I have decided to take my knowledge, my experiences, my writings, and my interests and do Infobility differently. I will offer to consult on existing projects via email because I can be helpful to
companies. I have already started to market Ride Away and that realizes my dream of empowering people with disabilities to improve the quality of their lives. I will be contacting 50 rehabs and 7 CILs
I will not only make them aware of a great company but I can also walk them through the entire OVR process. I wish I had someone to provide support to me each of the 4 times I went through it.

I'm involved in a disability initiative with Millersville University. I also took part in a conference on disability and religion. The issue is really starting to gain momentum it's like a "hot topic" these days. It's so exciting to see people interested just because they want to learn. There is so much to be done and it isn't just with employment. I am getting in on the ground floor. Dauphin County is even going
to start a county wide initiative in which I may get paid to present awareness programs, analyze jobs,
and create clubhouses for this population. I am coming alive!

My first love, regardless of how many other types of jobs I perform that have nothing to do with this, is the following. 1) Creating educational programs on disability for employers, schools, small groups, etc. 2) Creating jobs for individuals with developmental disabilities. A person can not change the essence of his/her being. Those 2 goals may soon be realized - that would be like making Infobility into a business. It should have been years ago but better late than never. There are no words for how fulfilled that would make me feel. I have never ever given up on that reality because I just couldn't.

New outreach initiatives are being tried and in time they will show results. I'm going to be sending 53 monthly newsletters on a variety of disability topics. I met people at the Lancaster Expo, sent out my first issue, then followed it up and received some positive responses. A program is planned for the 25th and the attendees will be 13 new people. Perhaps this audience will be more receptive. Rather than giving up I'm trying different ways.  

This will be the last Next Steps meeting on general issues such as resources in the community. I am now going to focus on something nobody likes to think about let alone talk about. Future residential issues for individuals with developmental disabilities. There are so few options and so few people who are willing to entertain the issue, that I will just work with the ones who do and hope that others will follow. This is an even less interesting topic but I will make it worthwhile because it is.

I just spent 2 days at the Lancaster Disability Expo and I really enjoyed both of my experiences.
I may have some job prospects, I may have developed some friendships, and I am going to start a
newsletter again with all of the vendor cards I received. My logic is that each of the recipients will have a multitude of their own contacts and most will share this with them. I also learned that I could create a free Infobility website on blogger not just this journal. I would like to help arrange some of the transportation for next year so attendance can improve.

ADA Day seems as though it will work out nicely. I've done these programs so many times with no results but this one should be very different. It's at a good location, it's being supported by the Camp Hill CIL, and I am having big name speakers. Also I have done so many things wrong that the only thing I haven't done is do it right! I'm trying to incorporate residents from the community by asking them to tell us their stories of discrimination. That should interest them and encourage them to work with me on developing strategies to succeed in the marketplace. I'd love to have a follow up activity.