The Terre Haute Chamber of Commerce would like to welcome this week’s guest blogger
Peter Ciancone, Executive Director of The WILL Center.
The WILL Center is a private, not-for-profit, non-residential agency that serves people of all ages and any disability or combination of disabilities. We serve Vigo, Vermillion, Parke, Putnam, Clay and Owen counties.
Our mission is to empower people with disabilities to ensure that they have full and complete access to community resources to promote their independence.
We provide a range of consumer-driven services with five core services: Information & Referral, Skills Training, Advocacy, Peer Support & Peer Mentoring and Transition (from institutional living and from secondary school into adult living).
We have a staff dedicated to engaging our consumers in a conversation to determine what their goals are and to helping them find meaningful ways to achieve them.
We can be reached at the contact information below or on-line at www.thewillcenter.org.
You can also find us on Facebook.
Our next event is a low vision technology expo at the Center On June 20. There will be demonstrations of new technology and a chance to win prizes. Seating is limited so please RSVP at 812-298-9455 before June 14.
Below describes another highly successful program we offer that builds wheelchair ramps onto private dwellings. We’re always looking for volunteers to help build.
Ramp Construction Partnership – “Ramps for Freedom”
Nothing is more fundamental to community-based living than being able to get in and out of one’s own home.
- Partnership with The WILL Center and Servants at Work, Inc. (SAWs) since
2013 has built more than 160 ramps on private homes. - Ramps are built with treated lumber, are fully compliant with regulations prescribed by the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), are built entirely above ground (No disruption of underground utilities, no post holes, no concrete)
- SAWs provides drawings through its own design software and a data base of projects and volunteer carpenters. The WILL Center provides a part-time staff coordinator, uses staff to collect information about requests, and gains funding for our service area. Numerous partners have joined us, including The Christopher and Dana Reeve Foundation, The Wabash Valley Community Foundation, The Vectren Foundation, The Prairie Creek First Baptist Church, Fifth Third Bank and dozens of private donors.
- Contractors typically charge between $2,000 and $3,000 for comparable ramps. Our partnership has been about to hold the unit cost under $800. Because each ramp is designed to be ADA-compliant to the structure to
which it is attached, the ramps vary considerably in size and cost. - When we began the project in 2013 we had 17 people on our waiting list.
- We have built about 30 ramps a year. We are now in our 2018 building season with 40 people on our waiting list.
