Michael Kaminsky, I truely appreciate the time you take on the phone with me regarding Scott. It's a definite comfort zone to know I can share my concerns and the challenges my son faces everyday in a institutionalized setting. Heimburger, Linda
Champaign, IL
Hey Mike, I thought you where very responsive and informative. You provided me with a lot of useful information. It is hard to find people who can take a little time and patience to provide for others who need it, wich you have provided. Yes I would use your services in the future. Thanks for the help. Anonymous,
IL
Were the Illinois Life Span Project staff responsive to your needs? Mike was extremely responsive to my needs for advocacy. I was working with a family, with a child with the disability of autism. Mike supplied me with a lot of very useful information, as well as people to contact in order to best serve the needs of the family I was working with. Did staff provide useful referrals to advocacy resources to you? Mike supplied me with a number of referrals and I contacted most of them to gain additional resources. This was one of the best sources I was able to locate. I find it amazing that there are not a lot of places like Illinois Life Span to assist families in dealing with the problems they may encounter when dealing with children who have a disability. Did you contact the advocacy resources to whom you were referred? Yes, I got in contact with the resources that Mike supplied and they, like Mike were most helpful. Did the advocacy referrals help you to meet your needs? All the advocacy referrals were most helpful in meeting my and the family I was working with needs. Did the staff follow up after the referral by phone, email or letter? Mike not only followed up with a letter, but has followed up several time with emails. Would you use this service again if you have other advocacy needs? I will definitely use this service again and have referred a number of people, students as well as families to this site. I am currently enrolled at Benedictine University working on my Masters Degree in Special Education and gave this site out as a wonderful resource for many of my professional colleagues. Just an additional comment, Mike took the time I needed to help me with the difficulties I was facing trying to assist the family I was working with, because I was not able to give out personal information Mike worked with what I could give him to help me extensively. I would like to thank him for all his efforts on behalf of myself and the family. Everything worked out well and we were able to advert an incorrect placement for a child due in large part to Mike's efforts. I cannot imagine what the outcome may have been had he not spent so much time with me giving me the needed resources to help this family. Hahn, Mary Ann
WoodRidge, IL
MIke, In answer to your questions. Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Was that helpful? What did your wife do? Allen called me himself and took my case. I was flabergasted in how fast you followed up. Not how fast, but that you actually did follow up. Do you know how many people in positions like yours do'nt follow-up, let alone actually refer you to someone who - actually followed up, and solved (or, will hopefully) solve your problems? Ask me, I'll tell you someday, what a pit, most organizations turn out to be. Gee, I'm in a possitive mood today. Kate,
IL
Mike, I don't know if you remember me, we wrote a few times to each other a few months ago about my autistic son, Danny, regarding ABA services for him. I wanted to thank you for putting me in touch with Tony Paulauski because he has given me hope that we will have our ABA services paid for through Early Intervention. I spoke with him a few weeks ago after he had a meeting with Carolyn Cochran Kopel, who at that time stated those services should be provided. After I spoke with our sons Service Coordinator she went to her boss, who then went to her boss and they said yes, we should get this taken care of. As of right now we have a meeting scheduled on Thursday to review my son's IFSP and hopefully this we will get this rolling. Honestly, I am shocked we have gotten this far and am extremely grateful to you for helping me get here. Without this therapy I know my son would not be where he is today, and without the aid from the state I don't know how much longer we could do it. Danny still has a long way to go, but at least now I know we have a chance for improvement. I received a copy of a letter Tony sent to Carolyn Cochran Kopel, it was on The Arc of Illinois stationery. At the bottom of the stationery I noticed the motto "Advocates for Change". You guys definitely stand behind your words. On behalf of my entire family, thank you from the bottom of my heart - you have no idea what hope you have given us and I am forever grateful! Sincerely, Karen McGuire Mom to Danny L. McGuire, III McGuire, Karen
Chicago , IL
Mike The referrals were all useful. LRE sent information to us. I saw Wrights law on the internet, but only read it briefly. The Family Resource Center also sent information to us. My wife and I are scheduled for training and also a meeting with one of their consultants in January. All the people I talked to seemed generally concerned about Ryan's situation. As far as the survey, I would answer YES to all the questions. thanks again for your help Balitewicz, Peter
IL
Hi Tony this is Karen McGuire. I don’t know if you remember me, we spoke a few months ago, actually it might have been a month or so ago re: my son Danny and ABA services for him. Just wanted to update you on the status…. We went through everything with early intervention and we did, we were able to add this to his IFSP. So he is now, actually they haven’t really started yet because it was a hard time finding resources for people to provide the services. And um. There’s just a lot of issues with…. It’s not as easier as just saying ok you guys can get ABA because it’s not something that’s normally done in Early Intervention. But it’s wonderful for us, we’re finally able to use some of our therapists for this. And um, they’re getting paid retro back to the IFSP date. Even though, I’d love it to go back to his initial start with ABA, but I would have to go through due process for that. And I was wondering, would I need to talk to Early Intervention, just about some suggestions I would have regarding setting this program up through Early Intervention just because there is no smooth way of going through it right now and us being the first ones, I think I have a little bit of insight in… I don’t know if I should go through you for this, or go through Early Intervention for this. But my main reason for calling was just wanted to thank you so much for this because, there’s short time left, my son turns three in June. But every dollar helps with us. You’re a great advocate for autism, for the disabled and we really appreciate it. I can’t speak highly enough of you and your team, and what you’ve done for us. It really means a lot to us. If there is anything that I can do, I know that there isn’t much that I can do, but if there is anything I can do, please let me know. Have a great weekend. Bye Bye. McGuire, Karen
Chicago, IL
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