Streator's 1st annual fundraiser dedicated to

Streator Unlimited

Join us in the City Park for a day filled with great music, artists, jewelry, raffles, and of course, food!

All proceeds to benefit Streator Unlimited.

Musicians featured:

• The Dylan Torres Experience
• Amber Kay
• Tim Dial
• Tim Ajster
• Joey Figgiani
• Mark Piecha

Open Mic from 4:15 to 5:45!

States are cutting lower cost, higher quality services for many in favor of higher cost, lower quality services for few.

My life would be so much less full without the presence of people with developmental disabilities.  It's overwhelming to think about how many peoples' lives are just a bit emptier than they are even aware.

Here's an article about a freedom of information request on what the state owes to different agencies.  Here's the link to the actual list.  Streator Unlimited shows up somewhere in that gigantic list as being owed $182,000.  The list must have been generated at a good time...because that number has been going up lately.

We took one more step towards the building of the new group home last night, going before the Planning Commission for our zoning hearing.  Happily the Planning Commission is making a positive recommendation to the City Council, who will meet this coming Wednesday.

A national perspective on Illinois' budget situation which paints a very grim picture.

Even with limited resources, there are better ways to prioritize spending.

We're still waiting on SU's budget details as the Illinois Department of Human Services works to implement their budget targets.  At is stands at the moment, state grants for Workshop, Supported Employment, and Client and Family Supports have been eliminated.  Also under consideration is a 2.5% cut to all our other state funding.  The statewide waiting list for services now tops 20,000 people.  Of even greater concern, if that is possible, is the state getting further and further behind on what it already owes us.

Our employees' dedication have helped SU make it this far in the budget crisis.  Employees are hurting because we've cut a lot, we've reduced some opportunities for consumers within our programs, but we have managed to avoid layoffs and service terminations to this point.  We'll go as far as humanly possible to continue to carry out our mission, but at some point we're going to need help and not hurt from the State of Illinois.

In collaboration with the IFF (formerly the Illinois Facilities Fund) and thirteen other agencies in the state, Streator Unlimited has been awarded federal stimulus funds through the Neighborhood Stabilization Program.  We plan to build an 8-bed, fully accessible group home in order to downsize Knox Estates to 8 beds as well.  This will allow all residents to have their own room, which would be a great improvement in quality of life.  After all, who of us as adults would want to share a bedroom with an assigned roommate?

Since IFF is working with so many different agencies, they have reserved the right to select the architect and contractor to build the home.  Thirteen agencies is enough work for them to coordinate, much less 13 different architects and 13 different contractors.  While it is unfortunate Streator Unlimited will not be able to select these ourselves, we accepted these limitations in order to have such a great opportunity for the people we serve.

Streator Unlimited will have to come up with some of the funds ourselves because the funds don't quite cover all of our needs.  We have successfully obtained a $20,000 grant from the Dunham Fund to help cover this.  It is a truly strange thing to be granted federal funds to build a new home at the same time the state is cutting our funding and getting further and further behind in payments.

Update:  a nice article from the Times on this.

DHS SURVEY 6-2010

These are the survey results from the state's 2010 annual survey of our Developmental Training Program.  We are proud of these results as they recognize our consistent efforts to provide the best quality services possible, despite last year's funding cuts and the late payments from the state.

On a more somber note, our contracts for the fiscal year beginning July 1 arrived today.  Our grants for Workshop, Supported Employment, and Community Supports were all gone, a total amount of $150,000.   The contracts do not tell us what the rates for our other services will be.  The Governor's original budget proposal was to cut these by 2.5%.  We hope to find out on Wednesday (the day before the new fiscal year begins), when the Governor announces how he will implement the lump-sum budget given him.

We're moving back in to  Knox today!  What a great relief it will be for everyone.  One resident who was staying with mom and not at the main SU building, was staying in his bedroom more and not wanting to eat because he just wanted to go home.  He will be highly pleased to be back, as will everyone.  There will still be more work to do, but it's  a great achievement that we've made it this far.  Thank you to everyone for all your help and support.

We're close to being able to move back into Knox.  We've got to finish up the trim on one of the new windows, then get IL Dept of Public Health to come in to inspect and clear.