Empowering All Abilities

Hello! My name is Sile Surman, I’m a rising senior Psychology major, and this summer I’m interning at the Walla Walla County Department of Community Health, specifically in the Developmental Disabilities (DD) program. I’m working with the DD Program Coordinator to design and establish the new Walla Walla Valley Developmental Disabilities Advisory Committee (WWVDDAC).

The Developmental Disabilities program offers services to support developmentally disabled people in Walla Walla County and Columbia County. They provide Child Development Services, Transition Services, Adult Services, and Community Information and Education Services. All of these services are available to support people with a developmental disability from birth up to adulthood. On the Walla Walla Valley Developmental Disabilities Advisory Committee, we’d like to hear the thoughts and concerns from people with developmental disabilities, family members, special educators, and folks who work with people with developmental disabilities. We’re also looking for people from underrepresented groups and people who speak Spanish.

On a typical day at the Community Health Department, I could be designing marketing materials to recruit committee members, reaching out to businesses to support informational events, or learning about the operations of county-level programs. I work alongside folks who manage disease outbreaks, offer nutritional food services, and assist homeless people and veterans. By bringing together all of these departments and collaborating, we are better able to address the needs of the public, including folks with disabilities. I feel fortunate to be surrounded by many cool people who use their funding to make Walla Walla a safe, healthy place. Just last week, the nonprofit Trilogy Recovery Community taught us how to identify a drug overdose and administer life-saving medicine to stop its effects.

At this internship, I also have the opportunity to explore my own interests through a personal project. I’m interested in rehabilitation and community supports, particularly assistive technology. Assistive technology (AT) is a low- or high-tech device that helps a person with a disability communicate and perform daily activities. I don’t know the current scope of AT access for folks in Walla Walla, but I do know that they are typically harder to find in less populated areas. Since some folks might not know about the AT resources available, I am working on a pamphlet to outline those resources. I cannot overstate how grateful that I am to work here in the Developmental Disabilities program through the Whitman Internship Grant. I’ve already learned so much about how the county funds and organizes services to facilitate independence for those who need assistance. I know that I’ll use what I’ve learned from this experience to pursue my interests in rehabilitation and occupational therapy.