Thursday, October 20, 2016
Hello everyone, and welcome back to our blog this week! Thanks to all for taking the time to visit our website again.
The last few months at ILO have truly been a time of positivity, progress, and growth; due in no small part to the hard work of our Board of Directors, participating families, self-advocates, and volunteers, we have been able to take some giant strides towards meeting our goals for inclusive, integrated intentional communities for adults with developmental disabilities. From the success of our update seminar to a series of upcoming recreational events and fundraisers, and the highly anticipated move-in of four self-advocates, this truly has been a fall to celebrate. As you can see, we have much to share– please join us as we discuss everything that has been happening!
Update Seminar
To begin, we would like to share news of Integrated Living Opportunity’s updated seminar, Come Learn About Integrated Living Opportunities, that we hosted on September 27, 2016, at the Treatment and Learning Center in Maryland. We are pleased to announce that this seminar was very well attended – 47 people showed up to learn about how ILO works to help adults with disabilities create and live full, inclusive, integrated lives in a community of their choice, according to their personal hopes and dreams.
At the seminar, we shared with attendees a brief history of how our organization came to be, as well as our vision, goals, and the strategies that we plan to implement to build intentional communities for adults with disabilities in the Maryland and Washington, D.C. areas. We were also blessed to have four families with self-advocates rapidly approaching their move out dates share their stories with attendees. These families did an incredible job and we would like to take this opportunity to extend our thanks for their support and their hard work. We will be sharing more info about these four self-advocates both at the end of this blog and in future blogs.
Those that attended this seminar and expressed an interest in joining ILO were invited to a follow-up ILO potluck, which will take place on November 19, 2016. This will provide families with an opportunity to ask any follow-up questions they may have, and to explore the lives and communities that are being enriched by ILO self-advocates. As of this date, we have six families that have expressed an interest in attending this potluck and joining ILO. Our network is constantly growing! (Note: if you would like more info or would like to attend this potluck, please email info@ilonow.org.)
Upcoming Events
As mentioned earlier, the next few months at ILO will be jam packed with activities, fundraisers, and the business of growing our intentional communities. To begin, we would like to introduce you to our very first FUN Raiser, at Beers and Cheers Too in Gaithersburg, Maryland. This event will take place Thursday, November 3, 2016,from 6:00-8:00 p.m. and promises to be a very fun event for all involved!
We have arranged for the venue to provide happy hour pricing for the beverages in the Tasting Area, with some light eats and snacks provided. As well, we will be treating attendees to live music by Charlie Plunkett Classic Rock, as well as some modern country. ILO is asking for a donation of $10 per person to attend this event, with all proceeds go to ILO in support of our work in building intentional communities for adults with disabilities. To learn more or to RSVP please email info@ilonow.org.
In addition to our very first FUNraiser (the first of many), we are very excited to announce the launch of ILO’s MeetUp page. In case you are new to Meetup, it is an “online social networking portal that facilitates offline group meet ups in various places around the world. ILO’s Meetup page, organized by Ellie Goerdt (a special education teacher) has been created for the self-advocates of ILO and any other young adult with developmental disabilities (DD) that wish to participate in social activities. Please note that the ILO meet ups are not drop off events – if participants cannot be by themselves they must come with the necessary supports.
To finish off our list of upcoming events, we would like to share with you the most exciting news of this blog -over the next few months, we expect to see four ILO self-advocates achieve their goal of independent living, by moving into their own residences! Robert, Matt, Andrew, and Shaun – four incredibly motivated ILO self-advocates – will be making the big move Oct 21 (tentatively), October 28, October 29 and November 11 respectively. Here at ILO, we feel that these self-advocates and their move towards inclusive and integrated independence deserve their own blog – stay tuned over the coming weeks as we will write and share with you a blog devoted entirely to these four young men and their goal for independence.
Would you like more information?
Thanks for taking the time to visit our blog today and read all about the work that we have been doing over the last few months at ILO. On behalf of the ILO Board of Directors, we would like to thank our participating families and self-advocates for the work that they have done growing communities over the last couple of years. We love working alongside you and watching you grow!
If you would like any information about ILO or the work that is done here, please do not hesitate to contact us! We would love to share with you ILO’s vision for intentional, integrated, inclusive communities for adults with disabilities and we would love to introduce you to our growing network for participating families and self-advocates.
Again, thanks for dropping by! Please visit us again next week.
