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2009 Highlights
December
LEAP Leads with Person-First Approach to Placing Consumers in Employment
Job-seekers who come to LEAP are offered an individualized job-search plan that combines employment services with services to help them acquire the skills they need for maximized independence. Over the past several years, government funders have recognized the wisdom of LEAP’s approach and applauded the agency’s work as a best practice in employment. Furthermore, they’ve backed up their recognition with prestigious grants that have helped LEAP better demonstrate the effectiveness of its approach.
Everyone benefits from exercise and friendship, but for people with disabilities—who often are socially isolated—opportunities for interaction, exercise, and friendship can be lifelines to mental health. Quantum LEAP, a program begun three years ago to offer such opportunities to people with developmental disabilities, has just completed its most successful year to date.
November
To provide Thanksgiving food baskets for Lorain County consumers, LEAP’s Lorain County office collaborated with board and staff members of the Lorain County Labor Agency and members of UAW Local 2000, which represents employees and retirees of Ford’s Ohio Assembly Plant in Avon Lake, Ohio.
October
 That All May Worship, an ecumenical event held Oct. 10, celebrated the common call of all faith traditions to offer access, kindness, and opportunity to all persons, regardless of disability. The event aimed to raise awareness of the needs and barriers that people with disabilities encounter as they attempt to participate fully in various religious traditions.
LEAP has received a federal ARRA (American Recovery and Reinvestment Act) grant to begin Urban Youth Works, an innovative program to address the critical need for appropriate job training and placement for young adults with disabilities, many of whom live in poverty. Working with 80 young adults over a 15-month period, LEAP will provide coordinated services that help them identify and overcome barriers to employment, develop needed skills, and gain meaningful employment or access to postsecondary education and training.
September
 Fourteen tired wheelchairs were tuned up, fixed up, spiffed up, and returned to their happy owners at the 10th annual Wheelchair Repair Day sponsored by LEAP and Invacare Corporation of Elyria, Ohio. The Sept. 11 event was part of the larger Day of Caring sponsored each September by United Way of Greater Lorain County.
 LEAP’s Youth Advocacy Group, formed just this past summer, is already thinking large. A letter composed by the group and addressed to the Cleveland mayor to be elected in November, has been published in Planning & Action: The Journal of the Center for Community Solutions. The letter boldly asks the mayor-to-be to imagine himself as a person with a disability and learn for himself how inaccessible City Hall is.
August
LEAP’s Youth Transition programs placed 123 young people with disabilities in summer employment this year, a number roughly double that of summers in the recent past. “In a normal summer, we place between 40 and 50 kids in summer employment,” said Sandra Carlson, youth transition program director. “We were able to work with so many more this year because we received additional funding through ARRA,” referring to the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009.
LEAP Advocates Testify at State Hearing
More than 50 people with disabilities, including 6 self-advocates from LEAP, gave testimony regarding the difficulties they face both in seeking employment and during employment at a hearing attended by Michael Rench, administrator of the Ohio Rehabilitation Services Commission, Amy Rohling McGee from the governor’s office, and Gwen Ivory from the Ohio Department of Jobs and Family Services.
July
 When Stephen Sydenstricker forgets to change his socks in the morning, a small magnetic sensor inside his unopened sock drawer sends a signal to a computer that reminds him to put on a new pair. Stephen, a 30-year-old with Fragile X Syndrome, and his brohter, Brent, 26, who has the same disability, are benefitting from a pilot program called the Innovative Independent Living Project (IILP).
June
Christian Borrero and David McKee, two of LEAP’s youth advocates, attended the 2009 National Council on Independent Living (NCIL) conference June 5-8 in Washington, D.C., where they learned about urgent issues in advocacy and then put that knowledge into action. Deborah Nebel, LEAP’s director of public policy, accompanied them.
May
LEAP Graduate Garners Impressive IT Internship
 David McKee, a graduate of LEAP’s High School/High Tech program, has been selected by the American Association for People with Disabilities (AAPD) to complete a summer internship with the federal government in Washington, D.C. McKee is one of just 10 students nationally to receive this honor.
 LEAP has become a provider for HOME Choice (Helping Ohioans Move, Expanding Choice), a demonstration program that aims over the next five years to transition 2,200 seniors and people with disabilities from institutions to home- and community-based settings. The program is intended to help Ohio achieve a better balance in its long-term service delivery system by lessening its bias for institutional care. This is expected to result in cost savings over the next several years.
LEAP Educates Legislators on Disability Needs and the Budget
Five LEAP advocates attended the March 19 State House Rally and Advocacy Day on Home Health Care Services and Supports. The group educated legislators on many public policy issues that directly affect state-funded programs and services for people with disabilities, including community inclusion, self-determination, self-sufficiency, and the development of independent living skills.
February
 The National Council on Aging (NCOA) has awarded 10 grants nationally—one of them to a coalition of agencies that includes LEAP—to launch 10 Benefits Enrollment Centers. These centers will provide a fast, free, and confidential way for adults with disabilities and seniors to find out if they are eligible for public benefit programs, as well as assistance with application processes. The NCOA encouraged community collaborations for this project, and LEAP partnered with the Western Reserve Area on Aging and eight other Cleveland-area organizations in the project, which was featured locally on Channel 5. LEAP is the only agency in the Cleveland group that represents persons with disabilities.
January
 When life gives you lemons, you’re supposed to make lemonade. But what do you do when life throws you an ice storm? Three LEAP advocates headed for the Disability Policy Coalition’s Legislative Training on Disability Issues made the best of a icy situation when their meeting was cancelled due to poor weather.
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