My name is Matthew and I am 16 years old. My brother's name is Nick and he is 23 years old. Nick was born with Cerebral Palsy and I've had the honor to call him my brother. Living with a brother who has special needs has taught me a lot of life lessons. From the memories of us laughing and having fun at the park, to the memories of the trips to the hospital, living with Nick has been a joy ride with lots of ups and downs.

Being the only other son besides Nick in the family, I've had to take on the role of the "older brother" (despite actually being the youngest child). I've taken a lot of responsibility not just for Nick but also for around the house in general. I get Nick off his dayhab van, some nights I tuck him in bed. We sometimes just like to lay in the living room and watch movies together. I help my mom a lot around the house since we always have way more laundry than average families. My mom and dad both work and I can see how hard it is for them to do everything plus take care of Nick. Sometimes they need a break and I feel bad that they don't get one. (click here to read more)

For donating interpreting services at the Shark Tank Competition.

DIG Internship Progam

by: Sharon Langer

DIG has established a successful internship program for both undergraduate students and law students at our local universities. This past semester we hosted two interns. Tiffany Blackmon, from FIU College of Law, assisted with federal litigation, helped us establish our ADA Mediation Project. We file complaints on behalf of persons with disabilities who have been discriminated against with the Department of Justice. These complaints are sent to a mediator who attempts to resolve the case without litigation. This is an exciting new project for DIG and we will be expanding it this summer with our new class of summer interns. Our second intern was Samantha Belabin from the University of Miami, School of Education. She was a tremendous asset to us this spring semester and worked on many projects, with a particular interest in the area of autism. This summer 19 law students have applied to our summer internship project and we will be selecting three to work with us this summer on a variety of issues. They will be researching new legislation both State and Federal that pertains to the rights of person with disabilities, create a white paper on emergency preparedness and how persons with disabilities can best access those services and identify gaps or barriers that may exist. They will also work on several significant cases that DIG is litigating. Interns bring not only talent to our program but also expertise we may not have, hands on assistance in many areas and they are a lot of fun to have around the office. We thank Tiffany and Samantha for all they have done for the folks we serve and look forward to welcoming our new interns this May.