Individual and Family Advocacy Committee Chairperson
Charlie
Zawacki
Besides Chairing the Individual & Family Advocacy Committee, Charlie is a vice president of the Arc of Blackstone Valley where he is involved in the organization’s Citizens with Power self advocacy program that provides its members opportunities to learn about their rights and responsibilities, develop confidence, practice public speaking, learn about voting and group decision-making, exercise problem-solving techniques, share life experiences and develop assertiveness skills.
But the most important part of Charlie’s life is his job at the bright new headquarters of the Navigant Credit Union in Smithfield. He knows all about the company and its plans for the future. It’s the best place in Rhode Island to work, he declares.
He began work at the Credit Union in 2003 as a part time mail courier working for Randy Sacilotto, vice president of retail banking. On any working day, you can find Charlie in the basement mailroom where he sorts the incoming mail. He knows everyone in the building and they know him since he stops daily at each employee’s workstation to drop off his or her mail.
Sacilotto said that Charlie is on the job early, works hard, never complains and has something nice to say about everybody. “He has the heart to overcome his own challenges and has words of encouragement for others who face on-the-job adversities,” he said.
Only 31 years old, Charlie is an Eagle Scout and a veteran community volunteer for which he earned a Jefferson Award, a prestigious national honor that recognizes individuals throughout the country who perform great public service, largely without recognition. In addition to his work with the Rhode Island Developmental Disabilities Council, he has been active with the Lincoln Substance Abuse Council and the RI Public Transportation Authority’s Work Link Committee that focuses on getting people with disabilities to work.
He is a winner of The Arc of the United States’s Bill Sackter Self Determination Award, an honor named for a cheerful, innocent man who emerged from a State Institution to run Wild Bill’s Coffee Shop on the campus of The University of Iowa where men women and children, students, faculty and families found in him a compelling humanity that transcended his disability. The award recognizes a self-advocate who is an achieving, included member of society.
