecting them to unwanted, psychiatric interventions.
Independent living advocates found that to effectively serve their clients to live as independently as possible in their communities, they would have to challenge existing laws and policies which often favor predatory individuals and institutions, over the needs of individuals with disabilities.
Special guests Misty Dion, Katrina Kapp, and Tom Olin will talk about their work to advocate for individuals with disabilities and how this work placed them on a path to challenge outdated and unjust guardianship laws and policies, ultimately leading them to build new coalition Liberators for Justice. Their work provides an inspirational roadmap for disability rights activists in throughout the world.
Pre-registration is required. To register, click
HERE
About the presenters
Misty Dion (she/her)
Misty Dion is Executive Director Roads to Freedom Center for Independent Living (RTFCIL) of North Central Pennsylvania. RTFCIL has become a nationally recognized Center for Independent Living (CIL) and was the first CIL to provide emergency relocation services through the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA)
Misty graduated Summa Cum Laude from Pennsylvania College of Technology, an affiliate of Penn State University. Among her affiliations, Misty is an active Member of ADAPT, serves on the Advisory Board for the Mid Atlantic ADA Center, serves on NCIL subcommittees, is a PA SILC Board Member and the President of the Pennsylvania Council on Independent Living.
Tom Olin
Tom is an award winning photojournalist who has been involved with the disability rights mvoement since 1985. He first became interested in disability rights while working as an orderly at a rehabilitation hospital in Grand Rapids, Michigan at the age of nineteen. He got his start as a photographer after working fr a video production company. He started to take photography calsses at a community college, while working as an attendant for people with disabilities in the San Francisco area, so his first photography subjects were people with disabilities. He photographed the founders of ADAPT at a national action event in Los Angeles in 1985, which led to his interest in being a social documentarian for the disability rights movement. In addition to documenting ADAPT’s part in the disabiilty rights movement, which focused on deinstitutionalization, he has documented many other historical disability events. He worked for Mouth Magazine, a bi-monthly disability rights magazine, from 1995-1999 and his photographs continue to be featured in magazines, museum installations, books, documentaries.
Kristina ‘KK’ Kapp
KK has painted a beautiful masterpiece picture of life despite the adversity life has presented. Overcoming and passing on the strength and wisdom gained through her very real, impactful life experiences. Choosing to view her disability and “trauma” as an opportunity to learn, grow and raise the bar, to a standard above and beyond the box of conventional, societal limitations. Superseding over chromosomal birth defects, childhood mental health prognoses and expectations set to live life within the walls of an institution with the dream of one day graduating to a group home setting.
However, KK tapped the well of human potential and her compassionate Humanitarian heart brought forth a flow of hope and belief in herself and that of others opening endless doors of limitless possibilities. Contrary to the standard way of limited thinking that any Disability defines who we are, implying a ceiling on human potential. Alternatively, this created the foundation on which she stands and has built her future. Blazing the trail and igniting a revolution in alternative workarounds, innovations, and creative development through cultivating hope, sewing seeds of empowerment and watering belief in the potential for every individual. She has worked in the fields, of behavioral health, disability justice, and advocacy. Currently, KK is the Deputy Executive Director at the National Center for Disability Rights and Justice (CDRJ) & ADA Watch. Additionally, she serves the Disability Rights Ohio’s Board of Directors (P&A), National Association For Rights Protection & Advocacy (NARPA), National Council on Independent Living Mental Health, and is the chair of Ohio’s Protection & Advocacy for Individuals with Mental Illness (PAIMI) .