Image of Flyer for Youth Transition Program. Information on Flyer is in body of web page
Progress Center for Independent Living is excited to announce
A New Youth Transition Program
The Youth Transition Program will equip young people with disabilities with independent living and job readiness skills.
If you are a young person, disabled, and enrolled in an academic program, Progress Center invites you to sign up for a new program designed to empower youth to navigate life after high school and college.
This new program will cover:
*Disability History
*Disability Rights
*Independent Living Skills
*Financial Literacy Skills
*Job Readiness Skills
*And more
Eligible young people must:
*Be between 14 and 21 years old
*Be disabled
*Be enrolled in an academic program
*Not have an active case with the Department of Rehabilitation Services of Illinois
For more information, contact:
a. Courtney Harfmann at charfmann@progresscil.org 708-209-1500 ext 26
b. Kim Lidell at Kliddell@progresscil.org or 708-388-5011
Flyer for the Research Study includes logistics and contact information
help people with disabilities get better health care?”
The Shirley Ryan Ability Lab, the University of Illinois at Chicago, and Access Living are seeking volunteers for a research study.
To qualify for the study, participants must be: a person with a physical disability, receive healthcare through Medicaid, be at least 21 years old, in need of help getting health care needs met.
The study includes:
Three 1-hour interviews over the course of one year
Work with Peer Health Navigator for one year
Activities that will take place at UIC at 1919 West Taylor in Chicago
Volunteers will receive $25 for each interview completed.
For more information, contact Susan Magasi at smagas1@uic.edu or 312-996-4603.
Thank you to Access Living, the Center for Independent Living that serves Chicago, Illinois. Access Living published an Action Alert on August 13, asking members of the community to take action against Judge
Brett Kavanaugh, the nominee to the U.S. Supreme Court.
Below is information taken from the Access Living Action Alert. The information includes a link through which individuals can contact their U.S. Senator with concerns about the Kavanaugh nomination.
One important thing you can do RIGHT NOW is send your U.S. Senator an email about this using this updated action link. Please do this, and also ask all of your friends and colleagues to send emails too.
Disability advocates across the country are saying no to Kavanaugh because the nominee poses a threat in these areas:
Health care
Access to health care is life-and-death for people with disabilities. That is why the disability community fought so hard when Congress tried to repeal the Affordable Care Act (ACA) and cut Medicaid. But those wins are at risk if Judge Kavanaugh is confirmed to the Supreme Court. In the past, Judge Kavanaugh has said that he thinks parts of the ACA might be illegal. If the Supreme Court decides the ACA is illegal, millions of people will lose access to health care–especially people with disabilities and other pre-existing conditions.
Self-Determination
People with disabilities are often denied the right to make their own choices. One case in particular shows that Judge Kavanaugh has not respected the rights of people with disabilities.
DC made two women with intellectual disabilities have abortions, even though the women didn’t want to. DC also made another woman with an intellectual disability have eye surgery. These were not surgeries that they needed to save their lives. In general, DC usually didn’t ask people with disabilities what they wanted before letting doctors operate on them.
Judge Kavanaugh said that was okay. He said that DC did not need to ask people before letting doctors operate on them. He said that people with intellectual disabilities do not have the right to have any say about their bodies and their health care. He said it was okay for a state to operate on people with intellectual disabilities, even if the person said no. Judge Kavanaugh said it doesn’t matter what people with intellectual disabilities want.
Because of Judge Kavanaugh’s decision, it took a long time for these women to get justice.
Enforcement of Civil Rights Laws
Congress has passed civil rights laws to help stop discrimination. Judge Kavanaugh has made many decisions that would make these laws more narrow and harder to enforce. His rulings have also made it harder for workers, voters, and people with disabilities to use our rights.
Education
Education is very important to the disability community. IDEA says that all students with disabilities have a right to a Free and Appropriate Education. School voucher programs often make families give up their rights in order to use the voucher. But Judge Kavanaugh has a long history of advocating for vouchers. Advocates are also worried that Judge Kavanaugh’s views on vouchers might hurt how he thinks about the rights of students with disabilities in general.
Presidential Power
The President has to follow all of our laws, even if he doesn’t like a certain law. Judge Kavanaugh has said that the President should get to choose which laws to follow. That is very dangerous. If the President didn’t like an important disability law, like the Affordable Care Act (ACA), Judge Kavanaugh would say that the President could just ignore it. Ignoring the law would hurt people with disabilities.
Thank you again to Amber Smock and to Access Living for developing this material.
Image of Progress Center community members at the 2018 AccessChicago Expo
Statement from Progress Center for Independent Living on the 28th Anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act
As Progress Center for Independent Living celebrates the 28th anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) on July 26, 2018, we applaud the members of the disability community who advocated fearlessly to pass the law, which was signed by President George HW Bush on July 26, 1990. Their dedicated work has paved the way in securing equality and inclusion for people with disabilities.
Many physical barriers have been eliminated as a result of the ADA, giving people with disabilities and opportunity to participate in society. The elimination of physical barriers benefits not only people with disabilities, but all people, creating better access for fathers pushing strollers, travelers carrying luggage, and seniors navigating their communities.
One significant barrier that people with disabilities still encounter, however, is misguided and antiquated attitudes and misconceptions about disability. Many still believe disability should be pitied, disability should be cured, and that people with disabilities living their lives the way a non-disabled person would is inspirational. The ADA can’t change these attitudes; as the law moves into its 29th year, it is up to people with disabilities and their allies to continue to educate and change perceptions some people have toward people with disabilities. People often don’t pay attention to the views of disabled people, but as more and more do, attitudes and perceptions will begin to change.
The Americans with Disabilities Act is law that protects all people with disabilities, no matter their race, ethnicity, gender, or sexuality. Moving forward, disability advocates must also address racism, bigotry and prejudice within our own community. For too long, the voices and concerns of people of color within the disability community have been silenced or ignored. For too long, the community has not been a community that is fully inclusive and representative of all its members, and the community has failed to prioritize issues that impact disabled people of color and disabled people who are LGBTQ.
The ADA is a vehicle that drives the spirit of civil rights for people with disabilities. In order to continue the success of the Americans with Disability Act, all members of the community and members of the non-disabled community must work together and create an inclusive movement that welcomes all members and that supports all members. Progress Center is ready and Progress Center is excited to play a role in this effort. People who have experienced or are experiencing discrimination, or who have concerns about issues impacting people with disabilities, are encouraged to call Progress Center at (708) 209-1500.
Progress Center is the Center for Independent Living that serves Suburban Cook County. Progress Center works to provide people with all types of disabilities the tools and resources to be independent in their own homes. Progress Center is one of 22 centers serving Illinois, and one of more than 400 centers in the United States.
Flyer with voter registration information for Mount Prospect
The week of July 15 is the third – annual National Disability Voter Registration Week. The week is coordinated by REV UP to increase the political power of people with disabilities while engaging candidates and the media to recognize the disability community. REV UP stands for Register Educate Vote! Use your Power!
The week is designed to encourage people with disabilities and their families, friends, neighbors, co-workers and caretakers to register to vote.
Voting can protect the issues people with disabilities care about, especially at the State and local levels.
The League of Women Voters will be at the Mount Prospect Library during this year’s NDVRW to register voters and answer questions. Please bring two forms of identification with at least one showing your current address.
Sunday, July 15 noon to 4 p.m.
Tuesday, July 17 9 a.m. to noon
Wednesday, July 18 7 to 9 p.m.
Mount Prospect Public Library, 10 South Emerson Street, 847-253-5675
The Campaign for a Welcoming Illinois is organizing a Day of Action in support of Illinois Legislation that supports keeping immigrant families together. Access Living put together an Action Alert to make it easy to contact the Governor.
Below is information from an Action Alert creating by Access Living:
The Campaign for a Welcoming Illinois is asking people to call Governor Rauner’s office today to encourage him to sign bills that keep immigrant families together. We’d like to ask you to help!
The bills are:
SB 34 (VOICES Act): provides some protection options for immigrant crime victims
SB 35 (Safe Zones Act): prohibits state and local law enforcement from carrying out federal immigration efforts at locations including state-funded schools, state-funded medical treatment and health care facilities, public libraries, facilities operated by the Secretary of State, and state courts
SB 3488 (No Registry Act): would ban creation of registries based on religion or national origin
Please call the Governor’ s Springfield office at 217-782-0244, or send him an email. If you would like to send an email, use this link: Contact Governor Rauner
The Campaign for a Welcoming Family recommends that callers give a message similar to this:
“Hi. My name is ___. I am an Illinois resident. I am contacting you today to ask the governor to sign SB 34, SB 35 and SB 3488 to keep families together and make Illinois welcoming for all. Thank you!”
Following the State of the State delivered by Governor Rauner on January 31, 2018, Progress Center calls on Governor Rauner to utilize the final year of his first term in office to increase community-based support for people with disabilities in Illinois. Progress Center is one of 22 Centers for Independent Living in Illinois. Each Center provides services and delivers advocacy that give people with disabilities the tools to be independent in communities of their choice, outside of institutions. Amidst the Illinois Budget Impasse that plagued Governor Rauner’s first term, Centers for Independent Living, like hundreds of other social service agencies, were devastated by the impasse. Because payment for state contracts was delayed, centers were forced to take out lines of credit, institute furlough days, and lay-off staff. Progress Center ended up losing three staff as a result of the impasse, and lost two programs, one that funded back up personal assistants for people with disabilities, and one that supported Latinos with disabilities in the Home Services Program. More so than Centers for Independent Living, people with disabilities across Illinois have been impacted not only by the effects of the Illinois Budget Impasse, but also by Illinois Policy.
At a time when national trends are moving toward community-based services instead of institutional services, Illinois instituted a near-sighted Overtime Policy for the Illinois Home Services Program. The Home Services Program gives tens of thousands of low-income people with disabilities access to personal assistants, who provide support with day-to-day activities, which allow people with disabilities to live in their own homes rather than nursing homes. The overtime policy mandates unnecessary restrictions, and has left some people with disabilities unable to find personal assistants to cover their needs.
Also, as some states have closed down institutions that segregate people with disabilities, the seven state run institutions for people with developmental disabilities that were open when Governor Rauner took office remain open today. The institutions rob people with disabilities of the opportunity to live in and contribute to integrated communities. They cost thousands of dollars more per person to operate each year compared to community-based services. While the inefficient institutions continue to operate and waste money, people with disabilities in the community go without services.
In his speech on January 31, 2018, Governor Rauner said, “elements of social progress seem lost in Government.” In his final year, Rauner has the opportunity to contribute to social progress. In his role as Governor, he can assert his leadership to work with the disability community and its allies to build and strengthen the Home Services Program. In his position as Governor, he can call for the closure of archaic, state run institutions for the disabled. Also in his speech, Governor Rauner said it will take a “…joint effort to restore public trust.” For people within the Progress Center community, Governor Rauner has the opportunity to rebuild trust by making a commitment to community-based services for the disabled, and backing up that commitment with action.
