Disability field offers story angles of interest

Anixter Center ’s Public Relations Department would be happy to help you develop story ideas featuring people with disabilities and individuals who are part of Anixter Center ’s highly experienced management team. Here are a handful of ideas we like:

• Political advocacy and the rights of people with disabilities: Anixter Center has been quite successful in its political advocacy efforts, over the past several years. How and why is Anixter Center so active in political advocacy? (One overriding reason is that Illinois ranks an abysmal 47th in its funding of community-based services for people with disabilities.) What's involved in political advocacy in the disability rights arena and why is it so essential?

• Doing well by doing good: Not-for-profit businesses reap (and bestow) rewards: One of Anixter Center ’s longstanding successes is its contract businesses. With operations in packaging, janitorial services and imaging, Anixter Center ’s businesses are largely staffed by people with disabilities. These entities must compete for business with many for-profit businesses, and the playing field is a competitive one in which Anixter Center has succeeded over decades. As former Anixter Center CEO and President Stuart Ferst explained, “Nobody gives us businesses because they like us. They give us business because they like the services we provide.” Through their employment with Anixter Center, individuals with disabilities learn some of the skills they need to succeed in the workplace while developing the self-esteem and confidence that comes from completing a job successfully.

• Literacy programs for people with disabilities: Anixter Center's Literacy Program for people with disabilities is the only one of its kind in Illinois. What are the special need and rewards of such an initiative? Individuals who participate in the program have a variety of disabilities, and are engaged in a variety of activities ranging from reading the selections included in "One Book, One Chicago” and a variety of reading and computer programs. The program is staffed largely by volunteers.

• Young people with disabilities learn about the world of work by running a cafeteria: A small group of young people with disabilities operates the Center Court Grille, an employee cafeteria at the Illinois Department of Transportation Building in Schaumburg, Illinois. It’s an unusual and innovative partnership, and one that works well for all involved.

• The advent of psycho-social rehabilitation: What is psychosocial rehabilitation and how does it represent a significant change in the way individuals with disabilities are being treated? How has this approach made inroads in working with individuals who are mentally ill? Anixter Center ’s psychosocial activities are geared toward assisting clients to regain the ability to carry out major life roles. Our emphasis on group activity provides a microcosm of the larger social environment of the community at large. Specialized services include: yoga; fitness; massage; and music, movement and dance therapies.

• People with disabilities are "all aboard!" for travel: Like so many other folks,many individuals with disabilities like to pack up their suitcases and venture out on a variety of travel adventures—from visiting popular Midwestern travel destinations to spending time camping under the stars—enjoying horseback riding, helping to prepare meals and simply communing with nature.

• Retirement age brings a “greater life” to older individuals with disabilities: The number of people with disabilities in the United States over age 60 is expected to double in the next three decades. Anixter Center ’s Greater Life Program provides community services for seniors with developmental disabilities and is one of the few programs of its kind in Chicago. The active clients in Greater Life refute the notion that seniors with developmental disabilities should languish in their latter years.

• The art(s) of disability: How well (or not) are people with disabilities represented in literature, on television, in theater and in other popular culture?

• The Adult Community Transition (ACT) Program helps young people with disabilities transition to life after high school: Anixter Center is part of an innovative and successful partnership that developed a creative program to teach everyday living skills to students making a transition to post-academic life. This pioneering program has a remarkable impact on young people with developmental disabilities, helping to provide them—importantly—with friends and a sense of belonging.

• What’s the status of the Olmstead Decision, and why does it matter? In 1999, the Supreme Court issued the Olmstead Decision, which clearly challenged local, state and federal governments to develop more opportunities for individuals with disabilities by creating a wider range of accessible systems of cost-effective, community-based services. Taking its cue from Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), Olmstead required states to administer their services, programs and activities “in the most integrated setting appropriate to the needs of qualified individual with disabilities.”

Now, five years after Olmstead’s passage, where do the states – particularly lllinois—stand in adhering to the law? Are individuals with disabilities benefiting from the spirit of Olmstead, or has the law been often overlooked and even ignored? Are people with disabilities being empowered to participate as fully as possible in “everyday life” by, say, living in community-based housing rather than in institutions? Anixter Center has long been an Olmstead advocate, and our CEO and clients have strong opinions about the importance of this pioneering legislation.

• ACCESS at Anixter Center: Through a unique collaboration with ACCESS Community Health Network, Anixter Center has a comprehensive primary health care facility that provides outpatient services for people with disabilities at its 2032 North Clybourn location. The location is convenient for our clients and reduces visits to hospital emergency rooms.

• New Focus, a brain injury rehabilitation program: Brain injuries are a silent epidemic. More than 1.5 million Americans suffer a brain injury each year. Heart-wrenching stories abound in Anixter Center’s New Focus Program, which provides comprehensive rehabilitation to adults with brain injuries. People who have survived strokes, car accidents or tumors gain an opportunity to reintegrate into the community through vocational planning, occupational therapy, cognitive retraining and speech therapy. New Focus is one of the few nonprofit, outpatient programs for brain-injured survivors in the Chicago area.