Jim Fair
Rachel Kaplan of Able SC presented the organization and its mission to Greer City Council in February.
Submitted
As a Center for Independent Living, Able SC provides five core services – information and referral, independent living skills, peer support, advocacy, and transition services.
The EQUIP Leadership Group is led by young adults with disabilities.
Able SC is “An organization not about helping people with disabilities, but built on the central concept of self-empowerment,” said Rachel Kaplan, the Youth Transition Coordinator for Able SC. “It’s a consumer-controlled, community-based, cross disability nonprofit that provides an array of independent living services.”
“We do everything it takes to empower people with disabilities to live active, self-determined lives – advocacy, service and support. More than half of our staff are persons with disabilities, as are over half of our Board of Directors,” Kaplan said.
“We didn’t just learn this, we live it,” she said. “This unique consumer-controlled dynamic allows us to relate to our consumers in a meaningful, effective way. We’ve been where they are and we have real life experience in overcoming the barriers they are facing,” Kaplan said.
The agency offers a variety of programs and services with those living with disabilities. As a Center for Independent Living, Able SC provides five core services – information and referral, independent living skills, peer support, advocacy, and transition services.
Able SC offers a broad curriculum in activities and skills training for daily life, safety and well being, customized to meet individual needs. Independent living specialists work one-on-one to create individual goals for independence and road maps for achieving them.
These specialists can help those with disabilities with employment, budgeting, household management, voting, adapting to their home, sexuality, parenting with a disability, voting, and other qualities of life.
Giving people with disabilities the skills and tools they need to become successful is vital in today’s society. People with disabilities speak and advocate for themselves if they want to be successful.
“We’re at the forefront of activism and leadership on any and all issues affecting people with disabilities, issues like accessibility, public accommodations and transportation,” Kaplan said. “These are critical in achieving full inclusion in community life. We work with local, state and national leaders to bring about change and create opportunities.”
Transitioning from high school to college/adulthood to learning to vote and peer support groups, Able SC is a one-stop resource center.
Able SC believes that peer support groups have an important role in the disabled community.
“Peer supporters serve as inspiration and role models, as only someone with personal experience with disabilities can do,” Kaplan said. “They share life experience and bring new ideas and information to facilitate independence.”
As an individual, a mother, wife, and journalist with a disability, my experiences and techniques could influence another person to reach for their goals. It can give hope and encouragement. And I could learn from others as well.
The organization has a unique peer led program, EQUIP Leadership Group. It is for and led by young adults with disabilities.
”The reason that we promote the group being run by young adults with disabilities is because our EQUIP leaders are able to provide realistic and tangible advice based on experience to their peers,” Kaplan said.
Independence is defined as having the choice and freedom to determine what an individual wants, what they can do on their own, when and how they want to get help.
If an individual with a disability never feels empowered to make choices and decisions for themselves then they are not going to have the confidence and resources to learn the skills they need to be successful in their school, community and workplace.
“By empowering individuals with disabilities to be independent, we are providing the access and tools they need to be productive and contributing members of society,” Kaplan said. “Disability is an essential piece of knowing who we are holistically as people, but it is not the defining factor of who a person is, what they can do, their goals, dreams, capabilities, etc.,” Kaplan said.
• About the author: Kim Wooten, 25, was born with cerebral palsy, which is a condition that affects her muscles and muscle control. She graduated cum laude in 2010 from North Greenville University with a B.A. in Business Administration. Wooten is married and has a 3-year old daughter.