Grassroots Grant awardees for 2007

• Julie Lovreck, Milwaukee: Julie and the ADA Consumer advocacy team will be working to ensure that disabled parking regulations are followed in the city. They will be working with local law enforcement to educate them on disability parking laws. They are considering organizing a “drive along” where elected officials ride along in an accessible van to see the kind of struggles that individuals with disabilities have with parking.
• Ann Freid, Appleton: Ann will work with local pediatricians to identify other parents of children with down syndrome in the area. She will connect them with the Down to Earth support group. She intends to deliver information on current legislative issues to these parents and why it is important for them to be involved with the legislative process.
• Loraine Lee, Waukesha: Loraine is working with a group of individuals at ACAP in Waukesha. She is organizing this group to be more involved in advocacy with their elected officials. She is working also with this group to get them out to vote. Finally, Loraine wants to have meetings with local business leaders to educate them on accessibility issues so the group can be more involved with community life.
• Sandra Engle, Racine: Sandra will be working on developing a group of parents who will contact local elected officials on things that are important to them. An emphasis will be on school issues. A main activity will be to establish an effective parent advisory committee in the Racine School District.
• Deanna Yost, Ashland: Deanna will work on getting individuals to use the PATH process in developing youth IEP’s in the local school district. She will work also with youth in the district on becoming better self-advocates. The goal will be for them to effectively speak up on issues that are important to them.
• Lynn Sanders, Waterford: Lynn will work to recruit and train 100 individuals to do legislative advocacy on the Arthritis Prevention Control and Cure Act. These individuals will tell their personal stories to elected officials and work to get sponsorship for this legislation. They will follow up with additional legislative visits.
• Veronica Behme, Sturgeon Bay: Veronica will be working with a group called Path. This is a group made up of parents with children with disabilities in Sturgeon Bay. These parents will develop an art exhibit using giant puzzle pieces to tell the stories of families who are on waiting lists in Door County. This will be done in two different public venues in the county and possibly at the Capitol. They will also use this exhibit to tell their stories to County officials to advocate for increased funding to eliminate waiting lists.
• Rick Pelishek. Rice Lake: Rick will be working with the Northwest Wisconsin Disability Coalition to advocate for changes in the long-term care system. They intend to become active in the planning committee that is planning a regional long-term care system.
• Erik Nooker, Madison: Eric will be working with the McBurney Center for Students with Disabilities on the UW-Madison campus to make things more accessible for students with disabilities. He intends to focus on involving students more in clubs on campus and working with professors to better understand accessibility issues.
• Patricia Roth, LaFarge: Patricia will be working with the local school district and local community organizations. She intends to get kids with disabilities involved with these organizations after they graduate from school. She plans to accomplish this by organizing a committee of students with disabilities, teachers, parents, and community leaders to work on these issues.
• Pam Ironside, Wisconsin Rapids: Pam will work to get parents involved in the redesign of children’s long-term care services in Wood County. She wants to ensure that services are more understandable and accessible to parents of children with disabilities.
• Ray Pavelko, La Crosse: Ray will work with a group of consumers that live in a local Health Care Center to advocate for their rights. Ray will teach individuals to be more assertive especially when they encounter abuse. Ray will also work with these individuals to teach them how to do legislative advocacy with their local elected County Board members.
• Terri Larson-Baxter, Eau Claire: Terri will be working with parents and consumers in the Eau Claire area to attend more County Board meetings and to testify on issues important to them. She will also be working on getting more consumers and parents to vote in both primary and general elections.
• Eleanor Giriyappa, Manitowoc: Eleanor will work to increase the number of parents involved in the County legislative process. She will organize parents to advocate on several program issues including more affordable and accessible housing.
• Deb Ramacher, New Richmond: Deb will be organizing parents of school-age children to advocate for services in their local school district. Deb will be training parents about legislative advocacy and organizing the members of the group to contact their elected officials at all levels of government on issues that are important to them.
• Patrica Gouge, Superior: Patricia is a Native American disability community organizer. She will be organizing individuals in her community to advocate with the tribal governments on disability issues especially affordable and accessible housing. Other issues will be identified at their monthly meetings.
• Daire Keane, Milwaukee: Daire will work with a group of self advocates in Milwaukee to enable them to be more connected to the “People Can’t Wait” coalition. She will facilitate weekly pre-coalition meetings where self advocates will review the PCW agenda so they are better able to participate in the meeting. Daire will also work to get candidate information to the group to assist them in making informed voting decisions.
• Kristin Berg, Eau Claire: Kristin will work to reform insurance laws to ensure that seizure medication is a mandated covered service in all health insurance plans in Wisconsin.

Contact for more information about grants:

John Shaw
Wisconsin Council on Developmental Disabilities
(608) 266-7707
(608) 266-6660 (TDD/TTY)
(608) 267-3906 (fax)
E-mail: shawj2@dhfs.state.wi.us