Advocacy and Community Outreach Improve the Quality of Life of People with Disabilities
While rehabilitation care is essential to helping people with disabilities lead the most independent and fulfilling lives possible, here at the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago (RIC), we believe providing support through advocacy and community outreach programs is also important.
As a result of our holistic view of quality, RIC engages in significant advocacy efforts and continually offers a range of community outreach programs that are designed to meet the lifetime needs of people with disabilities. A summary of these activities is presented below.
Advocacy
RIC is active in the advocacy of people with disabilities through a number of venues:
City of Chicago
RIC provides counsel to the Veterans Administration regarding the effective delivery of health services to U.S. veterans.
Adequate Health Care Task Force (AHCTF)
The AHCTF (opens in new window) is the group responsible for developing a model for ensuring access to care for the uninsured and underinsured in the State of Illinois.
Alliance for Advancing Non-Profit Healthcare
Alliance for Advancing Non-Profit Healthcare (opens in new window) promotes the agenda of tax-exempt providers in the areas of transparency, governance and community benefit.
American College of Healthcare Executives
RIC and American College of Healthcare Exceutives support a joint study on employing people with disabilities in health administration and identification of any obstacles or challenges they may face in the course of their career. This is a precursor to a study of how we can attract students with disabilities into the health administration field.
American Hospital Association (opens in new window)
Community Outreach
While physical rehabilitation helps maximize function and independence of our patients, support services provided through RIC's community outreach programs play a key role in supporting people with disabilities' other lifetime needs. Below we've provided a synopsis of our most recent community outreach activities. RIC annually files a report of its community benefit plan with the Illinois Attorney General's office. This report is public information and available to the public by contacting:
CHARITABLE TRUSTS BUREAU
OFFICE OF THE ATTORNEY GENERAL
100 W. Randolph Street, 3RD Floor
Chicago, IL 60601-3175
312-814-3942
Access Living
RIC helped found Access Living (opens in new window), a non-residential Center for Independent Living for people with all types of disabilities. Founded in 1980, Access Living provides services that promote the independence and the inclusion of people with disabilities in every aspect of community life.
Support Groups
RIC manages a variety of support groups to meet the psychological and social needs of our patients:
LIFE Center
RIC's LIFE Center is a consumer resource center located at our flagship hospital. The LIFE Center (opens in new window) was developed to meet the lifetime needs of people with disabilities and their families. The center embraces the themes of: Learning, Innovation, Family, and Empowerment.
Women with Disabilities Center
Founded in 1991, the Women with Disabilities Center (WWDC) at RIC offers a multifaceted approach to meeting the needs of women with disabilities.
Some of the center's recent accomplishments include:
- Published a white paper titled "It Takes More than Ramps." Follow this link to download this informative whitepaper (in Adobe Acrobat pdf format)
- Annual publication of the Resourceful Woman. In 2005 the newsletter was sent to 10,300 individuals.
- Providing ongoing support groups for women with disabilities.
- RIC gave nine presentations to external agencies, organizations and conferences on the special health needs of women with disabilities.
- We provided education about domestic violence support services to raise awareness of our program to eight external agencies.
- In 2005 housing was made available at 140 locations to 30 people who were victims of domestic violence.
Helen M. Galvin Health and Fitness Center & Virginia Wadsworth Wirtz Sports Program
RIC provides thousands of recreational and competitive sports opportunities for people with disabilities every year through our health fitness center and sports program .
- More than 50 Paralympians have participated since 1988
- Four of the 2006 RIC Paralympians won bronze medals in the 2006 Torino Winter Paralympic Games.
- The Helen M. Galvin Health and Fitness Center is a 4,000 square foot facility with classes and equipment for those with and without disabilities
- The fitness center and sports program publish Sports Report, a monthly newsletter.