Champaign County Board Appreciates Community Collaborations

Written by: Amy Kerrigan, Community Education Specialist

First Responders Lunch is an opportunity for individuals with developmental disabilities and emergency personnel to form positive relationships. First Responders also benefit by learning best practices for safe interactions with community members who have differing abilities.

​​Previous CCBDD newsletters featured providers of services for people with developmental disabilities. This time the feature is about other ways that CCBDD collaborates with organizations and members of the community. The job of the County Board is not only to find places for people to receive daily care. The real goal is to help individuals with DD live full and productive lives.

People with developmental disabilities want to lead lives just like everyone else. They want to live independently, spend time with friends, contribute to the community, and join the workforce. Sometimes they just need a little help in achieving those goals. But CCBDD cannot act alone in helping people with DD. As the saying goes, it takes a village.

​The most obvious CCBDD collaboration is with service providers like Creative Foundations, PCS, Downsize Farm, CRSI, and more. The County Board regularly contacts these providers to help individuals with DD find everyday care, living options, employment training, and life skills training. CCBDD also assists the providers themselves by recruiting Direct Support Professionals and coordinating other needs.

What the public may not know is that several staff members and people served by the County Board spend time collaborating with many community programs. They join clubs like Kiwanis (Aktion Club), Salvation Army, Lawnview Industries (EVERYbody Plays Inclusive Playground Project), and Lions Club. Participating in these organizations allows the County Board and our people to contribute to the community and create inclusive activities.

Kiwanis Aktion Club is the only service club for adults with disabilities. The Champaign County Aktion Club builds and maintains Little Free Libraries around the county, provides free books to children at YMCA Healthy Kids Day, assembles and distributes sensory bags for first responders to use during emergency calls, and much more.

Another little known collaboration is between CCBDD and Champaign County businesses. Not only do area businesses and the County Board work together to fill needed positions and find employment for individuals with DD, but they also work together to create opportunities like Touch-A-Truck, summer camp at the YMCA, and meeting places for CCBDD social clubs.

Mental Health, Drug, & Alcohol Services Board joined a CCBDD in-service meeting to present information on trauma informed care. They also shared ideas with CCBDD on how to incorporate trauma informed care with current processes and evaluations.

Even more collaboration happens between CCBDD and county run departments. Department of Job and Family, Mental Health & Recovery Services, the Arts Council, first responders, public school systems, and public library systems generously share time, ideas, and support with the County Board of DD. When they all work together great things happen, including improvement of student IEPs, fundraising for an inclusive playground, development of classes for better health and safety, and positive relationships between first responders and people with developmental disabilities.

The work of Champaign County Board of DD would not be what it is today without the help of all the community partners. These collaborations help people with developmental disabilities live independently, socialize, work, volunteer, and celebrate the abilities that make them an integral part of the Champaign County community.

The Champaign County Library system collaborates with the Champaign County Board of DD throughout the year on various activities and projects. Pictured here are the CCBDD Tech Club (a group that meets regularly at the library's Imagine Lab to learn how to use crafting technology), Roaming Readers (a book club that meets regularly at Mechanicsburg Library to walk and discuss their favorite books), and Kiwanis Club members sharing sensory bags with the Urbana Fire Department which were made with the help of the library's Imagine Lab.