New Avenues for Independence and InMotion are two of 25 local agencies being featured in the annual Good News Giving campaign, which promotes local nonprofits that help the needy and underserved.
CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Ryan Butler helps process recyclables at Buckeye Industries, a business enterprise run by New Avenues for Independence, which helps people with developmental disabilities learn the job and social skills to become more independent.
Butler and other employees at Buckeye Industries on Cleveland's West Side help sort, compress and bale hundreds of pounds of cardboard, packaging and pre-surgical clinical plastics from University Hospitals, the Cleveland Clinic and other local businesses. Buckeye Industries employs 165 people at four locations.
Across town in Warrensville Heights, InMotion provides another kind of assistance: therapy and support for those who have been diagnosed with Parkinson's disease and other movement disorders, as well as their often-bewildered families.
New Avenues for Independence and InMotion are two of 25 local agencies being featured in the Northeast Ohio Media Group's annual Good News Giving campaign that includes this story and free advertising in The Plain Dealer and Sun News and on cleveland.com. Inquiries and contributions should be made directly to the agency.
Butler, who has been working at Buckeye Industries since September 2014, has autism and Crohn's disease, is bipolar, and suffers from obstructive sleep disorders. Several of his coworkers have both physical disabilities and cognitive developmental delays, said Donnamarie Berardinelli-Bowling, project manager.
"I've been working hard on the baler," he said proudly, standing next to a tall blue compacter. "Paper, cardboard, mixed plastic, we bale almost everything."
The blue plastic trash bags are from University Hospitals, and the purple ones are from the Cleveland Clinic. They are generated by non-contaminated, pre-surgical procedures. Butler packs the bags into the mouth of the baler and steps around to the control panel. "Press the green button, the top comes down. Press the yellow button, the top goes up. The red button is the emergency stop button."
"I like having the staff here to help me," he said. "The staff here are so nice. When something happens, they help me. They're always willing to help you with problems. They helped me get my new life together." They are the ones who suggested that when something is troubling him, he put on his headphones and turn up his favorite country music songs from Rascal Flatts.
Butler's favorite part of the job? Getting his paycheck. He said he likes this job much better than his old job, where he didn't connect so well with some of his coworkers.
"We do as much training on social skills as we do on job skills, teaching people how to get along and work with each other," said Thomas Lewins, executive director of Buckeye Industries, bumping fists with grinning workers as he walks by.
He said Buckeye Industries helps local businesses with tasks they may have trouble getting their own workers to do, creates paying jobs for people with developmental disabilities, and helps corporations minimize their environmental impact on the earth.
InMotion, founded by Dr. Karen Jaffe, Lee Handel, and the late Allan Goldberg, is a recently opened center with a wide range of programs for those diagnosed with Parkinson's disease and other movement disorders. Jaffe told the Cleveland Jewish News last year that "People should see it as a place where stigma, shame and silence are left at the door."
InMotion serves more than 500 clients, with another 40 or 50 signing up every month, Executive Director Lacey Roth said. InMotion has a three-pronged approach to helping its clients and their families.
First, InMotion is dedicated to physical wellness, including ballroom dancing, yoga, cycling, boxing, hiking and tai chi, because research shows staying physically active can delay the onset of some symptoms.
There are also classes in Reiki, art and music, because "singing in a group can actually help you with voice issues," Roth said. All activities are led by coaches or instructors who have been specially trained to work with Parkinson's and similar disorders.
Second, the center offers presentations on topics such as good nutrition and "aging with a plan," monthly Ask the Doctors forums, and links to the latest articles on Parkinson's disease research.
Finally, InMotion provides families and loved ones with social and emotional support, encouraging them to rely on each other to prevent them from feeling isolated and depressed about the diagnosis.
"Michael J. Fox has taken Parkinson's out of the closet," by being open and honest about his diagnosis, Roth said. "When people pull back and become isolated, they get lonely and depressed, and it only makes things worse."
Mary and Patrick Graham drive in from Bay Village to take advantage of InMotion's resources. "A diagnosis of Parkinson's disease made me feel like I was standing on a railroad track unable to avoid the inevitable," she told the InMotion staff. "With the word 'incurable' rattling around in my head, many tears flowed in the belief that, in short order, I was destined to fade away from every joy I had ever known."
But after discovering InMotion, she said: "Hope is surging. Participation in the programs of InMotion has given me the confidence and determination to forge a new path to the good life. In short, InMotion is giving back what Parkinson's takes away."