CLI offers new program for veterans

Rotary Club of Saipan’s officers pose alongside Center for Living Independently in the CNMI’s executive director Susan Satur and health education specialist Tiana M. Pellegrino Ranjo after their presentation at Hyatt Regency Saipan last Tuesday. (CHRYSTAL MARINO)

The Center for Living Independently in the CNMI highlighted a new program intended for the Commonwealth’s veterans during last Tuesday’s presentation at the Rotary Club of Saipan weekly meeting at the Hyatt Regency Saipan’s Giovanni’s restaurant.

CLI’s executive director Susan Satur and health education specialist Tiana M. Pellegrino Ranjo announced the start of the Veteran Directive Care—also known as the Veteran in-Charge program—which aims to benefit the CNMI’s veteran population.

Ranjo credits Delegate Gregorio Kilili C. Sablan (D-MP) with envisioning the program for the CNMI. “This is [Delegate] Kilili Sablan’s dream that he wanted here [on] Saipan, [on] Tinian and [on] Rota,” she said

Ranjo said the program is essentially being done in partnership with the U.S. Department of Veteran’s Affairs out of Hawaii, the Medical Associates of the Pacific clinic, and the Independence Center in Colorado. “Director Sue and I, and our co-workers have been doing extensive training with the Independence Center on how to implement this program out here. …So, it’s really a joint progress that we’re really excited [about] and we just started this month.”

Those interested in being a participant of the VDC will need to get a referral from the Medical Associates of the Pacific clinic, which usually handles veterans-related health matters in the CNMI.

Satur and Ranjo also shared CLI’s five core services, which include providing information and referral to participants with disabilities, offering a space where consumers may have peer counseling, independent living skills training, and where individuals may receive and give advocacy, and team leaders in the CLI who have mastered a skill and want to teach others as well. Their fifth service, called their transition service, also works with the Office of Vocational Rehabilitation on transitioning consumers out of high school into college or into a career.

Satur said they currently have about 192 consumers, some of whom they serve at home. “We have about 95 that come to the center. Our building is so small that we cannot house everybody at one time, so we have a Monday/Wednesday group, and a Tuesday/Thursday group,” Satur said.

CLI also just recently acquired a new facility in Building 1365, and they about ready to move in, with a goal date of moving in this March.

The Center for Living Independently in the CNMI is a non-profit organization helping those with physical disabilities live independently and learn to make their own living, and has been serving the CNMI since 2005. Its mission is to ensure the rights of individuals with disabilities to live independently and fully integrated within the community outside of an institutional setting.

The CLI is located in House #1366 on Capitol Hill. For more information or to make a donation visit clicnmi.org or call 670-322-4303/4.