LEAP: News: EEOC

On June 14, LEAP accepted the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission "Freedom to Compete" award.  LEAP was chosen to be among many entries and one of only 7 awards.  To quote the EEOC:

Since its beginning, LEAP has followed this core philosophy by hiring, training and promoting qualified persons with disabilities to help other persons with disabilities find and retain employment. Each person working at LEAP, with or without disabilities, lives the vision of “total accessibility and complete inclusion” for all.

Read the EEOC press release  
Read the stories of all the 2006 "Freedom to Compete" winners 
Read the June 29 article from Cleveland's Plain Dealer

The following is the acceptance speech given in Washington DC by Executive Director Melanie Hogan (second from the right) and Benefits Specialist Anne Marble.  In it, they share the stories of staff who are managing their disability and not letting disability manage them.

Thank you, Chair Domingues, vice-chair, commissioners, and Dan, who is here from our Cleveland EEOC office, for this award – this is quite an honor for our agency.

Linking Employment, Abilities and Potential, better known as LEAP, provides information, education, training, employment and independent living services to persons with disabilities. Based in Cleveland, our programs and services reach 15 counties in Northeast Ohio.

In the State of Ohio we are one of ten Centers for Independent Living, a Rehabilitation Services Administration program through the US Department of Education; We are one of seven Advocating for Public Policy Change (APPC) sites, an Administration for Children and Families project, through the Ohio Developmental Disabilities Council; We are one of four High School /High Tech project locations, a US Department of Labor/Office of Disability Employment Policy Project, through the Ohio Governor’s Council; And we are one of four Benefits Planning, Assistance and Outreach (BPAO) projects, through the Social Security Administration.

Our programs and services are accredited by CARF, the Commission on Rehabilitation Accreditation. We are recognized by the Ohio Association of Non-profit Organizations for achieving Standards of Excellence. As a Center for Independent Living we meet the US Department of Education Standards and Assurances; our youth development program is a National Youth Employment Coalition - PEPNet awardee, meeting the international Promising and Effective Practices Network’s standards. Our Attendant Training program complies with National Association of Home Care Standards; and our Benefits Planning, Assistance and Outreach (BPAO) project utilizes the continuous quality improvement, Organizational Assessment Tool, to improve efficiency and effectiveness.

I had to say all that because, organizationally, we work very hard to achieve recognition for our mission-driven, value based, quality focused, outcome oriented, service delivery. For our staff, however, it is simply about opening the doors to opportunity by eliminating barriers and leveling the playing field. And they know about these things, because the majority of our 50 staff partners are persons with disabilities themselves, who understand the journey from isolation and limitations, to employment and greater independence and control in their lives. So I’m going to take this opportunity to tell you about a few of them.

Tim, for example, is our receptionist. Tim had been working in a sheltered workshop at United Cerebral Palsy for 21 year, making an average of $4.00 an hour when he was hired by LEAP in 1996. Earning a wage that doesn’t jeopardize his benefits, he was able to move out of the nursing home he had been living in for 26 years (since the age of 17) and into a home he now shares with three other men. “My Dream for the future is to get my own place and be more independent without losing my Medicaid Waiver, services and supports”, he says.

Sheila is a Licensed Social Worker and a coordinator in our school-to-work transition/youth development program – Job Link. Young, energetic and legally blind, Sheila demonstrates to the youth she works with, in an impoverished city school district, that a disability does not prevent someone from achieving his or her career and life goals. As a volunteer with the Girl Scouts, 4-H and the Cleveland Metroparks-Institute of the Great Outdoors and Youth Outdoors, she is a role model for community involvement and empowerment. Sheila sets an example of how significant barriers can be overcome.

Elsie, the Director of our Independent Living program and services, was born with an arteriovenous malformation, an AVM, which is a condition in which blood vessels in the spine are tangled. An embolization attempt in 1983 to treat the condition, resulted in a stroke that left Elsie paralyzed. Despite this, Elsie never looked at herself as having a disabling condition after the initial shock – “it was only a tragedy for that first year”, she says. She has always believed that anything is possible. Using a wheelchair for mobility changed her views on life –knowing that a change in physical function changes only the function of the body, not that of the whole person – Elsie demonstrates her conviction that people with disabilities can achieve whatever they set out to accomplish.

Steve has been running all of his life, though he has had no use of his legs since he was two years old.  A love of sports was in the family and Steve grew up wrestling, playing baseball, football and soccer with the neighborhood kids. He carried the football laces in his teeth, used his hands to kick the soccer ball and crawled to first base as fast as some of the kids could run. Steve has overcome several disabling conditions: a childhood accident resulting in paraplegia, the early death of both parents, and subsequent alcohol addiction. He has combined all that he has experienced and accomplished into a life focused on helping the community integrate and support people with disabilities through sports. Apt for a wheelchair user, Steve’s motto is push hard or push home. At LEAP Steve works with people with disabilities to prepare for, find and maintain independent living, teaching them to advocate for themselves: to push hard.

As the Program Assistant, Donna is a mainstay for LEAP’s Attendant Training program.  She is responsible for the smooth running of the office and works with consumers to overcome their individual barriers impacting training and independent living.  Born with Osteogenesis Imperfecta, Donna is an excellent role model to youth and others with disabilities.  Her life is full and meaningful. Working full-time and living independently in her own apartment, she is testament that having a disability does not define who you are.

Colleen attended college taking pre-med courses until she changed focus and became a religious sister. Having been a nun for a little over seven years, Colleen now works as an Employment Specialist with our Community Employment Program. This position requires high energy, multi-tasking, frequent travel and long hours.  Quite a feat for someone who is living with, and fighting Lupus.  She is on a list of drugs a mile long, including weekly injections which mirror the side of effects of chemotherapy and she misses little or no work.  Colleen’s smiling face daily greets the people she is working with, offering encouragement and hope when they feel their disability will keep them from obtaining employment.  She explains work site accommodations and teaches them, by example, the power of motivation to overcome their fears when looking for a job. 

Reggie too, works with individuals who are seeking employment, from workforce referrals, to referrals from county boards, to fellow veterans, individuals are prepared for work and assisted in finding and retaining employment. Part of their training program includes addressing and managing personal barriers. A topic Reggie knows all too well. Dealing daily with neuropathy as result of diabetes, chronic knee pain, and severe back pain from deteriorated disks - extreme pain that morphine twice a day doesn’t fully alleviate - Reggie teaches his consumers that not all barriers can be eliminated – but they can be overcome with personal determination.

And then there’s Anne. Anne is one of our Certified Benefits Specialists who joined me today to share her journey.

Anne: Here I was, climbing the corporate ladder; having a cum laude in Human Resources; working the career as a certified HR Generalist/Consultant and Mediator.  Then things got a little fuzzy; side effects from Diabetes began to emerge:  ESRF, congestive heart episodes, and vision loss. After a kidney transplant work was difficult to get and to keep.  And then I met LEAP.  The job I got was just “blind luck”, because I am helping myself and others in finding the all important recognition of our talents, skills, life experiences, and potentials:  To live, work, recreate within the full community; to fulfill needs, wants and expectations as full participating members of that community.

Thanks Anne.

Recently, one of the 17 yr. old students in our High School/High Tech program, Kevin, who has autism, and is not prone to social contact, took a 5 hr. drive down to Cincinnati, with the program coordinator, to attend a Statewide High School/High Tech gathering. When they got back, his mother was waiting in the driveway. It was quite an emotional moment for her when Kevin got out of the car and said, “I made a friend.” The family will be forever grateful to ‘our wonderful staff person, Diane’ for providing Kevin that opportunity.

Our staff are phenomenal: from rallying around a co-worker who took in 13 people who survived Katrina, to providing support, encouragement and hope to one another on a daily basis, they are models of endurance, determination and ability, for other persons with disabilities who want to increase their independence, become employed and self-sufficient, and be considered simply as a neighbor and a friend.

So, we have plans to do more because, although we serve approximately 1,500 people a year through our various services and programs, we’ve barely begun to address the barriers faced by the approximately 700,000 people with disabilities in our local communities.

And as we are planning the development of our assistive technology, education and training center, Steve continues to level the playing field as an Independent Living Specialist, but he can’t wait until we are able to start a recreation program so we can invite all the Kevin’s that we serve, and all their friends, to play ball.

On behalf of our consumers and their families, our staff and our Board of Directors, Thank-you. 

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