Claudia Hidek came on board in April as the new branch manager.  She was program manager at Rolling Start, Inc., Independent Living Center in San Bernardino, CA for three years.  She has been hearing impaired all her life and wears hearing aids.  Claudia has a son who is married and a daughter.  A very special person in her life is John Hollis, whom she is marrying in November.  They have purchased a home in Marysville.     Claudia and John are enjoying living in the small town atmosphere of Marysville and being out of the freeway congestion and smog of southern California.
 
     Claudia has been busy doing outreach and networking in the Sutter, Yuba, and Colusa area.  She is available to do presentations and in-service for service organizations and others who would like to know more about FREED and the services it offers.  She is a member of the Marysville-Yuba City   Soroptimist and is a strong advocate for accessible health and violence/caregiver abuse prevention for people with disabilities.    Claudia is excited about meeting with various service providers to provide disability sensitivity training and ADA awareness and assistance for removal of attitudinal and physical barriers for people with disabilities.

Angie Paras started in March as the administrative assistant.  She is the mother of three boys, ages 17, 13 and 7.  She has 11 siblings and has lived in the area all her life.  Before coming to FREED, Angie worked for Migrant Head Start in Live Oak as a family service coordinator.  She is bilingual in English and Spanish.  She is an enthusiastic member of the FREED team and loves meeting the consumers and assisting the staff.