UM center celebrates 10 years of helping people with disabilities

ORONO – Lenny Berry didn’t take history or science classes in school because no one thought he would need them. Instead, he was segregated in special education classes and directed toward cleaning and kitchen jobs.

Today, Berry, an adult with developmental disabilities, works for the University of Maine Center for Community Inclusion. He teaches those who provide services – such as job placement assistance – to people with disabilities how to work with people like himself.

Berry, who used to require 24-hour assistance, now lives on his own in Lincoln. He travels across the country talking to groups about his work at the university, and his life in the community.

“I have a real life, a real home and real work,” he said. “I don’t like cleaning or kitchen work,” he hastened to add.

Berry is among the hundreds of people in Maine whose lives have been improved by the Center for Community Inclusion, which celebrated its 10th anniversary recently at the Buchanan Alumni House on the University of Maine campus.

Two keynote speakers highlighted the center’s anniversary events. The inaugural distinguished lecture in disability studies was be given by Allen Crocker.

Crocker, 76, has academic appointments at both the Harvard Medical School and Harvard School of Public Health. He also is a senior associate in medicine at Children’s Hospital in Boston and director of the Institute for Community Inclusion. He was instrumental in creating the precursor to the Center for Community Inclusion in Maine beginning in the 1970s.

Patricia Morrissey, commissioner of the U.S. Administration on Developmental Disabilities, gave the luncheon keynote address. For more than 20 years, Morrissey has worked for and with the federal government to improve disability policy.

After Morrissey’s address, awards were presented to Morrissey, Crocker and Elaine Gershman, retired associate dean of the collage of arts and sciences and associate professor emeritus of psychology – individuals whose vision and leadership helped lay the foundation for the Center for Community.

The center, of which there is at least one in every state, grew out of President John F. Kennedy’s commitment to individuals with disabilities. The centers provide interdisciplinary education, research and community service as well as providing information to the community at large about disability issues.

In its first decade as an official center, the University of Maine program has played the role of information clearinghouse, policy creator and advocate. For example, the center has worked with schools and day care centers to ensure that classrooms are set up so that all children have an opportunity to learn.

In addition, the center works with government entities to ensure that policies aimed at assisting those with disabilities have their intended consequences. Center staff members also conduct research in a wide range of areas related to improving the quality of life for individuals with disabilities.

As part of the University of Maine curriculum, students in a variety of academic fields may elect to concentrate a portion of their studies on disability issues.

It is interesting to note, said center Director Lucille Zeph, that when changes are made to accommodate a person with a disability, they usually end up benefiting everyone. For example, when classroom space is rearranged to ensure that a child experiencing difficulty learning is better able to concentrate, the other students typically find they too are better able to focus on their studies.

“Our dream for inclusive communities is that everyone can go through the same door,” says Zeph. “We want people with disabilities to have access to the full array of services available to other community members.”

For families served by the center, that dream has been realized.

“These people all seemed to have a mysteriously positive attitude about people with disabilities, and we began to learn from them about possibilities, not impossibilities,” said the mother of a 12-year-old who has benefited from the center’s expertise, advice and assistance.