The Center for Latino Community HealthEvaluation and Leadership Training a distinguished organization at CSULB.

Recently the NCLR/ Center for Latino Community Health Evaluation and Leadership Training has been getting praises in the media  for the work that their Director Britt Rios-Ellis is doing, at a national level, with HIVand STD prevention and treatment.
 
The center its self is paving roads like it's founder.  Only about 6-years-ago  the center only had 3 employees, today they will be employing about sixty. 

At the NCLR/CSULB Center for Latino Community Health, Evaluation and Leadership Training they develop health programs the  Latino communities, provides technical assistance to organizations already serving in this capacity, and hold research and education needed to facilitate the development of effective health programs and policies in the Latino community.

The need for the Center developed from a long standing relationship between faculty at California State University, Long Beach and leadership of the Institute for Hispanic Health at National Council of La Raza (NCLR). 

 

The center works  hired graduate and undergraduates to research data on nationalissues dealing with  the Latino community,  they host interest group in California, and develop programs for the Latino community.
 
One of their projects is to facilitate the Latino community in becoming more aware of HIV/ STD prevention. 

 For more information visit http://www.csulb.edu/centers/latinohealth/

  

What Are Special Needs?

What exactly are special needs?

Encarta defines special needs as requirements made necessary by challenges: the requirements, especially in education, that some people have because of physical and mental challenges.

There are multiple websits that can facilitate people in today's world wide web to help people in discovering if they fall under special needs. These sites help  answer questions of who and what falls under special needs.
 
Special needs includes people who have allergies, diseases, mental disabilities and physical disabilities. If you have an issue that is severe there is a big possibility that you could be classified as a person with special needs. For example a person with a severe allergy, might not sound like a qualification to be classified under special needs. But if the exposure to the allergy could hospitalize an  individual or cause death then that would qualify them as a person with special needs.
 
 Today being a person with special needs is not something to fear. Their are many laws in place to help people with special needs, wether they needs in their lives at home or  outside in the everyday world. . 

People with special needs are heavily protectd by the law. In the education system special needs is protected by Special Education under the guidelines of IDEA 2004 and Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973. 

For more information on special needs you can visit http://www.specialneeds.com/

CSULB Professor Working with National Organizations for HIV/STD provention

 Britt Rios- Ellis  is a  true super woman. She juggles a family, career, and now a prestigious  position on the work group for President Obama’s advisory council on HIV and AIDS.

 The Cal State Long Beach health science professor has been elected to the President’s Advisory Council on HIV/AIDS (PACHA) CHAC Disclosure Work Group.  Rios- Ellis is also currently a member of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and Health Resources and Services Administration Advisory Committee on HIV and STD Prevention and Treatment.  

Rios- Ellis will be taking on a prestigious 4-year-long term with CHAC.  In her new role she will advise the U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius on policies for HIV and STD prevention and treatment.    

“Serving the government in any of these unique capacities is a real honor. To be able to provide advice and to resonate what my experiencing as a researcher in a health advocacy role, to the federal government,” stated Rios-Ellis.   

One of Rios- Ellis’ upcoming projects entails a HIV treatment and prevention movement called Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis (PrEP).

“There are going to be a lot of research and readiness programs to make sure …we are ready to take these protocols on and utilize these prevention mechanisms,” says Rios-Ellis. “Pharmaceutically they are ready but are the communities ready to take them? That is the big question right now.”

While her newly appointed positions require her to meet a couple times a year, at CSULB as Director and founder of NCLR/The Center for Latino Community Health the center requires her constant attendance.  

A strong sense of unity and passion is evident the minute you enter the center. At The Center for Latino Community Health the walls  are painted in orange, purple, green, and white  and everyone praises a “power with, not power over” modo that Britt Rios- Ellis encourages her staff to embrace in order to eliminate hierarchy in the workplace.

 Graduate student, Leighanna Hidalgo, highlights her admires Rios-Ellis for her many accommplishments.

“She is a person with so much passion and drive and she makes it happen. I admire how she balances her career and family. She gives me the example of how you can have both.”  

A passion for her work  fuels Rios- Ellis, “Knowing that we have made a difference in the community every day, I think is what keeps me moving so quickly.”

For the rest of the story visit

Look Ma! I'm A CSULB Graduate and Working for the President!



(Photographer: U.S. Department of Transportation)



Cal State Long Beach graduate Richard Devylder was born without arms or legs. He is now a presidential appointee in Washington, D.C., advising the White House on accessibility policies in the United States.

Devylder also met President Barack Obama at the 20th anniversary of the American Disabilities Act reception and recently finished working on a national policy in September that deals with accessibility and integration for people with disabilities on trains and metros.

As a child, he was placed in the foster care system with his foster family in Whittier.

At 7 years old, he began to realize he was disabled.



"My foster family helped me in accepting my disabilities," Devylder said. "Looking back, I asked my parents to throw away the fake arms in the trash ... they were heavy and they caused my skin to break out in rashes."

Devylder remembers his foster parents as being instrumental in helping him make his own decisions when it came to his disability and learning how to do things on his own without prosthetics.

When Devylder was in the first grade, his parents made the decision to take him out of public school.

"It was more like baby sitting," Devylder said. "There was no structure for learning because it was special education. They didn't have the same curricular as other students. It wasn't an educational opportunity because my issue wasn't learning, it was the physical."

Still, Devylder learned how to adjust to the classroom.

"Kids did it with their hands, and I did it with a pencil in my mouth," Devylder said.

During Devylder's adolescence he developed a love for athletics.

He discovered swimming was his favorite form of exercise, and basketball was his obsessive past time.

 Once Devylder was admitted to CSULB in 1990 from Biola University, Disabled Student Services paved a clear path for success for the new student.Devylder credits CSULB for directing his path he is on today.

At CSULB, Devylder said he was launched into dealing with disability and civil rights.
During his undergraduate studies at CSULB, he began to work with Disabled Student Services, and credits his communication professor for helping him make a decision to work for the Southern California Rehabilitation Services and Independent Living.

 "Having a degree was critical — No. 1 — because I needed to show people I had the intellect, and No. 2 that I had the ability to finish the program," said Devylder, who graduated from CSULB in 1992.

In May  of 2010, Devylder received the call for the position of a lifetime.
"I got a message on my phone, if I wanted to go to D.C. and work for administration," he said.

In his new position as adviser for Accessible Transportation, U.S. Department of Transportation, Devylder has many opportunities.
"My role is to advise on national policies and proposals to the secretary," Devylder said.

Devylder is a man who has never let adversity get in the way of his dreams.
With a work schedule of about 60 hours a week, Devylder said, "I am going to do this as long as I can. The thrive is that I have one of the greatest jobs in the country, that I can impact transportation and accessibility and equality for people with disabilities."

For the rest of the story visit http://www.daily49er.com/news/alumnus-works-to-extend-accessibility-1.2680770