Advocates in Motion, or AIM for short, is a self-advocacy group that was started about 10 years ago and has approximately 25 members. The group has elected officers and a president and secretary set up weekly agendas. The group works with the Alliance (state network of advocacy groups) on various projects and they attend Alliance advocacy events.
AIM meets every other Wednesday at 1:00 pm in P. West and anyone in Pioneer Center’s developmental disability programming can join. It is a group where attendance to all meetings is not required.
AIM members enjoy being involved in the community and in the past year have been involved in many great projects including:
- Participated through a donation to Turning Point Radiothon.
- Sponsored a paper goods drive to benefit Crystal Lake food pantry and collected 40 pounds of paper goods.
- Participated in Special Olympics Torch Run luncheon and made donation.
- Proceeds from craft fair were donated to Toys for Tots. Advocates bought the toys and then brought them to neighborhood drop box.
In addition, AIM invites different speakers to present information. They have had the Department of Human Services Director come and speak and also listened to Bridget Brown, an advocate from Darien, Illinois.
Approximately 13 out of the 25 clients involved with AIM volunteer in the community regularly. Several advocates have attended the ARC Convention and have done an overnight trip to Bloomington, Illinois, to participate in the Alliance rally.
Janet Trebing is the facilitator of the AIM group. She can be reached at [email protected]
