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Future Leaders Complete MNLEND
Graduates and leaders of ICI's MNLEND program recently celebrated accomplishments and urged one another to resolve dire challenges facing people with disabilities. Those challenges include the proposed elimination of federal LEND and other programs providing services and support to the disability community.
"Our work makes real change in communities," said ICI Director Amy Hewitt.
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Star Tribune: "U program that works to keep disabled people in the community could fall to federal budget ax"
ICI director Amy Hewitt worries that the federal dollars that comprise 70% of the center’s funding — about $13 million — is at risk, the Star Tribune reported. Without those funds, Hewitt said, the center’s work to bolster community-based programs and train parents and others to fight for them could cease.
"The institute’s work involves more than research," according to the article. "It offers programs that teach parents how to use the research in their meetings with educators as they shape their children’s future. It also connects with a range of professionals — from health care to education to local government — to help them identify people with developmental or intellectual disabilities and connect them with the services that allow them to stay in the community."
Immediate Impact
Patti Menzel wrote in Impact about her personal experiences with loneliness as someone with autism and how changing her living arrangements has made a positive difference in her sense of belonging in her community.
She also shared her article with the management team at her apartment complex. To her surprise, she was invited to join the board of the organization that owns and manages the affordable housing community where she lives.
"Our voices matter… and leadership is so important in creating culture.”
