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Seguin Services, Inc.
Mission of Seguin Services
Seguin Services supports adults and children with disabilities and other special needs, enabling them to be productive, valued members of society. Since 1976, we have been an innovative leader in offering high quality services and supports that enable adults and children with disabilities to fulfill their dreams of happiness, productivity, and independence so that they can live, work, learn, and socialize as their neighbors do.
Overview of Seguin Services
Grounded in a commitment to serving people within the community, Seguin provides support to over 500 adults and children in the Chicagoland area through our adult residential, adult employment and training, and children's foster care services. Recently, CARF, the national Rehabilitation Accreditation Commission, granted Seguin Services its sixth consecutive tri-annual accreditation noting that Seguin Services operates "the best homes we have seen in the United States". In 2004, Seguin was the proud recipient of the prestigious Alford-Axelson Award for Excellence in Nonprofit Management. In 1949, in the western suburbs of Chicago, a group of parents was determined to follow the philosophy of French physician Edouard Seguin, whose school for people with disabilities was committed to the belief that the students should have the opportunity to live, work and learn in their home communities. These parents began providing day school classes for their children in a church basement - the first pilot program for inclusive, community-based special education in the State of Illinois. From this early informal alliance evolved Mentally Retarded Children's Aid, which transferred all programs and services to Seguin Services in the mid-1970s.
Since our incorporation in 1976, Seguin Services, Inc. has continually refined Dr. Seguin's philosophy of creating opportunities for acceptance and assimilation of people with disabilities. Seguin redesigned Residential Services, begun in 1979, to emphasize community integration and normal living experiences. Today, Seguin provides a supportive, family-like, home environment for about 200 adults with disabilities and provides in-home supportive services to over 30 adults who choose to live independently in their own homes or with their families.
In the 1980s, seeking to increase participants' inclusion in community work settings, Seguin phased out our sheltered workshop, where only people with disabilities worked on subcontract jobs, and established Community Employment Alternatives, through which adults with developmental disabilities have the opportunity to work in supported jobs in the community. We changed the focus of our Vocational Training program to increase the range of job skill training and life skills required for inclusion in community work settings. These services were among the first community-inclusive employment and training programs in Illinois and successfully demonstrated that even participants with the severest disabilities can work in the community given the appropriate support. In 2001, Seguin Services created SEGUINWORKS, an entrepreneurial business venture initiative, to provide employment for those adults whose severe levels of disabilities have been barriers to employment in integrated community work settings. Today, many participants also contribute their skills to society through involvement in community volunteer activities.
In 1994, Seguin began the Children's Foster Care Program for children who have disabilities, medical conditions, and behavioral challenges. A past recipient of the Champion of Adoption award from the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS), today Seguin secures permanent homes through adoption, reunification with the natural family, and permanent guardianship for children from birth to high school age.
Web Address: www.seguin.org
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This Web site is maintained by the Research and Training Center on Community Living (RTC). The RTC is housed at the Institute on Community Integration, College of Education and Human Development, University of Minnesota.
Questions/Feedback about this web site? E-mail the webmaster at: weste050@umn.edu. |
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