NORTH COAST REGIONAL OFFICE

January 24, 2020 Regional Advisory Committee Meeting Agenda

Regional Advisory Committee Members

DEL NORTE COUNTY
Dorothy Ibarra
2 Vacant Positions

HUMBOLDT COUNTY
Clyde “Ozzie” Pomeroy -Chair
Debra Ponton- Vice Chair
Kara Ponton

LAKE COUNTY
Jeff Clevenger

Hank Smith

Cathy Lawrence

MENDOCINO COUNTY
Nathaniel Florez
2 Vacant Position

Announcement

Through an SCDD North Coast Office grant, budding film maker, William French, directed and produced Directing: ABC No Barriers, a documentary which has been an excellent tool for educating the public and business community about the talents of people with developmental disabilities.

Link to Documentary: Directing: ABC No Barriers

Director:  William French
Associate Producers:  Freda Zody, Jason Rader, Matt Senften

Documentary Funding provided by: State Council on Developmental Disabilities (SCDD) North Coast Office , Community Program Development Grant

About the Director:

William French has high functioning autism, tourettes, and obsessive compulsive disorder. William had a very difficult time during high school and in his twenties because of his diagnosis. The Associate Producer, Freda Zody, originally met William in Junior High where he was bullied and did not fit in well. He has always been interested in the performing arts, so it made sense for him to go on to the Art Academy in San Francisco. He is a very bright man, but he continues to struggle because of his disabilities and his overall health.

 Acknowledgments:

• One of the individuals featured – DJ Mark Anthony’s business was helped through a prior Regional Office mini grant and his business is still going strong.
• The program credits this video as being instrumental in acquiring resources for clients: it was shared with software developers to encourage the developers to consider the program (in the video) as a resource to test the software. The program was given access to very sophisticated software for people with autism and other verbal communication difficulties.