Creating opportunities for adults with disabilities since 1974 |
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A MESSAGE FROM OUR EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
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Greetings Friends of Vocational Visions!
We are all excited to be gearing up for our big gala event in September, Enchanted Evening. As you may know, this year’s theme is All We Need is Love. There are many volunteers working hard to create an evening full of love, food, fun and a chance to come together to celebrate the accomplishments of people we support. Those of you who have attended our previous events know how fun it is to be part of a festive evening with volunteers, staff, board members, family, friends, supportive businesses and even some of the participants we serve. It is hard to believe we have not been able to host this great evening since 2019! I am so grateful that many of the dedicated volunteers who have created the magic for past events have returned to make sure this year’s Enchanted Evening will be the best event yet.
If you have yet to experience one of our Enchanted Evening events, we invite you to explore the many ways you can make a difference in the lives of those we support, have a fun evening, browse the many tempting auction items that will be available for bidding and celebrate the opportunity to come together to be an important part of the great mission of Vocational Visions. I hope to see you there on Saturday, September 17, 2022. We are not planning to host another event like this until April 2024 when we will celebrate our 50th year of service.
Formal invitations for this year's Enchanted Evening should be in the mail by the second week of August. But you don't have to wait until then to purchase your tickets and select your meal choices.
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I hope that you and your loved ones are enjoying a fun and safe summer. |
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JULY IS
DISABILITY PRIDE MONTH
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AMERICANS WITH DISABILITIES ACT (ADA)
32nd ANNIVERSARY
JULY 26
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July 26th is Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) Awareness Day. As we celebrate the 32nd anniversary of when the ADA became law in 1990, let's take a quick look at what the ADA covers. The purpose of this law is to make sure that people with disabilities have the same rights and opportunities as everyone else. The ADA is divided into five titles (or sections) that relate to different areas of public life.
Title I - Employment
- Helps people with disabilities access the same employment opportunities and benefits available to people without disabilities
- Applies to employers with 15 or more employees
- Requires employers to provide reasonable accommodations to qualified applicants or employees (a “reasonable accommodation” is a change that accommodates employees with disabilities so they can do the job without causing the employer “undue hardship”, i.e., too much difficulty or expense)
- Defines disability, establishes guidelines for the reasonable accommodation process and addresses medical examinations and inquiries
Title II - Public Services: State and Local Government
- Prohibits discrimination on the basis of disability by “public entities” such as state and local government agencies
- Requires public entities to make their programs, services and activities accessible to individuals with disabilities
- Outlines requirements for self-evaluation and planning; making reasonable modifications to policies, practices and procedures where necessary to avoid discrimination; identifying architectural barriers; and communicating effectively with people with hearing, vision and speech disabilities
Title III - Public Accommodations and Services Operated by Private Entities
- Prohibits places of public accommodation from discriminating against individuals with disabilities (public accommodations include privately owned, leased or operated facilities like hotels, restaurants, retail merchants, doctor’s offices, golf courses, private schools, day care centers, health clubs, sports stadiums, movie theaters and so on)
- Sets the minimum standards for accessibility for alterations and new construction of commercial facilities and privately owned public accommodations and it also requires public accommodations to remove barriers in existing buildings where it is easy to do so without much difficulty or expense
- Directs businesses to make "reasonable modifications" to their usual ways of doing things when serving people with disabilities
- Requires that businesses take steps necessary to communicate effectively with customers with vision, hearing and speech disabilities
Title IV - Telecommunications
- Requires telephone and Internet companies to provide a nationwide system of interstate and intrastate telecommunications relay services that allows individuals with hearing or speech disabilities to communicate over the telephone
- Requires closed captioning of federally funded public service announcements
Title V - Miscellaneous Provisions
- Contains a variety of provisions relating to the ADA as a whole, including its relationship to other laws, state immunity, its impact on insurance providers and benefits, prohibition against retaliation and coercion, illegal use of drugs and attorney’s fees
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We're starting something new for you. Each month, we are going to highlight some news from one of our seven programs. We will rotate through the programs. ADP, which is our community-based day program, has volunteered to go first. |
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ADULT DEVELOPMENT PROGRAM (ADP) NEWS |
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ADP recently welcomed three new participants to the 82 people already served in our program.
We are also excited to have added two new volunteer sites - Farmhouse Rescue and Pop-Up Drive-Thru Grocery Distributions through Saddleback Ministries, to the five volunteer sites we already participate in during the week. Our clients enjoy cleaning, feeding, and interacting with the animals (pigs, chickens, horses, and goats) at Farmhouse Rescue in Trabuco Canyon.
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We have been volunteering at the Saddleback Food Distribution Center for quite some time. Just over one month ago, we began volunteering for their pop-up drive-thru distributions. On Tuesdays, we volunteer with the Lake Forest grocery distribution team which hands out the food items (which we have helped sort at the Food Distribution Center) to the public. We go to a different location in Lake Forest each Tuesday. |
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The various grocery distribution pop-ups have helped our clients to gain organizational skills and social skills. We (ADP), as a day program, are always looking for an opportunity to serve our community.
Last but not least, with generous donations from our ADP families, ADP has planned a summer outing to the Aquarium of the Pacific in Long Beach on August 10th. We are all looking forward to it!
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BOARD MEMBER SPOTLIGHT
CONNIE CHICK
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Our organization is blessed to be served by a dedicated volunteer Board of Directors (BOD). This month, we're excited to highlight Connie Chick. Connie is a new addition to our board, having joined just three months ago. However, she is a long-time supporter of our organization. Let's get to know more about her below.
Question: Time is a valuable commodity. What inspired you to dedicate some of your valuable time to Vocational Visions (VV) as a board member?
Answer: I recently relocated to Lake Forest from Long Beach. I now have the time to work with the Vocational Visions Board. My son, Joe Stage, was a client of Vocational Visions and had an outside job working for Claim Jumper restaurant that he loved. Sadly, Joe passed in 2002. My daughter, Kim Stage, is a client of Vocational Visions where she looks forward to attending every day. She is in the DTAC Pala and Clubhouse programs.
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Question: Can you tell us a little bit about what line of work you are in?
Answer: I am a retired Real Estate Broker. I sold homes and residential apartment buildings for over 40 years concentrating in the Long Beach, Lakewood and Seal Beach areas. I especially loved working with folks to find their first home and then, years later, receiving calls that they would be ready for a larger home or investment property. When the internet came along, I was able to sell properties in many different locations and even represent sellers from other states.
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Question: You are known for being very giving of your time. In what other ways are you passionate about giving your time and support?
Answer: For the past several years I have worked with our 'dance troop' from Vocational Visions. Assisting Barbara Boteler, we choreograph the performers for our Enchanted Evening fundraisers. We currently have 21 participants enthusiastically practicing for their performance in September.
During the last eight years, I have served on the Board of Directors for Hand n' Hand. This is an amazing square dancing club for our special needs people. We meet on Tuesday evenings at the Norman P. Murray Center in Mission Viejo. Each member needs to have an 'angel' that dances with them. In square dancing, all people that help the newbies are called 'angels'.
Now, we are not just talking 'do-si-do' and 'allemande'. We learn at least 20 different calls such star-thru, weave the ring, bend the line, dive thru, the grand square and I could go on.
It has been amazing to watch our club dancers grow from barely giving eye contact to knowing the calls and looking forward to Tuesdays. What makes this all possible is the support of our 'Angels'. Our 'angels' volunteer their time and many have never been a part of our special community prior.
When I'm not volunteering, I enjoy spending time with my family. Here is a photo of a wonderful memory I had with my daughter Kim and our friend (and VV participant) Tracy. We went to see 'Frozen' at Pantages Theatre in Hollywood.
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Question: What is your motto or, a quote about life, that really resonates with you?
Answer: 'Fear does not stop death. It stops Life." - Vi Keeland
and
"Worrying does not take away tomorrow's troubles. It takes away today's peace." - Randy Armstrong
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Thank you Connie for your many years of dedication to our special needs community. We are fortunate to have you as a member of our board!
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ENCHANTED EVENING 2022
ALL WE NEED IS LOVE
SEPTEMBER 17, 2022
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We are less than two months away from our 2022 Enchanted Evening Gala.
Are you able to donate an auction item to our event to help us to raise money? Here are some 'out of the box' ideas to consider:
- Unused gift cards with their original balance to places you might not frequent (even 1 gift card makes a difference because we can package it with others)
- Unused credit card points
- If you have a property or timeshare that you would be willing to donate a stay to, the experience would make a fabulous auction item
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Disability Pride Month
Independence Day
Disability Awareness Day
ADA Awareness Day
VV Board of Directors Meeting
EE Committee Meeting
World Hepatitis Day
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Entire Month
July 4, 2022
July 12, 2022
July 26, 2022
July 27, 2022
July 27, 2022
July 28, 2022
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SHOP FOR SUMMER & EARN DONATIONS FOR VV
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Click on this link to smile.amazon.com to go right to the page to select Vocational Visions as your charity for Amazon purchases.
Amazon will donate 0.5% of the price of your eligible purchases to us as long as you shop at smile.amazon.com.
Click here for instructions to activate AmazonSmile on your Amazon mobile phone app.
We have 101 Amazon shoppers that have selected VV as their charity of choice for AmazonSmile purchases. That is 5 more shoppers than last month! In the month of June 2022, we had 191 qualifying purchases (up 12 from May 2021). Are you taking advantage of AmazonSmile? It is a wonderful and easy way to help others.
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BUY GROCERIES AT RALPHS
EARN DONATIONS FOR VV
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VV is delighted to report that we received a check for $54.36 from Ralphs as a donation resulting from 12 households who shopped at Ralphs from March 1 - May 31, 2022. Why did Ralphs reward us for those 12 household shoppers? Because those shoppers support what we do at VV so they linked their free Ralphs Grocery Store shopper's card to Vocational Visions as part of this program:
Then, they swiped their shopper's card (or entered their associated phone number) whenever they shopped at Ralphs and Ralphs made a quarterly donation to us on their behalf. It was that simple.
Can you imagine if 100 more grocery shoppers decided to take advantage of the Ralphs Community Contribution and chose us as their charity of choice? We could potentially raise over $400 per quarter. And all it would take from you is a couple of minutes to sign up and then grocery shopping at Ralphs using your rewards card like you probably already do. Click on the link above or the image below to sign up and make a difference in an unassuming but important way.
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