This Saturday, August 22 2026, we will host an outreach / art event outside of Progress Center’s office,  at a side table located at 7521 Madison Street, in Forest Park, from 11am to 2:30pm.  

To access Progress Center with public transit, WE are just 2 blocks North of the CTA BLUE LINE Forest Park TRAIN station + right on the 318 CTA Pace Mainline Bus route(which starts at the station going NORTHBOUND to the BUS STOP at Madison St. and Des Plaines Ave ), + just 4 blocks South / 3 blocks West of the Oak Park GREEN LINE CTA TRAIN station, + the METRA Oak Park TRAIN station- (You can take the 318 BUS SOUTHBOUND to get from those 2 stations to Progress Center, at the BUS STOP at Madison Street and Ferdinand Avenue).

Forest Park’s 2O26 Garage Galleries Festival, garagegalleries.com  garagegalleriesfp.com>garage-galleries-2026                                             

O n  T h i s   S a t u r d a y , Progress Center for Independent Living artists will proudly showcase our paintings, poetry, journaling, sketches, humor, caroling talents, murals, history projects, and many more creative works for the public to get to know the great, vibrant skills, strengths, expressions, and creative interests of the disability community.

Our goal is to utilize our original artistic accomplishments, to go deeper than ever before, into the unknown history of disability community culture, to highlight the many, and often underestimated victories of disability rights advocacy, to discover our dreams and joys, and to welcome ALL to learn about and support our current work to end institutionalization, physician assisted suicide, bias, inaccessibility, and all attacks on our civil rights, in order to educate the public on how powerfully important our opportunities are to voice our emerging autonomy, our experiences, and our unique perspectives, which brilliantly shape the evolving character of our participation in all aspects of society, and prompt the very best of our values for all communities to grow closer as neighbors.

It will also serve as our beautiful invitation to ALL to learn how to become active supporters of our struggles and our Independent Living organizing campaigns, as we continue to recruit new allies to join our efforts to not only abolish paternalism/oppression/ableism/ability supremacy, but to celebrate the many ways that we keep ourselves spiritually, organizationally and emotionally strong, united, and thriving for the next chapters of human rights movement development, diligent systems change collaborations, and we the people’s self-determination essential demands, especially for our youth who we mentor to be tomorrow’s leaders TODAY.

If anyone wishes to participate, and/or contribute your artistic interests, and advocacy talents, and view the day’s diverse group of artistic works, please contact Jonathan Barton jbarton@progresscil.org

Feel free to join us, as together WE will relish each other’s imaginative spirits and visions. !  It will be a very accessible, fun, + family friendly day !   Thank You !