Thursday, December 29, 2016
Hello everyone, and welcome to our blog today! From all of us here at Integrated Living Opportunities (ILO), Happy Holidays! We hope that you are enjoying a relaxing and joyous holiday season with family and friends.
As the past year draws to a close, we would like to take the opportunity to reflect on our accomplishments in 2016 – we are proud and grateful to report that we have had a successful year at ILO. It has truly been a year of firsts for us, as we have broken ground with many of our goals, i.e. a website launch, hiring staff members, having our first official fundraiser, and seeing a group of our self-advocates move into their own apartments!
Today, we would like to take the opportunity to celebrate and share with you some of our 2016 accomplishments.
Launching our Internet Presence
In 2016, ILO formalized its Internet presence by finishing and launching a website, www.ilonow.org. This website – which came together with the help of ILO board members, volunteers, and participating family members – was a team effort, and is an example of what ILO can achieve when we join forces for a common goal. To revisit the launch of our website and learn all about ilonow.org’s features, please read our blog ILO: Launching Our Brand New Website.
In addition to launching the website, we also developed a social media presence by creating a Facebook page, a Twitter account, and by becoming active on LinkedIn. Please follow the above links to follow ILO on each social media account.
Fundraising and Socializing
Our very first ILO official “Fun”raiser was held at Beers and Cheers Too in Maryland. This fundraiser, which was spearheaded by ILO board member Glan Lazovick was very successful. Attendees had a great time listening to live music while sharing drinks and food and raising money to help ILO cover start up expenses. The event also introduced our organization, mission and goals to new members of the community. We would like to extend a huge thank you to Glen from all of us.
2016 also saw the start of our first social group, ILO Meetup, launched in September 2016. ILO’s Meetup page and group is organized by Ellie Goerdt (a special education teacher) and has been created for the self-advocates of ILO and any other young adults with developmental disabilities (DD) who wish to participate in social activities. The Meetup group meets every Saturday – please check out the ILO Meetup webpage, and join the group for more information.
ILO Grows: Self-Advocates Achieve Independent Living and ILO Welcomes New Staff
This year we celebrated the beginning of a new community pod at the Crossings at Old Town Gaithersburg, a brand new apartment complex in Maryland. Four self-advocates – Robert, Matt, Shaun and Andrew – have successfully realized their goal to achieve independent living by establishing homes in the Crossings. From all of us here, we would like to extend huge congratulations to these four individuals! We also congratulate their friends and family members who helped along the way. As participating families, they will continue to help ILO as other self-advocates become fully integrated members of their respective communities. (Note: please visit our blog Big Moves: ILO Self Advocates Achieve Independent Living to learn more.)
Due to the development of this new pod, ILO was able to welcome its first official staff member, Sherita Mason. Sherita has come on board to act as a community builder. Her role is to work with ILO self-advocates, participating family members, and members of the community to build strong ties within the pod and into the surrounding community.
ILO has also invited independent contractor Chris Paulene to join our administrative team and Liesl Lukacs from VineBUZZ Web to manage our website and online presence. All of us here at ILO extend a huge welcome to these new staff members. We look forward to working with together.
Learn More and Join ILO Now
Again, thanks for visiting our website today. We hope you are inspired by what we have achieved, and continue to follow us as we continue to build more intentional communities for adults with disabilities in the Maryland and D.C. area. If you would like to learn more about the work that we do, please take a moment to browse through our website, and subscribe to our blog – we will be publishing posts semi-weekly in order to keep you informed as to our progress. If you would like to join ILO and learn how to create an intentional community for your family member with a disability, please contact us! We are always looking to grow our networks of support and would love to have you on board. We are in the process of organizing a New Futures Initiative™ training —the first crucial step in becoming part of the ILO community—and would love to add your name to the list of attendees!
