News & Press Releases

There's No Place Like Home

Famlies and advocates rally support to promote programs designed to keep adults and children with developmental disabilities in their local communities.

PRESS RELEASE

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: February 6, 2007

For more information, contact Charlotte Cronin, The Family Support Network of Illinois, at 309-693-8981 or Kimberly Maddox, The Autism Society of Illinois, at 630-691-1270.

Springfield, Ill. — The Autism Society of Illinois, the Family Support Network and The Arc of Illinois kicked off their statewide campaign today urging the Illinois General Assembly to provide increased funding for services for adults and children with disabilities in Illinois. The organizations are requesting an additional $52 million investment in new funding to help adults and children who are currently not receiving much needed services. These programs are designed to keep adults and children in their local community and with their families.

The programs in need of additional funding include the Family Assistance program, Home-Based Support Services, Community Integrated Living Arrangements and the Children’s Supports Services Waiver.

“We want our children to stay in our home with us but if we are not able to get the supports we need to do that our only option will be to move them into a residential setting for their own safety,” said Christine Woosley a Bloomingdale, Illinois resident with two sons, ages 6 and 3, both with severe autism, who spoke on behalf of keeping her children at home with their families to receive services. “We do not want it to come to that. It would be tragic for us, tragic for our sons, and expensive for the state of Illinois.”

The programs in need of additional funding would provide services to 2,542 children in Illinois under the age of 18 who are in need of services, 444 adults with developmental disabilities who need support to continue to live at home, which is a less expensive setting than residential living, and 250 people who need to transition to living away from their family home.

“These programs represent real help for real families and individuals today,” Charlotte Cronin, Executive Director of the Family Support Network, said. “Services are tied to the individual first, not the agency or service provider. They offer individuals and families the opportunity to be flexible and creative, to design the services best suited to their needs.”

Another main focus of this statewide campaign is to generate funding for programs to assist adult Illinoisans with developmental disabilities currently living with parents or caregivers and who need to transition to community living. In Illinois, there are 964 adults with significant disabilities living with a caregiver over the age of 60, 286 of which are living with parents over the age of 80. Sheila Dickson, a self-advocate from Peoria, spoke from experience on what it meant to her life that she was able to move out of her parents’ home and into a local community living arrangement.

“As my parents got older, they worried about where I would live when they couldn’t help me anymore,” said Dickson. “About eight years ago, I was able to move into a group home in Peoria and receive services there. It is my home now.”

The organizations encourage families and individuals with developmental disabilities to contact them at www.autismillinois.org, www.familysupportnetwork.org, www.thearcofil.org or 309-693-8981 to learn more about the services and programs available for people with developmental disabilities.

“We need to help society’s most vulnerable human beings,” said Cronin “And no one knows those challenges of caring for children and adults with developmental disabilities better than their families.”