Backgrounder #2 for February 18 Media Advisory: "Individuals with disabilities talk about the powerful impact of the Governor's proposed 2005 state budget"

Illinois' rank of 47th in funding of people with disabilities is truly shameful.

Founded in 1919, Anixter Center has a reputation as an innovator. Its mission is to assist individuals with disabilities to live and work successfully in the community. Anixter Center operates approximately 70 programs in 35 Chicago-area locations - as far north as Winthrop Harbor and as far west as Schaumburg. More than 5,000 are served annually. Essential to our mission is an active role as an advocate for the rights of people with disabilities to live and work successfully in the community.

A leading provider of high-quality vocational, residential and educational options, substance abuse prevention and treatment, and health care, Anixter Center also has three divisions: Chicago Hearing Society, committed to empowering deaf, hard-of-hearing and hearing people to communicate with each other, thereby lessening the isolation which separates them; CALOR, an organization based in the Humboldt Park neighborhood that offers bilingual rehabilitation assistance to people with disabilities in the Latino community, including those affected by HIV/AIDS; and National Lekotek Center, a national organization that is the country’s central source on toys and play for children with special needs.

Innovation: A leader in the rehabilitation field, Anixter Center provides customer-driven, state-of-the-art services, including: ACCESS at Anixter Center, a unique collaboration with ACCESS Community Health Network, an outpatient, primary-care health center exclusively for people with disabilities; Addiction Recovery of the Deaf, the first and only treatment program in Illinois designed exclusively to meet the needs of adults who are deaf or hard of hearing with a substance abuse problem; and the Adult Community Transition Program (ACT), the only program of its kind in Illinois. ACT provides life skills services for young adults with developmental disabilities who are making the transition into fully integrated community life.

Awards: Anixter Center has received numerous awards over the years, including United Way of America ’s 1997 Excellence in Service Award, Interagency Committee on Employees with Disabilities 1997 Non-Profit Agency of the Year and the American Rehabilitation Association’s 1996 Innovative Program Award (ACCESS at Anixter Center.)

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The mission of the Lester and Rosalie Anixter Center is to assist people with disabilities to live and work successfully in the community. Anixter Center is a leading provider of high-quality vocational, residential and educational options, substance abuse prevention and treatment, and health care. Anixter Center is an advocate for the rights of people with disabilities to be full and equal members of the community.