CHRC Looking For Those Making A Difference In Cincinnati

Lisa Fitzgibbon Honored For Work At Easter Seals Work Resource Center

Lisa Fitzgibbon, CEO of the Easter Seals Work Resource Center, was just honored for 33 years of great service and great accomplishments. The Work Resource Center is a place where youth and adults with disabilities gain skills they need to live more independently through employment. It serves more than 10,000 each year and 86% of those who have gone through its training have found permanent, competitive employment.

Thank you to Lisa and her staff for all that they do to help people with disabilities to be included, for focusing on their abilities and strengths, and for helping others to see those strengths as the gifts that they are.

 

Differences Are Gifts

Think about how much more beautiful our world would be if we could always look beyond people’s surface to a place deep inside where talent and ability are born. If instead of searching for things that are wrong, we searched for things that are right. If we consciously made an effort to include everyone no matter what they look like, no matter their culture, no matter the way they get from here to there.

This story I saw on CBS News is a great reminder of that. It is about a very talented architect, Chris Downey, who lost his eye sight due to a brain tumor…but gained a unique vision that has made him a sought after professional. His personal perspective is a huge asset in the design of accessible buildings and specifically buildings accessible to those who are also blind.

All that it took to include him, to benefit from his knowledge, was some adaptive tools. “The creative process,” he told CBS News, “is still intact.”

Too often when we think about disability, we think about limitations.  The talents of people who have lost sight due to a medical condition or lost use of a limb due to an accident or who don’t communicate verbally as we are used to communicating are far too often overshadowed by what those people do differently.

But those differences are wonderful gifts.

We are all individuals. Everyone brings into this world talent, dreams, passions and insights that are uniquely theirs. Everyone has an innate need to be included and welcomed. Everyone has the power to excel by believing in the word CAN.

When we open our eyes to what lies beneath the surface, when we invite different ways of thinking and doing then together we will grow in beautiful, meaningful ways.

“It is easy to think about things you can’t do but it is so much more rewarding to think about things you can do,” said Downey.

 

Eric Duquette Teaches Us About The Power Of Abilities

In Smithfield, Rhode Island, Eric Duquette didn’t have a word to say until he was five years old. His parents were told that because of his autism he would one day end up in an institution – today, because he was surrounded by people who thought differently, he is in a different kind of institution…Rhode Island College majoring in biology with a minor in Spanish and a goal of becoming a pharmacist.  In fact, he was accepted into every higher education ‘institution’ to which he applied.

Last year, as salutatorian and a member of the Spanish National Honorary Society, he gave his high school graduation day speech. In it, he had this to say to his fellow students…

‘Never underestimate the power of the smile. Do not allow yourself or others to be defined by your limitations, but rather your abilities. Never underestimate yourself.’

 

“People fail to get along because they fear each other;
they fear each other because they don’t know each other;
they don’t know each other because they have not communicated with each other.”
~ Martin Luther King, Jr.

Today, we remember, embrace & celebrate the important legacy of an inspiration. Martin Luther King Jr. gave us a great gift with his words & his actions.

Let us give back by living our lives with the vision to see beyond color to the character that lies beneath, a willingness to learn about & appreciate each other’s unique contributions, & the strength to pursue dreams. Let us make friendships instead of wars, love instead of hate, and strength from inclusion instead of intolerance.

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