The DISABILITY Resource Expo is now providing a better quality of life for people with disabilities in Champaign County and surrounding communities by expanding its reach and becoming even more inclusive.
June 28th, 2021-(Urbana, IL)— DISABILITY Resource Expo: Reaching Out for Answers is looking to partner with other East Central Illinois organizations to ensure that the information in its comprehensive Disability Resource Guide is distributed to any and all who need it.
For 14 years, DISABILITY Resource Expo: Reaching Out for Answers has strived to advance its mission of giving people with disabilities and their loved ones easy access to the resources needed for a wonderful quality of life. The readily available, easily accessible DISABILITY Resource Expo : Reaching out for Answers Resource Guide is a big part of fulfilling that mission.
The resource guide contains contact information and short descriptions of 200 disability and/or aging-related resources in East Central Illinois. Resources are divided into six different categories to help make the guide easy to use. The categories are Education and Recreation, Healthcare and Equipment, Self-Help and Support Groups, Service Advocacy and Legal Organizations, Vocational and Residential, and Transportation. The resource guide is available in hardcopy or can be accessed digitally at http://www.disabilityresourceexpo.org/resource-guide/.
Those behind the DISABILITY Resource Expo are enormously proud of the resource guide and what it has evolved into since the Expo was established. Over the past year and a half, many improvements and enhancements have been made, particularly to the digital version, which now includes over 65 short, informational videos describing services offered by organizations included in the resource guide. Furthermore, Spanish and American Sign Language subtitled versions of some videos have been created and added to the guide.
Over the next year, DISABILITY Resource Expo: Reaching Out for Answers plans to expand the resource guide by creating informational videos for as many organizations as possible with the hope of eventually having an informational video included for every organization in the guide. Additionally, there are plans to help bridge language barriers by adding subtitled videos accessible to those in the French and Chinese communities. Most importantly, those behind the Expo are looking to partner with many other organizations as well, in hopes of getting the resource guide to all of East Central Illinois.
“People need access to resources now more than ever before. We are hopeful that enhancing our resource guide and partnering with other organizations to expand our reach will allow us to give more people access to more information than ever before and enable us to fulfill our mission in an inclusive, innovative way,” said Barb Bressner, DISABILITY Resource Expo Coordinator.
To pick up a hard copy of the DISABILITY Resource Expo: Reaching Out for Answers Resource Guide, stop by the Champaign County Mental Health and Developmental Disabilities Boards office at 1776 East Washington Street, Suite 201, Urbana, Illinois, 61802
Interested in partnering with DISABILITY Resource Expo: Reaching Out for Answers to distribute the resource guide? Contact Barb Bressner at 217-840-3198 or bjbressner@gmail.com
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