Enabling the potential of people with developmental disabilities, enriching our communities
Michele Rodriguez
2017 Goldman Award Honoree
Michele’s nomination read as follows:
I would like to nominate Michele Rodriguez for the Goldman Award. Michele is an outstanding DSP who has participated and worked within many different programs and has provided the people we support with innovative services.
Michele is always challenging the qualities and standard by which we base our level of care of the people we support. She pushes us all to think differently and do things better. She is a trailblazer who is driven by NHR’s mission to do the right things for the right reasons, and is advancing human rights by promoting growth and independence for the people she serves. She has creative ideas, keeps activities fun and builds positive relationships with everyone she comes in contact with. Michele genuinely cares about the people she supports.
Two ladies who are aided and supported by Michele were able to experience transportation independence by learning how to utilize Uber - a company that provides taxi-like transportation. Michele helped the women install the app and navigate it. She aided them in figuring out their schedules and knowing when Uber was needed and how to pay for it as well as explain safety measures and other precautions when using this form of public transportation. Both women are extremely successful and self-determining with Uber and it has given them a freedom from staff dependence which they may not have easily discovered on their own.
Through her 16 years at New Horizons, Michele has supported many individuals. While a DSP at Gerry Road, Michele was an essential component in helping Linda to live and pass on with dignity. Her unselfish and principled behavior always put a long-time resident Linda first through her cancer treatment. When it came time for comfort care, Michele ensured that Linda’s loved ones were near her, that she had the items she enjoyed and the end of her life was the best it could be. Her care and attention to detail and advocacy is above all else.
Michele works community hab with a gentleman in Poughkeepsie who lives in his own condo. From the start of working with him, Michele has taken on the task of helping him to take pride in his home again. She has facilitated the removal of old broken furniture form his home and assisted him with picking out new items he is proud to show off. He loves his new items and is beaming with pride to show them off to visitors. It is wonderful to see how happy and proud he is again thanks to Michele’s support.
This year Michele took on the extra challenge of becoming an apartment counselor to promote services and independence for two women who live in our supportive IRAs. In her short six months in this role she has intervened with heroic measures for each of the women she supports. In early September she was walking with one individual to the mailbox when a car suddenly started to back into them.
She quickly pulled Karen across to the other side of her, yelled and jumped out of the way. Her own elbow was nicked in the process, but Karen was not injured. In October her strong advocacy with regard to a medical issue caught a blood clot and allowed the individual to get treatment before something serious happened. She advocated to not just wait and see but to take her to the ER immediately. We are very thankful that she did. She is a real life hero to both of these women.
Michele Rodriguez is an exceptional person and we are lucky to have her here at New Horizons. She embodies every single principle we have, practices them daily and unquestionably deserves this award.
What is the Goldman Award?
The Goldman Award is the highest honor conferred by NHR. It is presented to a person within NHR in memory of Israel Goldman. Mr. Goldman was a loving husband, stalwart yet gentle advocate for people with developmental disabilities, a man loved for his active and personal interest in others, a person who taught everyone around him that a successful life is defined more by who you are than what you have done, and a participant in New Horizons’ services.
The Goldman Award honors an individual in the NHR family who has exhibited extraordinarily unselfish, principled and mission-driven behavior. Some examples are: demonstrating heroic intervention in difficult circumstances, protecting life, advancing human rights in a notable way, achieving accomplishments in the field that enhance services and supports, trail blazing worthwhile innovative services and lifestyles, and providing substantial and exceptional positive influence on the lives of others.
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