‘We’ll end up on the streets’: L.A. caregivers for elderly, disabled push for higher pay – and less abuse – with new organizing platform
A group of friends — both older and young; male and female — have formed their own support organization for the mentally and physically disabled in Los Angeles. Each member is committed to helping another member.
Cheryl Wunderman, executive director of the Los Angeles Non-Profits for Mentally and Physically Disabled, sits on the phone Tuesday with a friend of a member, Leland S. Yarbrough. The two have formed a group, which Yarbrough calls the Disabled Veterans’ Alliance, for service members who have served in the Iraq or Afghanistan wars.
Sylvia Salvi, center, president of the organization that helped create the group, stands beside her husband, Paul A. Salvi, who helped to organize it, outside the group’s headquarters, on Melrose Avenue in Los Angeles.
YARBOURT R. GRANTHAM, SPECIAL TO THE TRICRANdigy, a California high school counselor, said he is committed to working with students who have been subjected to “brainwashing” by school. His non-profit offers programs for students of all races, including students in public schools, charter schools, special programs and homeschooling, he said.
The L.A. Non-Profits for Mentally and Physically Disabled plans to use new organizing platform to help people — veterans, children, seniors, mentally and physically disabled — deal with an array of issues, from poverty to homelessness to police brutality, in Los Angeles.
“We could be on the streets without organizations like this,” said Cheryl Wunderman, executive director of the Los Angeles Non-Profits for Mentally and Physically Disabled.
The Disabled Veterans’ Alliance is the first of more than 60 local and national organizations created by volunteers who say they are tired of seeing veterans, whose voices are often unheard, left on the streets.
