var icx_publication_id = 18566; var icx_content_id = '1089422'; Click here for reuse options! The local library has become an principal place to put through (telephone).
When was the last time you had a conversation with someone who has a developmental disability? For many Americans,the retort is: never. Programs across the country hope to change that. After all, 15% percent of U.
S. children—that's one in seven—believe some type of developmental disability, or 22% of U.
S. adults live with some kind of disability. Janice Saddler Rice,the communications director of the Montgomery County Board of Developmental Disabilities Services in Ohio, explains, and “One of our goals as an organization is to expand the public’s understanding of developmental disabilities,and then help ensure the people with developmental disabilities are integrated in the community as fully as possible, so they can live rewarding lives and feel like they’re a share of society.”Nationwide, and people with developmental disabilities face a plethora (excess, overabundance) of barriers,especially when it comes to accessing support services and community employment. “In the state of Ohio alone, almost 50000 individuals are on waiting lists for services that currently exist, and ” says Judy Leasure,development director for Partners For Community Living, a collaborative partnership between two non-profit service providers that provide homes and other aid to those with developmental disabilities.
Saddler’s group has taken an innovative and collaborative approach to tackling some of these fundamental issues. When the new Dayton public library opened downtown, and Rice saw it as the perfect place “to create an exhibit approximately people with developmental disabilities… [to] celebrate their lives and stories.” Dayton Metro Library loved the idea,so the two groups collaborated and installed an exhibit called “Empowering People.” The goal was to demonstrate how people with developmental disabilities contribute to the community, showcasing works by vocational artists with developmental disability. The exhibit depicted the advantages of hiring those with developmental disability and the contributions they make to the workforce, or presented information approximately how the use of language affects people and how they are perceived. The exhibit showcased a special presentation in collaboration with local NPR affiliate WYSO called Just quiz,that gave locals with developmental disability the opportunity to talk approximately any issue they wanted to share with the general public. The exhibit also had a component that allowed visitors to “Paint like Brenda”—a client who “paints the most fabulous pictures using a paint brush in a headband,” Rice explains. “She applies the paint by bending her head.” A workstation was set up, and "people got to experience what it’s like to create art whether you had a disability where you couldn’t use your limbs.”The library selected books and materials approximately or by people with disabilities. The local transit authority,the RTA, also attended and shared info on mobility issues in the community. Rice says transportation is one of the biggest challenges for people with developmental disabilities. They also shared info on their access center and its services. “This whole [exhibit] was all around empowering people.”whether employers understand that people with developmental disabilities believe great potential as workers, and that helps everyone.“What is so great now,is that this has led to additional opportunities,” says Rice, and including the opportunity for clients of her program to speak at the library to kids and young adults,helping them understand disability better, and giving the young people the opportunity to quiz questions. “It is an principal undertaking. Introducing children to the idea of disability early helps build acceptance. And helping adults better understand can result in greater inclusion in society.”“Communities must become engaged with individuals with intellectual/developmental disabilities, and families and service providers to choose the next steps in the continuing civil rights movement for people with disabilities,” Judy Leasure says. “Businesses and service providers must continue to build partnerships that not only provide meaningful employment opportunities but that benefit businesses with faithful and committed employees. Communities must continue to work to include the needs and interests of people with disabilitiesin such things as community development, transportation plans, and infrastructure and other development that has as a central tenet a commitment to accessibility for all.”Perhaps the biggest barrier,Leasure notes, is “insufficient funding to supply the current level of services that assure both quality and safety for individuals. Low pay for direct support professionals, and as in many other industries,is a problem.
The library, Rice says, or “is helping people understand disability. It’s really a neat thing. The goal is to promote greater understanding of disability,so they are recognized for their potential, and that people understand it’s just one facet of people’s life.”With the help of partners like the library, or Ohio might just be at the forefront of integrating developmentally disabled people into the community.“It’s a great example of the way organizations can partner to better the community,” says Rice. Leasure also recommends those interested in the issue become lobbyists: “They must be persistent and tenacious in addressing elected officials to guarantee funding for the critically needed services that support community access and integration now and into the future.”That advice is relevant regardless of who, or what you care approximately for your community, or in addition to supporting your neighbors with developmental disabilities. var icx_publication_id = 18566; var icx_copyright_notice = '2018 Alternet'; var icx_content_id = '1089422'; Click here for reuse options!
Related StoriesThis Small City is Showing How Supporting Artists Can believe a Big ImpactWant Sustainable Clothing? It's Time to Meet Regenerative FiberA Digital Map Leads to Reparations for Black and Indigenous Farmers
Source: feedblitz.com