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Helping Hands Get Down to Work

by Trish Robb
Free Press Special Writer

January 22, 2004

Debbie Diegel has a plan. She'd like to start her own business -- shredding paper for small offices and businesses. Diegel, 38, of Plymouth has developmental disabilities and uses a wheelchair. But with the help of the support staff from Services to Enhance Potential, she's sure she can make her business happen.

Diegel is one of 1,000 Wayne County residents helped each year by STEP, formerly known as the Wayne County Associations for the Retarded.

Families who wanted opportunities for their disabled children formed the organization nearly 32 years ago. Since then it has helped thousands of people with developmental disabilities such as mental retardation or autism find a way to fit into the community, said Executive Director James Grice.

With six locations in Wayne County, the organization's goal is to make it possible for developmentally disabled adults who want work to succeed.

It is a goal made more difficult by recent state and federal budget cuts. In the last fiscal year, STEP lost 18 percent of its budget because of reductions in state tax dollars and federal Medicaid funding.

With another deficit in the state budget projected for next year, Grice said, STEP officials are concerned about what services they will no longer be able to provide to those they serve.

STEP is part of all three of the managed care networks that Michigan residents with disabilities must now choose from to provide health care, housing and vocational services. The organization got about 90 new referrals from the networks last year, and its priority is to provide job coaching and employment for them.

But assisting with work is only one of the services the organization offers. What STEP has been forced to cut back are programs geared to teach people about the fabric of life most of us take for granted: how to communicate with people, how to navigate a supermarket aisle, how to pay a bill.

"Sometimes individuals with significant developmental disabilities just haven't had the opportunities to be creative about their lives and set goals that you and I might have," said Grice. "And they haven"t had the opportunity to experience the richness of community."

Some may have been sheltered by their families and have little experience with the details of daily life, Grice said.

The aging of the population is another problem STEP must consider. About half the adults they serve are age 40 to 60. As people with disabilities who have always lived at home lose their families, they must find a way to restructure their lives for more-independent living.

Volunteer activities are one way for people to bridge that gap. Mary Ann Cate, one of STEP's program coordinators scours the community for places her clients can work: libraries, churches, meals-on-wheels programs, the Humane Society.

"We really see an amazing transformation in some people with the community opportunities," said Marie Fleszar, support coordinator for about 50 of STEP's clients, including Diegel. "They learn what's available, and they learn about themselves."

Last week, volunteering at the Plymouth District Library, Diegel laughed and chatted with her friends Patty Barnes and Rosemarie Hardy and skills trainer Tracey Dorsey. The women were replacing checkout stickers on books and CDs.

Dorsey drives the volunteers to different places several times a week. Shredding documents in a local church led Diegel to the idea for her business, which Fleszar will help her set up.

Giving people a choice about their lives is an important part of STEP's program, said Cate. Hardy of Livonia lives in her own apartment and works three days a week in a small factory. Diegel also lives in an apartment; Barnes lives with her father and her sister in Livonia and prefers to spend her time volunteering.

The program has allowed each of the three women to find her own place in the community.

That ability to be part of community life is the goal of all the services STEP offers, Grice said.

"For many individuals in society, loneliness is the biggest disability they face," he said.

For more information about Services To Enhance Potential, call 734-261-7530.

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