CHICAGO HEIGHTS, IL — In recent years, healthcare professionals working with the growing population of residents living with developmental and intellectual disabilities have seen a shift in how long those individuals are living.
While an extended life span doesn’t change the core mission of not-for-profit organizations such as Sertoma Star Services, which operates out of Chicago Heights, it does impact the strategies those groups are using to provide more services to more people.
The organization, which took shape after New Star Services and Sertoma Centre agencies merged earlier this fall, recently unveiled a renovated senior center space that not only allows residents and participants within the program a place to relax but to live valuable life skills that can bring this population group a sense of personal satisfaction.
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The space was unveiled in late September after being conceptualized four years ago, New Star President and CEO Dan Strick said. Strick said that the majority of the planning and work on the space began in force 18 months ago after the initial planning phase was slowed by the COVID-19 pandemic. The space was funded completely by private donors and has brought a welcomed addition to the center that is used by residents of several south suburban communities. Including Chicago Heights.
Making sure this part of the population is being served is vitally important, according to State Rep. Anthony DeLuca (Chicago Heights), who attended the ribbon-cutting ceremony for the renovated senior center area.
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“It shows the quality of the program,” DeLuca told reporters this fall, according to the Daily Southtown. “There’s a need for these services, but there’s limited resources.”
Because of the expanded age group that Sertoma Star now serves, the senior center accommodates not only residents of the organization’s living community but also a retired group of people living with intellectual and developmental disabilities throughout the group’s service area, Strick said.
“We wanted a more welcome, inviting space that people could relax,” Strick told Patch on Monday. “As people are getting older and have healthcare needs, we wanted to make sure there was plenty of space for healthcare things and a full kitchen and make it a really warm place.”
Strick said that officials with the organization have already seen a bump in the number of residents who are attending classes and other services offered by Sertoma Star because of the renovated space. The space has become a haven for clients of the not-for-profit that didn’t want to sit at home, but that necessarily doesn’t feel the need or desire to work. The space, which includes a life skills area, provides a viable alternative — all while building around the mission of offering an inclusive space for people to come and enjoy.
The space provides a sense of normalcy for a part of the population that Strick said is often overlooked and who has traditionally been isolated from the rest of the community. While people living with these kinds of disabilities have traditionally only lived into their mid-50s and early 60s, Strick said that many of these residents are living into their upper 70s and lower 80s, which has caused groups like Sertoma Star to look at how they operate.
Rather than offering classroom spaces for people to utilize, organizations like Sertoma Star have shifted to more livable spaces that teach the same kind of life skills – such as a place for clients to learn to prepare their own meals. But the renovated space in Chicago Heights also provides more of a family room-type environment that includes a fireplace and television area for residents to use.
“It provides a whole different level of a sense of independence,” Strick said. “(Clients think), ‘I don’t have to rely on a staff person or somebody in my house for every meal now.’ That’s really exciting to see that growth and independence.”
The space also offers space for home healthcare workers or occupational therapists to provide services for those who need it — all while keeping to that homey feel Strick says is so important to the 500 clients throughout Illinois and Indiana that the not-for-profit organization serves.
Strick has seen an increase in the number of people taking advantage of the kitchen that is part of the renovated space. While the meals that are created in that area of the life skills portion of the center may not be fancy, officials and employees with Sertoma Star have seen residents find a renewed sense of provide in preparing meals as an expanded set of services now being offered.
“Fifteen years we weren’t doing that, and if we were, it was more the exception,” he told Patch. “Now, it’s becoming part of the normal way we operate.”
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