Friends needed for disabled Nevadans

The Nevada Habilitation Center's pending closure and the moving of its residents into independent living-supported homes has brought in a new non-profit agency to promote relationships on the "Big Brother, "Big Sister" model.

Funded by the Missouri Planning Council for Developmental Disabilities and Missouri Protection & Advocacy Services, the Center for Advocacy & Inclusive Communities is tasked with establishing 15 relationships before the initial two-year grant expires in April next year.

Director Thaylee Rourk says the need is clear, but the details are challenging. "We have one match so far that is ready to go," said Rourk, a 1971 Bronaugh High School graduate who holds a degree in sociology and psychology from Missouri Southern State University in Joplin.

"The ISLs have paid staff who are very good, but it is upsetting to a resident, or protege, when they get attached to a staff person and that person moves on," she said. "A lot of these people have no relatives and no long-term, stable person who has been in their life.

"Nevada and Higginsville have advocacy centers because both have Hab Centers being closed. The woman in Higginsville and I work for a supervisor in Jefferson City and our purpose is to give the proteges one more connection to their community and improve their quality of life.

"It's patterned after the Big Brother, Big Sister program."

Taking inquiries at (417) 448-1747, Rourk is looking for citizen advocates who "are leading full lives and will invite one with a developmental disability to share interests and time" at the ISL or go on excursions around town for an hour or two per week. Her office is in Suite 300 with the Nevada-Vernon County Chamber of Commerce at 225 W. Austin Blvd.

Rourk is working with County Public Administrator Tammy Bond to pick proteges, do background checks on volunteers and forward the program that is necessitated by the U.S. Supreme Court's 1999 Olmstead Decision.

"A lot of my clients don't have any family at all," said Bond, who protects the interests of more than 100 people, including a dozen transferred to Butler, Bolivar, Joplin, Springfield, Clinton, Harrisonville and Sedalia.

"I'm trying to support Thaylee because my eyes can only travel so far as the public administrator," Bond said. "This is taking some time because we are just learning how to do it. If we're introducing my client to somebody, it has to be somebody who has been checked out because my job as a guardian is to make sure my clients are safe.

"It's hard for them to understand when their roommate has family and they don't. Progress is slow, but I think it will be a good program."

The Hab Center is closing by early 2013, but Superintendent Chris Baker has said its workforce of 300 will stay on the job and work out of new Nevada headquarters to be built or leased by the state.

Baker reported last December that 10 people remained in the Hab Center's Vernon Hall at 2323 N. Ash St. while 53 had gone to 18 leased three-bedroom ISL homes here and more than 90 to Missouri Department of Mental Health facilities at Marshall, Poplar Bluff, Sikeston and Higginsville 60 miles east of Kansas City.

Rourk expects her assignment to go well "because Nevada is a pretty tolerant town" that will overcome the prejudices that hinder other places. "There have been so many negative stereotypes about people with disabilities," she said.

"They've been segregated and isolated for so long that they haven't had much opportunity for relationships."