GALESBURG, IL — was established in Galesburg 15 years ago. While the name is known in the community, many people still have no idea what the center is and does. Even some people now receiving those services at one point did not know what Stone-Hayes is.
Stone-Hayes serves people in Knox, Warren and Henderson counties. No fee is charged for those services. While it is best known for the work it does to help disabled individuals live independently and speak for themselves, anyone can receive help from the agency. A good example is this summer’s fan drive. Fans were donated to the center or bought by Stone-Hayes and were available to anyone who needed one.
What would the community be like if there were no Stone-Hayes?
Assistant Director Vanya Peterson said there would be a gap.
“If there was no Stone-Hayes, there would be no empowerment for disabled individuals,” Peterson said. “We are an empowering agency. People come here because they want to, not because they have to. It’s the consumer that makes it happen.”
Consumers making it happen
The members of this year’s 16-week Legislative Internship Program developed a disabilities simulator, a demonstration available to area organizations to help their members better understand people with disabilities.
“It bridges the gap between people in society who may not be familiar with disabilities,” Charles Allen of the Stone-Hayes staff explained June 22 when the members of the internship program graduated.
Despite 21 years of the Americans with Disabilities Act, many people still have misconceptions about people with disabilities.
Felicia Owens of Galesburg, one of the graduates of this year’s Legislative Internship Program, is in a wheelchair now, but that has not always been the case. While some Stone-Hayes consumers deal with conditions they were born with, others have had to learn to cope with disabilities later in life.
Owens worked at St. Mary’s Square for eight years, was an in-home certified nurse’s aide and also was a support worker at Bridgeway. Owens most recent job was in the billing department at Galesburg Hospitals Ambulance Service. She suffers from a form of multiple sclerosis.
“That was a wonderful place to work,” she said. “It was like a family atmosphere.”
Owens, who normally is on oxygen, was able to take breathing treatments at the ambulance service, or go home, then come back later and finish her shift.
She lost her job in 2003 when billing was shifted to an outside agency. Owens has been in a wheelchair since 2009. She is waiting for a total knee replacement once the modification of her house is completed.
“Even with a new knee, I don’t think I could walk from here to The Register-Mail,” she said of a two-block distance.
Owens and Deb Williams, another Stone-Hayes client, admitted they did not know what Stone-Hayes did until they needed the agency’s services.
“I thought Stone-Hayes helped with like teenage pregnancies,” Owens said.
A happy memory for her is the years she worked at the GHAS booth at the Knox County Fair. She was looking forward to helping with a Stone-Hayes booth at the fair this year, but the hot weather that week caused Stone-Hayes officials to think better of having consumers out in the heat.
Williams said she’d seen the commercial for Stone-Hayes on TV but wasn’t sure what it did.
“Independent living, I thought that was for somebody who was not independent,” Williams said. “They helped me with quality of life, learning how to advocate for myself.”
Success happens
Williams is a Stone-Hayes success story. The former pre-school teacher’s life changed forever in 1998.
“I was driving to work and I got to the stoplight and didn’t see it,” she said. “I had to wait for the other cars to go” to know the light had changed.
Incredibly, once she was given an appointment in Iowa City, Iowa, Williams drove herself. The stunned doctors told her not to drive again.
It took some time for doctors to figure out what was wrong with Williams. Her symptoms began to provide the clues, but doctors initially believed it had something to do with arthritis.
“One day I woke up, the whole right side of my body was numb,” she said.
Williams made an appointment to see a neurologist and was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis.
Williams learned that 1 percent of people stricken with MS suffer from a problem with inflammation of the eyes.
“They’ve done surgery after surgery on my eyes,” said Williams, who is legally blind, even with corrective lenses.
She no longer has lenses in her eyes. Williams needs a cornea transplant, but doctors will not do one, for fear that the many previous surgeries will make her eyes collapse.
Her life changed dramatically.
“Since ’98, I got on disability and I started living at my mom’s house. She helped me with my children and I helped on the farm,” Williams said.
Five years ago, she moved to Galesburg after her mother suffered a stroke. While her mom has recovered enough to drive, the public transportation in Galesburg was a godsend for Williams. She helped with the U.S. Census in 2010.
“I just kind of learned to adjust to the vision. I know all the resources I have,” she said.
That included learning about Illinois Blind Services, which referred her to the Massachusetts Blind Commission to help her adjust to her new home.
An Army veteran who taught pre-school in Germany, Williams in September will begin a temporary job with the Coast Guard in Cape Cod, Mass. The job will last anywhere from six months to two years. She began her job search in May with help from Stone-Hayes.
“They helped me figure out how to do the resume and gave me tips on interviewing,” she said.
Because of problems with her home phone, she even used a phone at Stone-Hayes when she was interviewed for the Cape Cod job.
It’s been a different road that Owens has traveled. While Williams was immediately able to qualify for SSI government disability, “It took (me) a full three years to get it qualified,” Owens said.
Owens is still able to drive and, just because she is disabled doesn’t mean she’s forgotten the skills she learned during her time in the workforce.
“I used to interview, hire and fire,” Owens said. “Maybe I can help somebody prepare a resume. I joined that group (peer group) to help mentor others.”
Williams said there is an independent living center in Hyannis, Mass., near Cape Cod. She plans to check it out once she is settled in to her new job, because she appreciates all Stone-Hayes has done to restore a sense of normality to her life. Williams expects to use the independent living center in Massachusetts as a way, along with her job, to adjust to a new area.
“Through the peer group, I met a whole bunch of friends,” she said of Stone-Hayes. Williams said she had friends when her children were small, but the MS made it difficult to get out to meet people. “Now I’ve got friends. I go to the mall, go to Hardees. I have friends I can actually do things with.”
# Source: The Register-Mail, Galesburg, IL : article By JOHN PULLIAM
Posted Aug 21, 2011
*Copyright 2011 The Register-Mail. Some rights reserved
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