Please Join United Cerebral Palsy And Team Payton at P.J. McIntyre’s Irish Pub for a Night of Fun, Food and Drinks!  

 
Saturday, April 21st
7:00 – 10:00 p.m.
P.J. McIntyre’s Irish Pub
17119 Lorain Avenue
Cleveland, Ohio  44111

Tickets are $25 per person and include an appetizer buffet, unlimited draft beer, well drinks, pop and coffee.  They can be purchased at the door or by contacting Carrie Light at c_bremick@msn.com to purchase in advance.

Pursuing our interests and sharing it with our family and friends is a driving force of human nature that we all share. It adds complexity and interest to our lives and both joins us together and singles us out as unique at the same time. Mike’s passion is making music, and he jumped at the opportunity to share it with our UCP family.

Mike is new to making music, but has loved listening to music–especially R & B, for a long time. His favorite R&B artist is Mariah Carey. His friend and personal aide Dave helps him lay down rhythm tracks using Garage Band, a popular music making software on the computer. Mike then writes a song over the tracks and he and Dave record Mike singing the song with the rhythm track.

Mike loves getting people together and hanging out with friends outside of work. His favorite place to eat is Buffalo Wild Wings and he can often be found talking on the phone with friends when he is not making music. He is very social and that comes through in his music. He feels that music is one way that he can communicate with other people. He would like to share more of his music and get people interested in what he does to show people that folks with disabilities can do all sorts of things, and have interests and talents just like anyone else.

One of the ways Mike shares his music is by posting it on the internet through music files that can be played on Real Player or Windows Media Player. Take a listen and see what you think. Mike would love to hear what you think of his music, so please share your thoughts in the comment section below.

Mike’s Music

Thanks to the advocacy efforts of The Arc and other nonprofit organizations in the 1980s, President Ronald Reagan officially declared March to be Developmental Disabilities Awareness Month in 1987.  We have made tremendous progress in promoting and protecting the rights of people with developmental disabilities and creating opportunities for them to live, learn and work as valued members of their communities.   March is not just about Disability Awareness but about the being aware of the person, who they are and their Abilities.   The Americans with Disabilities Act was signed by President George H. Bush on July 26, 1990, only twenty-two years ago.    This week, UCP client Lisa shares her story and speaks to how much things have changed during her lifetime.

I was born in 1957.  Back then, they did not have many of the things they have today, like access to services and therapy for children.  I love my life, but I think things would be different if I had been born later.

In 1977, I came to UCP.  I love the workshop.  Over the years I met lots of people and I have loved some of them.  I was happy to see the change in how people with disabilities are treated.

I have a very nice family, they are good people.  In 2003, I moved into an Independent Living home.  I liked it, but now I am in my own apartment by myself and I love that.

Hindsight is always 20/20, isn’t that the saying? But of course as an adult, looking back to our own teenage years we  realize that it was a critical time in developing our concept of community and the understanding of how our actions impacted not only family and friends but also the greater public. Through the groups that we are involved with as teens we are able to learn the importance of volunteerism, community advocacy and individual impact. Having a positive peer group is often the first step in that journey. Here at UCP, our therapists recently identified that many of our teenage clients were looking for just that, a positive peer group that offered peer to peer interaction through recreational activities, and the PAC was born. This week Becky Ravas, UCP Physical Therapist, shares the story of how the PAC came to be and the growing impact it is having on this group of future community leaders.

Right now there are a handful of clients that we are treating who are teenagers or nearly teenagers. Some are active in the community and others are more isolated. We began to schedule some of the teenage kids for therapy at the same time and they began to naturally form friendships. The therapists witnessed a blossoming of social skills during these interactions and we wanted to facilitate the formation of a peer group. So, a handful of therapists planned a social evening for a dozen teens, their siblings and friends–strictly social with no therapy agenda. This was an opportunity for Children’s Services staff to commend the teens for being role models and outstanding students and all around cool kids. We also asked them what they would like get out of being part of a teen group at UCP. Most of the teens didn’t know each other, but that didn’t matter and after a few ice breakers, the teens were quickly vocal about their desire for more recreational opportunities, wanting to plan social activities like a spaghetti dinner for their families and an opportunity to “hang out” with the UCP staff in a social atmosphere. Our first meeting was filled with uncertainty, but ended with a teen invasion of the therapy gym with a couple kids on swings and several others engaged in a koosh ball battle with the Children’s Services staff, even Intesar, our department Director.

What came out of this first meeting was the understanding that each one of these unique kids had something to share; and that we absolutely had to do it again. We ended up naming the group the PAC, an acronym for Peers Activities Connect. A second and third event soon followed. The second event was more elaborate with invitations sent out, high school volunteers invited, food provided and a speaker from the Metroparks Institute of the Great Outdoors (IGO). During dinner, attendees heard a presentation about potential outdoor and recreational activities from IGO. After the presentation, the teens were divided up into three groups and sent on a Scavenger Hunt throughout the building. The evening was full of giggling as they raced to win the scavenger hunt. The third event was off site at Dancing Wheels, a UCP partner, with a smaller turn out but just as much energy.

The PAC evenings are full of fun and laughter. The events are opening up to teens outside of UCP and participants invite their siblings and friends. The PAC has developed into a club for a unique group of individuals who want to be part of a fun, social group to form friendships and get involved in community recreational activities. Parents are also invited and are offered the opportunity to be social with other parents and meet with UCP case managers on issues that are important to them.

The next PAC event is coming up tomorrow, Thursday March 15th! We will be holding a Shamrock Party complete with green food on the menu, a chance to slime the therapist with green slime and a “dress up the leprechaun” contest. If you would like more information about the PAC and our events, please contact Children’s Services at 216-791-8363 x250.

Becky Ravas
UCP Physical Therapist

March is National Developmental Disabilities Awareness Month!  This month all of us at UCP and throughout the nation are celebrating the accomplishments and contributions of individuals with disabilities in our communities.  This is the first year for the Project SEARCH site at Lorain County Community College (LCCC), and the student interns are already doing a great job at putting their best foot forward, demonstrating that individuals with disabilities are just like their peers–individuals who have a great deal to share with their communities as coworkers, friends and neighbors.  Project SEARCH Site Supervisor Kali Neundorfer is our guest contributor this week, sharing her experience with the Project SEARCH interns as they not only learn new work skills, but also spread disability awareness on the LCCC campus.

The Project SEARCH site at Lorain County Community College has seven extraordinary interns who have truly become ambassadors for people with disabilities and have promoted Disability Awareness on this campus in such a positive way. This made it very exciting for me to “guest blog” during Developmental Disability Awareness Month.

Since we are on a college campus our Project SEARCH site has a different feel than those of other sites that are located in hospitals. Hospitals, in my opinion, are places which foster an attitude of “helping”, which is why the pilot Project SEARCH was started at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital many years ago.  Now that Project SEARCH has grown to sites across the nation, as well as international, and moved to many other types of venues this same foundational value has morphed to fit the different business values of the specific Project SEARCH site.  At LCCC, similarly to many other collegian institutions, the attitude and value is placed in the area of “education.” Inside the classroom and out,  education is clearly what this college stands for, and these interns have been educating the people of this campus in many ways about disabilities.

The internships are very visible to the students and staff on campus, this helps people see the capabilities of individuals with disabilities. The interns have made friends with people outside the departments they work in as well as within and have proven themselves as a valuable part of the workforce. They have become an undeniable asset to this college community and its employees.

The interns are working with many different and diverse departments, specifically The Office of Student Life, Starbucks, Dining Services, Physical Plant Services, The Bass Library, The Children’s Learning Center, Health, Physical Education and Recreation Center and The Stocker Arts Center.  The responsibilities of the interns range from slicing vegetables for the Market Place Salad Bar to maintaining the restrooms throughout some of the buildings. The departments have accepted the interns into their culture and made them feel welcome as though they were any other new employee.  Whether they are enjoying the benefits of free drinks at Starbucks or being able to wear jeans as an employee of the Physical Plant the interns have immersed themselves in the departments.

I am so proud of all of the interns here.  They have all impressed me, their coworkers, supervisors and generally anyone they meet. They have exceeded all expectations and continue to grow, learn and improve their skills daily. They are a wonderful, caring group of individuals that LCCC and Elyria High School should be proud to call their first Project SEARCH Graduating Class.  If these interns and this experience are indicative of what the future holds for Project SEARCH, UCP, or people with disabilities on a broader scale, the future looks very bright!

Kali Neundorfer,
Site Supervisor for Project SEARCH at LCCC

The Project SEARCH location at Lorain County Community College, is a partnership between UCP of Greater Cleveland, Elyria School District, Lorain County Board of Developmental Disabilities, Ohio Bureau of Vocational Rehabilitation and LCCC.