Maya Gwynn
With KVCR Public Media, I'm Maya Gwynn with Black Perspectives IE, a show where we learn about the amazing things members of the Black community are doing in the Inland Empire. My guest today is Felicia Guzman, Founder and Executive Director of Adrian's World. Adrian's World's mission is a family oriented organization serving the special needs community in San Bernardino County. Thank you so much for being here.
Maya Gwynn
How did that experience shape your understanding of the neurodivergent community and how we care for neurodivergent individuals in healthcare?
Felicia Guzman
Thank you for having me.
Maya Gwynn
You currently still work as an LVN...
Felicia Guzman
Yes.
Maya Gwynn
How did that experience shape your understanding of the neurodivergent community and how we care for neurodivergent individuals in healthcare?
Felicia Guzman
I would say that the best way it taught me is actually working in mental health. Many of our adults are misdiagnosed, and so you start to see different patterns and different individuals, and I feel like it just kind of allowed me to open my eyes and know that every patient that I have, I have to treat differently. They're not all the same. It's a spectrum for a reason. So you have to go into it with an open mind for each individual, patience you know, understanding, knowing that they are different, they communicate different, they act different. And when you just come in with that compassion, it prepares you to kind of serve them the best way that you can. And then when I moved into my organization, what I'm doing now, it was a lot easier, because Adrian was my first experience, you know, with a neurodivergent child, so definitely it opened my eyes that it's a beautiful community, but it looks very different in every child, and every adult.
Maya Gwynn
And that leads into my next question, as a black woman raising a neurodivergent child, what additional layers of bias and barriers have you encountered?
Felicia Guzman
One of the difficulties that I feel like us as a community sometimes have is really being expressive about how we feel about that diagnosis and then also dealing with our own mental health. So I would say for me, it took me about a year to really accept Adrian's diagnosis, and I'm very honest with that. He was diagnosed at three. He was what they call red flagged at two and a half. Took him to regular doctors appointment for a checkup. We noticed that speech was not there, not responding to his name. So my physician was great, was like, Felicia let's get him diagnosed, or at least assessed, through IRC, Inland Regional, and they red flagged him at two and a half, but they also provided me with early intervention. I was almost numb through the process, but I didn't want to stop getting him the help that he needed, because I realized that what I'm feeling is a personal problem, right? It has nothing to do with Adrian. And I think a lot of times, some of our, you know, community members may have difficulty with that, where they feel like, well, you know, I'm not ready to do anything. No services. Nothing, because I'm not ready. And I receive that, I give grace, I understand how you feel, but I just try my best to encourage them that that's a personal issue, and let's work on that together, but let's not stop the child from getting the help and support that he needs.
Maya Gwynn
That's a beautiful answer. I'm curious, when have you ever encountered something that you know it's not a personal thing, that it is something that is external?
Felicia Guzman
As much as this should be a world where we're inclusive and we accept everybody, it's not the reality, and it's something that us as parents constantly fight for. Sometimes it's a little difficult because my kiddo is 5'5, solid. The cutest thing. But there's been times that we are out in the community, and let's say we're having a behavior and we're having a really hard time, and it doesn't look the norm as like, let's say a normal tantrum, or things like that. It looks a little different. Sometimes it's kicking, screaming or closing his ears, but then it's the stares, or, you know, what's wrong with your child? Or, you know, maybe he needs a timeout, or maybe you need to discipline him. And even when I get those responses, I still deal with it in grace, and I choose to use that to educate them, right? I think sometimes, as parents, we get, like, easily offended, and I respect that, because it's your child at the end of the day. However, I do feel like I wish that community members that see families that are battling through that, that they would show more compassion. That they would lead with compassion first and not judgment.
Maya Gwynn
What changes do you believe are most urgently needed in our education and healthcare systems to better support neurodivergent children, teens, adults and their parents, particularly amid the rise of misinformation from public figures such as recent claims of autism to Tylenol use during pregnancy, and even before that, I feel like there's always been so much misinformation when it comes to autism and neurodivergent people.
Felicia Guzman
Yeah, I try to tune a lot of that out, because at the end of the day, this is your journey, and sometimes you don't want the outside world to influence your journey. You know what's best for your child. So I tell people all the time, it's okay to listen, but educate yourself. Do the research on what's best for your child. There are community organizations and members that can better educate you to make a decision for your child.
Maya Gwynn
Adrian's World blends advocacy, training, events and resources beautifully. Your website is incredible. How do you bring all those pieces together to create real impact for families?
Felicia Guzman
I think about, as a mother, what I would want, right? But I'm also open to my community as well. I ask, right? So yes, even as Adrian's mom, these are things that I would like to see, but I'm only one person. So what is it that you guys would like to see? So that's why I asked, okay, hey, what did you think about this last event? What could we do differently? Be honest with me, what is something that you're looking for? But I realized in our community, there is a lot of resources that are out there that people still don't know about. So I really try to be very selective in even who I choose as vendors, because I want to make sure that the information is what my families are looking for, whether it's an organization that does assessments - that's a big thing in our community right now, specific resources, whether it's speech, whether it's OT, those things that would directly affect your child in a positive way, so I'm really selective with that, but then we like to have fun at Adrian's World. I'm sorry. We're gonna have good food. We're gonna eat, we're gonna have fun. And what I want to bring is community, because there's a lot of community members that are still isolated, and they choose to isolate their child because of the judgment, because of the fear. But the best response that I get is, you know what, Felicia, I don't bring my kid out. I brought my kid to Adrian's World, and this is everything to me. That makes me feel so happy. And they'll meet other families. People have found friends, and they will organize play dates. They will connect with other moms groups. I tell my parents, if they want to be themselves, allow them to. I've had kids that want to kick off their shoes and want to run around. There's no judgment here. This is their world, right? Because they have to deal with society every other day. This is their safe place. That's what I love to bring.
Maya Gwynn
That's beautiful.
Felicia Guzman
Thank you.
Maya Gwynn
Yeah, we're gonna move to our rapid fire portion. If your work had a theme song, what would it be?
Felicia Guzman
Oh my gosh. Mister Rogers, Won't You Be My Neighbor?
Maya Gwynn
Oh, I love that.
Felicia Guzman
Right!? I loved Mister Rogers growing up.
Maya Gwynn
If you have to teach a master class or give a TED talk, and a random skill you have other than the work that you do, would it be?
Felicia Guzman
I love event planning. That is, like, my happy place. You know, connecting emotion to events like it does mean a lot. It really does mean a lot. So I love event planning.
Maya Gwynn
And as someone who's lived in the IE for over a decade, what's your favorite IE restaurant or landmark that reminds you of the Inland Empire?
Felicia Guzman
You know where I love, I love Panda Inn.
Maya Gwynn
Oh, I know what you're talking about - right off the freeway.
Felicia Guzman
Yes, right off the freeway. I love a good Panda Inn. I love all the spots.
Maya Gwynn
I love it. And how can people keep up with Adrian's World and support your amazing work?
Felicia Guzman
Oh, of course, our website, adriansworldinc.org, we are also on Facebook and Instagram also, too. If you send us an email at info@adriansworld.org, we could definitely add you to our email list. We would appreciate the support. We're definitely looking for you know, more corporate sponsors to connect. We have a monthly food distribution and we partner with Amazon DCA2 in Eastvale. So that's been huge for our community, because we realize, like having a child with special - it's very expensive. You talk about out of pocket expenses that are not covered by insurance, and so it's put a lot of our families in a pretty tough position. So we feel like this program has been great to kind of just ease up some of the burden that comes with that.
Maya Gwynn
Can people donate to the monthly food distribution on your website?
Felicia Guzman
Absolutely, because that's a big one for us too. Our Breakfast with Santa is coming up. We're really excited about that. And we do breakfast, we give away toys. We do like cookie decorating. It's just really a beautiful time for community. We always use that as our way to just kind of end the year in love.
Maya Gwynn
Thank you so much. This is such a great conversation.
Felicia Guzman
Thank you. Thank you for having me.
Maya Gwynn
Felicia Guzman is Founder and Executive Director of Adrian's World. Find this segment and others at kvcrnews.org/bpie. Support for this segment comes from the Black Equity Fund at IECF, advancing racial equity and supporting long term investments and black led organizations in Riverside and San Bernardino counties. Join us again next week for Black Perspectives IE. For KVCR Public Media, I'm Maya Gwynn. Thank you.
