In this episode, Former Executive Director of Disability Rights California Catherine Blakemore talks with students from the UC Riverside School of Public Policy about challenges the disabled population faces.

About Catherine Blakemore:

Growing up in Southern California, Blakemore recalls being instilled with a desire to help others. Blakemore’s grandmothers and a great-grandmother were teachers, as was her mother, who was frequently assigned to work with children who had more trouble learning. Blakemore counts among her strengths her ability to come up with creative solutions that work for both sides in a dispute. She is also particularly proud of helping to change attitudes about people with disabilities and said she remains excited about her work despite decades of doing it.

Learn more about Catherine Blakemore via https://www.calbarjournal.com/September2016/TopHeadlines/TH1.aspx

Podcast Highlights:

“So really if you're a person with a disability, you can experience almost in any part of your life some challenge in getting services that you need.”

-       Catherine Blakemore on the topic of the wide scope of challenges disabled persons face.

“A lot of work to be done in the area of better providing services, recognizing the value and kind of inherent dignity of people with mental health disabilities, addressing the stigma that people face...”

-       Catherine Blakemore on the topic of mental health disabilities and the unique issues they face.

“Because the worst consequences of any pandemic is suddenly you have thousands or hundreds of thousands of people that are losing their housing, which just destabilizes so many things in their life...”

-       Catherine Blakemore on the topic of how California handled COVID-19 in relation to the disabled population.

Guest:

Catherine Blakemore (Former Executive Director of Disability Rights California)

Interviewers:

Maddie Bunting (UCR Public Policy Major, Dean’s Chief Ambassador)

Kevin Karami (UCR Public Policy Major, Dean’s Ambassador)

Music by:

C Codaine

https://freemusicarchive.org/music/Xylo-Ziko/Minimal_1625

https://freemusicarchive.org/music/Xylo-Ziko/Phase

Commercial Links:

https://spp.ucr.edu/mpp

This is a production of the UCR School of Public Policy: https://spp.ucr.edu/

Subscribe to this podcast so you don’t miss an episode. Learn more about the series and other episodes via https://spp.ucr.edu/podcast.