We are a group of blind and disabled individuals that are on a mission… We are a diverse group of people from various ethnic, education and economic backgrounds, who live and serve our community’s in both Kansas and Missouri, of the greater Kansas City metropolitan area.
Most of us serve our communities in various ways, as well as being actively involved in building affiliations, with local centers for independent living programs (CIL), like The Midwest Adaptive Sports, NFB of KS, Ability KC, El Centro and Kansas Disability Caucus, to name a few.
Several of our group members hold various positions on local committees, as well as Board of Director appointments to some of these organizations.
We at The Cane Group, are actively involved and hold memberships with several national and local chapters of blind and disability organizations, like the ACB, NFB, The Lions Club and Kansas Association for the Blind and Visually Impaired (KABVI). We also are actively involved and have memberships with nonprofit Organizations for people with disabilities like, NCIL, AAPD, NOD, The Arc, SHICK, SILCK and the Kansas Disability Caucus.
… And not to mention, that several members are actively involved in local Charities and religious organizations in our communities too, Wow!
Biography
Michael A. Nava
The Cane Group – Chief Operations Officer
Statewide Independent Living Council of Kansas (SILCK) – Board
Kansas Disability Caucus Inc. – Board
The Jonson-Wyandotte County, Kansas (NFB) Chapter.
Email: manava@thecanegroup.org
Michael is one of three key blind founders of the Cane Group in 2019 and is their COO, because of his 35 years in the EHS management feild, and his 24 years in advocating for issues impacting people with disabilities at the city, state, and federal levels of government in Kansas and Missouri.
I was born and raised in Kansas City Kansas, I am a Chicano (Mexican American) and Indigenous Indian mix. My professional career started as a EMT in the ER’s at KUMC, Bethany Medical Hospital, and Ambulance service. After 4 years of service, I returned back to school and became an Environmental Health and Safety Specialist and a license QA/QC government contractor.
I worked for company’s like, PCE contractors, IT Corp, Halliburton and Burns & McDonald, just to name a few. Where 80% of the work I was assigned to, was government projects. So I have work closely with Federal agencies like, the EPA, FEMA, OSHA, DoD and the DOE as well as various local and state agencies.
02/23/23