EFE's Community of Support

IEJF Invests in Training Institute

In the mid-1990's, Equip for Equality conducted a series of strategic planning interviews to evaluate its services and the needs of the disability community. From those sessions, one consistent theme emerged – people with disabilities need better access to information about their legal rights and how to advocate for themselves to enforce those rights.

It was from this mandate that Equip for Equality's Training Institute for Disability Rights was launched in 1997, and has now trained over 28,000 people about their legal rights on such topics as the Americans with Disabilities Act, employment, transportation, voting, guardianship and special education. Initial support came from the Chicago Community Trust, Polk Bros Foundation, and the Lloyd A. Fry Foundaition.

The most recent supporter of the Training Institute is the Illinois Equal Justice Foundation (IEJF), which provides funds to not-profit legal aid providers for a variety of initiatives, including projects that help provide legal information and self-help assistance to people with civil legal needs. IEJF is investing $45,000 in the Institute for attorneys to provide pro se (for oneself) training seminars on disability rights across Illinois. Attorney trainers include Howard Rosenblum, who is able to deliver seminars in American Sign Language, and Consuelo Puente, who leads bi-lingual, Spanish and English, seminars. This year, as a result of the generous funding from the IEJF, Equip for Equality will be able to provide pro se seminars to an additional 500 people with disabilities and their family members.

Pro se training seminars take place in Equip for Equality's offices or at community organizations. Equip for Equality attorneys will conduct onsite seminars at these organizations that provide comprehensive legal information and advice to people with disabilities and their family members on how to represent themselves pro se. Individuals interested in attending a training seminar or organizations interested in co-sponsoring a session should contact Equip for Equality's Training Institute at 800-537-2632 (voice) or 800-610-2779 (TTY).

EFE Receives ABA Law & Aging Grant

This spring, the American Bar Association's Partnerships in Law and Aging Program awarded Equip for Equality one of the 10 nationally announced grants, allowing Equip for Equality to provide disability-rights seminars and informational materials to Chicago-area seniors and their families. The $7,500 grant helps support program salaries and materials development over a 12-month period.

"As the nation's population ages overall, we are finding a growing need to address age-related disability issues. Providing information to the senior population is especially problematic, as many seniors with disabilities do not recognize that their rights are being infringed or that, in fact, they have acquired disabilities from growing older, which provide them additional legal protections."

Equip for Equality has also identified a national trend that shows insufficient interface between various states' aging networks and their nonaging-related disability networks. Around the country, federally funded state Protection and Advocacy systems, of which Equip for Equality is Illinois', serve few seniors with disabilities, including nursing home residents, even though they do qualify for these advocacy legal services.

Due to this disconnect in Illinois, many seniors with disabilities turn to Administration on Aging (AoA)-funded legal services rather than to Equip for Equality for assistance, even though Equip for Equality's services may be more appropriate. Equip for Equality is partnering with the Illinois Department on Aging on this project to strengthen Illinois' communications between the two networks, and it expects that the outreach and education component of the project will generate interest in individual legal counseling, which will be managed by agency advocates and attorneys.

Subscribe to the Equalizer | Privacy Policy | Terms of Use