Welcome 2025!

Gerry Beagles • January 21, 2025

Looking forward to the new year at Garden Center.

It’s so hard to believe that we are already halfway through the first month of 2025! I guess it’s a good time to check how many of our New Year resolutions are still in place! 


On behalf of myself, my wife Cindy, and our Board of Directors, I want to wish each of you a safe, healthy, and joy-filled 2025. I want to use my article for this Leaflet to mention a number of exciting goings-on at Garden Center Services that will be happening over the coming year. But first, let me take a moment to express my deep gratitude for the incredible outpouring of moral and financial support that so many of you provided during this past year. The lives of the individuals that we are honored to serve are truly made better by your generosity!


One of the positive changes that you will observe throughout this year will be the enhancement of our services as we implement the recommendations made by the accrediting body, the Council on Quality Leadership. The Council represents and advocates for the highest standards pertaining to the supports and programs for individuals with intellectual/and or developmental disabilities. We were very proud to have obtained accreditation status last year and will work hard to maintain it in the coming years.


I’m happy to share with you that sometime next month we will finally be closing on the Garden Apartments project. Once that occurs, then as soon as the weather permits, the digging will begin! The final result, a year to a year and a half later, will be a beautiful, sixteen-unit apartment building that will become home for persons with disabilities that can live somewhat independently. It makes me very proud that our agency is so committed to doing whatever it takes to help provide a home for those that otherwise may be without. Truly living our mission! 


We are also looking for a home to purchase that would be the initial site of the shared living program that we’ve been wanting to start. This is a living arrangement model where one or two individuals that are funded for residential support choose to move in and live with a family that is committed to being their caregivers as they now all share a home together. The house we’re purchasing can be rented by the couple or family that would be welcoming the individuals into their home.


In terms of living our mission, at Garden Center Services we are also very committed to taking care of our employees. For a couple of years we have been providing free counseling to the staff through an on-line program named TalkSpace. Now I am pleased to share with you that starting this January, 2025, our employees can register for a membership at the Burbank Recplex with the costs being covered by the agency! They will also have the opportunity to sign up family members at a discounted rate. They will cover the cost of any family members on their own.


Finally, I’ll mention the Spring Fling that we’re working on putting together for March 30th. We’ve heard from a number of you that it would be nice to have an agency sponsored dinner again where old and new friends of Garden Center could gather, break bread together, and hear more about our great agency. The event will differ from our past galas, as there’ll be no models or raffles. But we hope folks will enjoy seeing one another, sharing a good meal together, watching a professionally produced film about our agency, and listening/dancing to a live music trio! More info to come!


Whew! These are just some of the highlights of things happening at your agency! Looking forward to seeing you in the coming year. 


Looking forward to seeing you in the coming year. 


Peace,

Other Articles

Elation to Anxiety

By Gerry Beagles • March 3, 2025
The joy and happiness of inclusiveness and acceptance were all around us, fanned by the heavy beat of 70’s rock music being played by the volunteer DJ. It was our agency’s Valentine’s dance, hosted by the varsity baseball team over at St. Laurence High School, and both the individuals we support, and the student-athletes were having a blast. One of the major changes I have personally experienced over the last 50 plus years around services to persons with intellectual and/or developmental disabilities has been the movement to see all of us as people first, realizing that it is all the marvelous differences that brings life its’ juiciness! I was very impressed with the welcoming spirit of the baseball team and their strong determination to ensure that our folks would have a terrific time. The entire coaching staff, led by head coach Pete Lotus, demonstrated true leadership as they jumped in and enjoyed the party as well. Whatever the baseball teams’ record is at the end of the season, the Valentine party was a huge W! Sadly, it only took a few days for the elation we had experienced from the dance to change into stress and anxiety due to statements and actions taken by President Trump and those that seem to be blindly following his agenda. Initially, it was the attempt to stop Federal funding that was a threat to the continuation of our services which caused intense fear and worry with many of our parents, guardians, and families. There was a short reprieve as that executive order was rescinded, only to be followed by the next gut punch in the form of a bill that would cut $880 billion in Medicaid funding, which is the main source of financial backing for disability services in Illinois and throughout the country. It has become the highest priority for all of us to communicate to state and U.S. legislators the unfathomable negative ramifications of this bill becoming law! Some of my colleagues and I are traveling to Washington D.C. next week to share our collective stories with as many congresspeople as possible. Inside the March/April special issue of The Leaflet are some heartfelt reflections by persons whose lives are uplifted daily by the services we provide. I hope you will take a few minutes to reflect on the stories they share. May you be safe, and LOUD!

Cutting Medicaid Funding Hurts Disabled Members of Our Community

By Gerry Beagles • February 28, 2025
Across the many neighborhoods that make up the metropolitan Chicago area, people with intellectual and developmental disabilities (I/DD) rely on an array of support services to live, work and thrive. Nationally, 69% of the community providers that deliver these services are turning away new referrals while 39% are discontinuing existing services because they lack the funding needed to recruit and retain qualified workers. This puts access to services in jeopardy at a time when nearly 512,000 disabled Americans are languishing on their states’ waiting lists. Now, another crisis looms. Community-based services are almost exclusively funded by Medicaid, and in Congress, the House recently approved a budget resolution directing the committee that oversees Medicaid to slash $880 billion in spending. Such a drastic cut will all but dismantle the federal Medicaid program, leaving hundreds of thousands more Americans without the services they need. As a provider of these services, I know firsthand that every community, including this wonderful city of Chicago, is better when it includes everyone— regardless of their disability. If Senators Durbin and Duckworth and Representative Casten agree that our community is stronger when it includes people with disabilities, then they must reject any proposals to cut funding from the federal Medicaid program. Sincerely, Gerry

Physical Plant Updates & Giving Tuesday

By Gerry Beagles • November 8, 2024
It’s hard to believe that soon it will be mid-November and we’ll all be making plans for our Thanksgiving celebrations. With all the tension and conflict that are present in many parts of our world, it is still very true that we have much to be grateful for. I have been emphasizing to our staff recently that my gratitude for our agency just continues to grow as I experience Garden Center Services as being a haven of safety, support, and kindheartedness for the individuals we serve and for our employees. I have frequently spoken about our services and programs and how proud I am regarding the quality of our supports and the high marks we get from the state surveys. An additional massive area of responsibility that we deal with is the upkeep, maintenance, and repair of the agency’s many properties and vehicles! We currently have 10 group homes, the 15 bed ICF, the State Road community day services program, the thrift shop/administrative offices on Kedzie Avenue, and 25 vehicles at last count! Now, knowing the wear and tear on your homes and cars, can you the imagine the impact over time on our holdings! Overseeing this huge task are the two fine gentlemen you see pictured here; Mr. Bryan Kochanny, Director of Maintenance and Transportation and Alan Maciel, Maintenance Specialist. Yes, you heard me right, TWO!! I am amazed at what these guys are able to take care of. Under the direction of Mr. Ralph Storino, Director of Fiscal Management, Bryan and Alan repair many things on their own and also manage the subcontractors that are brought in to work on more complex concerns or new installations. Just in the last six weeks or so here are some of the projects we’ve tackled; painted multiple bathrooms at the Moody CILA, completely redesigned two bathrooms at the ICF to be totally accessible, painted one of the BMA Manor apartments, laid the extensive in-ground piping needed for the new generator that will power the ICF in case of a natural disaster, and mechanical work on multiple vehicles. Please realize these are the projects dealt with in addition to all the daily crisis that come up. The other fact that I can share with you is that there is very little state funding provided to cover the extraordinary expense of these physical plant needs. We spend hundreds of thousands of dollars each year to keep our properties safe and looking nice, and it is our fund development efforts that help make this possible, which is a great opportunity to talk about Giving Tuesday! This year, Giving Tuesday will be on Dec. 3rd. This is a day identified nationally when individuals and businesses are asked to consider making charitable donations to non-profits as a way of kicking off the Christmas Season of caring. Here at Garden Center Services we would certainly appreciate it if you would choose our agency as one of the organizations you donate to. Thank you, and on behalf of myself, Cindy, and the Board of Directors, May you all have safe, healthy, and joy filled holidays. Gerry
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