Lester and Rosalie Anixter Center
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Mission Statement
Anixter Center provides an array of services to help people with disabilities and related challenges live, learn, work, play and become productive contributors in the community. Through 37 programs at 36 primary locations across greater Chicago, Anixter Center serves more than 8,000 children and adults with all types of disabilities and advocates for their rights to participate fully and equally in society.
About This Cause
Founded in 1919 as an orphanage for children who lost their parents in Chicago’s influenza epidemic, Anixter Center’s mission is to provide an array of services and supports to help people with disabilities and related challenges to live, learn, work, and play in the community. At 36 locations across greater Chicago, the agency serves more than 8,000 children, teens, and adults annually–most of whom are living at or below the federal poverty level. Without Anixter Center they would have few, if any places, to turn for the help they need to succeed. Anixter Center utilizes a person centered approach, focusing on clients as individuals defined by who they are—their goals, gifts, and dreams—rather than their disabilities and are strong advocates for the rights of people with disabilities and their full inclusion and participation in the community. The expansive scope and depth of our 37 programs makes Anixter Center uniquely positioned to provide the individualized services needed to help people with disabilities reach their greatest potential. Unlike many similar agencies that focus on a particular age group or type of disability, Anixter Center serves people with a broad range of disabilities at all stages of their lives. Programs centered on five key areas including education, employment, health, housing, and community inclusion. These issues are then developed to specifically and effectively address the additional barriers faced by people with disabilities. Among our many programs are: • National Lekotek Center (Lekotek) provides direct services to families who have young children with special needs (ages 0-8). Through the use of toys and individualized, family-based, therapeutic play sessions, Lekotek helps children with special needs reach milestones that once seemed impossible, while at the same time strengthening family bonds. • Chicago Hearing Society’s (CHS) Youth Program fosters self-reliance and inclusion for young, deaf, hard of hearing, and DeafBlind students who come from low-income families living in Chicago’s most underserved communities. CHOICES for Parents is a statewide, 30 member coalition in Illinois collaborating to address the barriers to success faced by children with an identified hearing loss. • Stuart G. Ferst School is a therapeutic day school for students with exceptionally challenging disabilities and behaviors (ages 7-21) achieve academic success. Ferst School’s staff employ a wide range of teaching strategies, and learning outcomes are defined by the needs and abilities of each student and his or her family, with the overall goal of becoming contributing members of society. • The Jack Ehrlich Literacy Program is Chicago’s first and only free literacy program designed to meet the unique needs of adults with disabilities. For more than 20 years, the Literacy Program has been bringing together adult learners who have disabilities and volunteer tutors from the community to help learners work to accomplish self-identified literacy goals including learning the alphabet, being able to understand prescriptive medication instructions or public transportation maps, gaining computer skills, studying for the GED, finding a job, starting a business, and other daily living needs. Competitive Employment: • Employment Opportunities helps clients with disabilities secure and succeed at jobs in the community. Services include job readiness assistance, employment counseling and career development. • JobWorks provides individualized employment assistance to clients who are deaf or hard of hearing. Services range from helping with job searches, providing interpreters for interviews, to offering ongoing support to clients once they are hired. • Professional Placement Services is geared to individuals with disabilities who have professional degrees or experience. Staff work with clients to match their skills to appropriate jobs and provide continuing support once clients are hired. • Employment to Independence, which is offered by Anixter Center’s division, CALOR, helps adults with disabilities find work. While open to all, the program specializes in helping those whose first language is Spanish. • Anixter Center’s Packaging Services and Janitorial Services employs approximately 200 people with disabilities in packaging and assembling work and cleaning and maintenance services for local businesses. Chicago Hearing Society (CHS) is a division of Anixter Center that provides a variety of health, social services and advocacy to primarily low-income individuals who are deaf, hard of hearing, or DeafBlind. Key services include a Hearing Health Clinic and Hearing Aid Bank, as well as the first and only Domestic Violence Program in the Chicago area specifically geared to those who are deaf. Day Mental Health Services (DMHS) provides free psychosocial rehabilitation services to meet the needs of this underserved population. DMHS supports individuals with mental illness to help them through the process of recovery, so that they may function at a higher level, become self-reliant and relate better to the world around them. Anixter Center also uniquely offers these services to those who are deaf or hard of hearing. Out-Patient Substance Abuse Services recognizes that people with disabilities experience substance abuse issues that cannot be addressed with traditional treatment strategies. Staff uses a combination of best practices such as contingency management and motivational strategies, American Sign Language and extended treatment to provide the most effective and comprehensive treatment possible for persons with disabilities and a substance use disorder. Residential Services provides people with disabilities face safe, adapted and adequate housing, which is also critical to achieving independence. Through the program, Anixter Center manages, maintains, and staffs fourteen 24/7 group residences (Community Integrated Living Arrangements/CILAs). All clients living in the group homes have developmental disabilities. Some have at least one other disability and the majority also have a mental illness (an invisible disability). Additionally, the agency maintains 124 units of accessible HUD housing for people with disabilities who require less supportive assistance. Home-Based Services provides Medicaid eligible people with developmental disabilities vital, individualized services to help them live in their own homes as long as possible. In addition to serving the unique needs of each person, staff also considers the needs of their families and/or caregivers. The program helps clients with services including Personal Support Workers, accessible home modifications, specialized medical equipment, medical providers, and more. Community Resources and Support (CRS) helps adults who have developmental disabilities, are blind, deaf, or DeafBlind to live and work successfully in the community. The key to CRS’ success is its multi-track offerings, which, much like a college class schedule, offers clients a variety program choices from which to choose including Sensory Development (helps to develop/enhance communication skills while learning to utilize and stimulate all of their senses); Social Recreation (increases and fosters self-esteem, independence, inclusion, integration, leisure awareness and socialization); Vocational Enhancement (assists participants in increasing their vocational skills and independence); and Wellness (provides expressive therapy groups, empowering self-determination through engagement in the creative process). Adult Community Transition (ACT) helps young adults with developmental disabilities transition from special education in North Suburban High Schools to independent adult life in the community. For young adults with disabilities, graduating from high school and leaving its supportive, structured environment can be overwhelming. While their peers are excited about the infinite options for their futures, these young adults are facing a void – a loss of belonging, relating, learning, and contributing. ACT eases this often stressful shift by facilitating the integration of these young adults into the community through supporting individualized employment and volunteer opportunities; case management; educational activities; as well as socialization and recreational activities in the community.