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Minutes of the Regular Meeting of Council <br />Monday, August 19, 2024 <br />Page 2 <br />Presentation by Janet Keeler, Division of Community Development for the Cuyahoga <br />County Board of Developmental Disabilities <br />Good evening Council President and members as well as the audience here today. My name is <br />Janet Keeler. I am the Director of Community Development for the Cuyahoga County Board of <br />Developmental Disabilities. Our mission is to support and empower people with developmental <br />disabilities to live, learn, work and play in their communities. From birth to adulthood, we support <br />people with developmental disabilities to live their best lives. We serve more than 14,000 people <br />every year in Cuyahoga County. <br />Last year, just in your community, we served close to 30 people with disabilities. One of those <br />residents is Larry. Cuyahoga County Developmental Disabilities' physical therapy department <br />assesses Larry for safety equipment to protect him from injuries related to his seizures. He was <br />set up with safety mats, a bed alarm, grab bars in his room and bathroom and a shower chair. He <br />now lives in a fully accessible house here in Mayfield Village and is as independent and safe as he <br />has ever been. <br />Colton is a 2'/z year old who was not talking or using sign language at home or daycare. He has <br />been receiving speech therapy from Cuyahoga DD and is now using sign language and sentences <br />with two to three words. He is talking in daycare and out in the community with children at the <br />park. His family is thrilled that their son uses and understands language in a way he did not prior <br />to his receiving speech therapy. <br />Two-thirds of our $150,000,000 budget comes from a $3.9 mill continuous levy that was passed <br />by Cuyahoga voters in 2005. So you will see we are excellent stewards of taxpayer dollars to still <br />be working from a levy that was passed almost 20 years ago. We provide things like early <br />intervention, therapies such as occupational, physical and speech therapy, consultative services to <br />support students in schools, transitional services for young adults, housing and employment <br />services and free personalized resources like ADA walkways. <br />Some innovative ways for supporting people with developmental disabilities in your community: <br />In 2023 we launched a program with CSU called the CSU Rise Program which gives students with <br />disabilities a typical college experience while ensuring they are supported in ways that will help <br />them be successful in college and beyond. We have a large workforce development team that <br />works with any business to link them to talented job seekers with disabilities. We partner with <br />other youth serving agencies like DCFS, the ADAMHS Board and Family and Children First <br />Council. <br />Finally, we invest in communities. Since 2021, we have granted $700,000.00 to support more than <br />50 community libraries, arts and culture and recreation organizations to help make their programs <br />more inclusive and their physical spaces more accessible to people of all abilities. We have over <br />$200,000 allocated in community grants just in 2024. While Mayfield Village has not applied for <br />these grants in the past, come January we will again release our next round of 4 grants. In addition <br />to the work supporting people with disabilities in Cuyahoga County, we strive to be a resource for <br />the community. We would welcome any opportunity to talk more about what we can do to help <br />