Welcome to the June 2011 issue of the Real Choice Newsletter

In this Issue

	The Campaign Ends...the Vision Lives On
	Seeds of Change - Lester Pritchard
	Lessons Learned and the Work Continues - Barb Pritchard
	Campaign Reflections - Jennifer Knapp
	Campaign Tribute - Jason Knapp
	Campaign for Real Choice Retrospective – Grant Antoline
	A Note About the Campaign - Katie Dunne
	My Tribute to Lester and the Campaign for Real Choice - Sarah Castle
	An Homage - Nick Quealy-Gainer
	Lester's Hope for the Future

Upcoming Events

About REAL CHOICE

The Campaign for Real Choice in Illinois is people with disabilities organizing for freedom and choice. We are a grassroots, citizen action organization consisting of people with disabilities and their supporters. For more on the Campaign, go to
realchoiceinillinois.org

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The Campaign Ends...the Vision Lives On

Many people may be wondering why I am choosing to close the Campaign for Real Choice. There are several reasons for this. Lester and I hired Nick Quealy-Gainer as the Campaign for Real Choice half-time organizer in August 2009. At that time, the three of us agreed Nick would work for the Campaign for at least 2 years. We had no idea what the next several months would hold for us. When Lester left us, I felt I needed to honor the commitment we had made to Nick plus I wasn’t ready to think about ending the Campaign. I thought Nick and I could and should continue our work in the disability community. It was too difficult to think of ending the Campaign right after Lester died.

We took on the state budget cuts to disability services and Medicaid Managed Care as two issues we could wrap our brains around. I tried my utmost to be as supportive of Nick as possible. Many days I knew I really left him hanging but my brain just couldn’t handle anything else. I also wanted to live up to Lester’s legacy and continue to do good things with the disability community. I tried my hardest to stretch my skills and abilities to compare with Lester’s.

In the last two years, I’ve come to realize and accept what I already knew; my skill set is different from Lester’s. I could never exactly fill his shoes. I didn’t need to bend myself into a different shape to make me fit his mold because it would just never work.

Over the last several months I’ve realized it’s probably better to go out on a high note and end the Campaign now than it would be to continue on as an organization of 1. Lester never wanted the Campaign to become its own entity. He never dreamed it would go on and on. The purpose was to fill a void and be an additional voice in the disability community which was not tied to an organization or state funding. Now others have taken up the cry to end Illinois’ reliance on Institutions.

Nick is taking a new job at a local health care advocacy organization. I serve on the board and Lester served as a board member for many years. This will be a really good fit for Nick. Without Lester, I don’t have the energy to train a new organizer and a new organizer would probably never have known Lester or truly understand his vision and passion. It just feels, for many reasons, the right time to end the Campaign.

Organizers are very hard to come by and Lester and I were very fortunate to have some outstanding people work with us on the Campaign over our 7-year history. These people have included: Jennifer Knapp, Jason Knapp, Grant Antoline, Katie Dunne, Sarah Castle, and Nick Quealy-Gainer. We’ve asked each one to tell us some of their remembrances and what they learned from the Campaign. Their written contributions are below.

In addition, Nick and I pulled together a History of the Campaign that you might enjoy reading.

Seeds of Change - Lester Pritchard

For the first 3 months of 2004, Lester and Barb traveled to all parts of Illinois meeting with small groups of people to listen to their concerns for people with disabilities in Illinois.  For some it was their children, for others it was fear for those who had been institutionalized and fear of being institutionalized.  Lester tried to get a sense of what people's hopes and dreams were for those with significant disabilities.  What kind of lives did people want to lead or have for their loved ones?  What was needed to live those lives?  How did Illinois get beyond institutions to real choices and real supports in the community? 

All these questions swirled in Lester's head as he formulated a strategy to pull together various advocates from around the state for a meeting held on April 1, 2004 at the Thompson Center in Chicago.  It was an historic day, because none of these groups had successfully worked together before.  By the end of that day, the group had come together to unite in the common goal of closing down Lincoln Developmental Center, and thus the Campaign for Real Choice was formed.

This was Lester's opening statement:

Our purpose is to begin to change the way Illinois funds its services for people with disabilities. We need to change to fund people – real people with real choices. That change starts today. There are two ways to change; 1) With money, 2) With the power of numbers. We obviously don’t have money, but we have numbers and a good story to tell.

We need to get organized. People are here from all over the state. Even though we come from different backgrounds, we all are stubborn, and will do what it takes.

Our Mission: To make Illinois fund PEOPLE, not institutions and nursing homes.

Lessons Learned and the Work Continues - Barb Pritchard

As I think back over the last seven years of working with the Campaign for Real Choice, I can’t believe what I learned, who I learned it from, what we did, and how it was received. In 2003, Lester served on the planning committee to develop the old grounds of Lincoln Developmental Center. I kind of twisted his arm to be on this committee. Lincoln hit a very deep chord in Lester since his parents were told to put him in a “nice home” (which was another term for an institution). “Forget about him and go home and make other babies” the doctor said. We owe so much to his parents for not following the doctor’s advice in 1949. Lester was always sensitive to the fact that he could have been a resident of one of our state institutions. This bothered him to his core and made him a strong advocate for those that couldn’t speak or didn’t feel that they had a voice. He said to me, “If I’m going to be on this committee, you’re going to be on it too and you can re-voice for me.”

We then traveled around to different Centers for Independent Living, sharing our concerns and Lester’s vision for changes in Illinois. We also talked with parents of kids with significant disabilities who we had met over the years. Lester wanted to get a sense of what these parents wanted for their children. We did a lot of research to see what other states had done for individuals with significant disabilities. Lester digested numerous state and federal reports and would give me a summarized version in which he concluded, as did many reports, that the community should allow individuals to be safe and integrated, leading a happy and well-supported life in a place the individuals wanted to live. The struggle was “how do we get from where we are in Illinois to where we need to be in comparison to other states?”... Read More.

Campaign Reflections - Jennifer Knapp

I think it is safe to say that my life would have looked quite different if I hadn’t met Lester and Barb and worked for the Campaign for Real Choice in Illinois! I probably would not have attended a protest or spoke at a legislative hearing or met all of you. Before the Campaign, I just wanted to work in a nonprofit that helped people. I didn’t have any understanding of power or direct action organizing or policy changes. Well, that’s all changed…

It is difficult to put into words the affect the Campaign has had on my life, because it has had a transformational impact. I remember when we were fighting the reopening of Lincoln and Lester banged his fist on the table and yelled that people were more important than jobs. I was re-voicing for him that day, and remember trembling inside but trying to re-voice with the same passion he had. I didn’t quite pull it off, but thankfully I had several years to let his clarity of vision, passion, and courage soak in...Read More.

Campaign Tribute - Jason Knapp

For me, the Campaign for Real Choice was an education in itself. I worked for the Campaign my senior year of college, but found the people and ideas that I came across in the Campaign to be as formative and thought provoking as many of the concepts I was studying in class. I learned not only about disability issues and the way forward with them, but also the basics of grassroots advocacy and strategies for real change.

The richness of the Campaign was in the people who made it what it came to be. I certainly valued meeting and enjoyed working with passionate people throughout the state. The Campaign was made up of a wonderful core group of people, a remarkable set of founders, and a visionary who left a huge imprint on my life.

Although my focus has moved to other social issues in other parts of the world over the last six years, the experiences and lessons of the Campaign continue to play an important role in making me who I am.

Campaign for Real Choice Retrospective – Grant Antoline

When I was in High School, I was sure that the only way to help people was to become a politician. “Get to Washington and start to legislatively change this country for the better,” was my mantra. I was sure that the only way to help as many people as possible was to enter to world of politics, confident that a politician who maintained their integrity and general moral compass would be able to move mountains. Chalk all that up to being a naïve youth…

I started by working for David Gill who was running against Tim Johnson for the Congressional 15th district. David was the politician I wanted to be; a no-nonsense all around good guy who was ready to kick in the door of the U.S. House and shake things up. He lost twice. Disheartened I was looking for something else. I literally was lost without a “project” that fulfilled my desire to do some good...Read More.

A Note About the Campaign - Katie Dunne

The first time I heard about the Campaign for Real Choice, I was a freshman at U of I. Jennifer Knapp, Lead Organizer of the Campaign, came to speak to my Speech Communications class. Everything Jen described sounded wonderful: Barb and Lester's vision, the Campaign's policy goals and the self-advocacy they promoted. I contacted Jen after the presentation and asked how I could help.

What started as a college internship became a life-changing experience. Every time I left the Pritchards' house, I thought about how lucky I was to have these people in my life. Jen was always willing to answer my questions and help with my projects. She has a contagious energy and is a natural leader. The skills she taught me, from very basic presentation techniques and writing tips, to more important life lessons about patience and kindness, have informed so many of my professional and personal experiences over the last several years...Read More.

My Tribute to Lester and the Campaign for Real Choice - Sarah Castle

I don’t know that I could ever explain in words the impact Lester Pritchard and the Campaign for Real Choice in Illinois had on my life and my view of the world, but this is certainly my attempt to try…

I remember my first meeting with Lester. He brought his amazing sidekick, Jennifer, and I was so nervous; I didn’t know what to expect and honestly I was surprised by his enlightened perspective and explanation of the goals and mission of the Campaign for Real Choice. I may have thought it was overly ambitious and I think I was a bit nervous, I didn’t want to get arrested…that’s all I remember thinking, but I loved Jen and Lester from the start. I thought it was easy to get behind the Campaign’s goal to close institutions, even though I don’t really know if I understood what that really meant and I never could have guessed what was to follow....Read More.

An Homage - Nick Quealy-Gainer

I came out of grad school the summer of 2009 with the goal of working for and under a strong organizer with a passion for social justice…someone that I could learn from and be mentored by for years. I knew that I wasn’t ready to be off on my own trying to save the world. I was still a rookie organizer and needed plenty of guidance, and I was looking for a leader that I could follow. I was also tired of bouncing from one non-profit job to another, which I had been doing for the last decade, and I was ready to really sink my teeth into an organization and an issue for the long haul.

So when Lester asked me to come work for the Campaign for Real Choice in Illinois, I felt like I had hit the jackpot. Here was exactly the type of leader and organization that I was looking for. I had never organized people with disabilities and knew next to nothing about disability rights, but I quickly recognized the type of mentor that Lester could be for me and the potential to do amazing and powerful work with the Campaign. Plus, I could tell it was going to be a lot of fun. I’ll never forget my first day, when I walked in the door of the Pritchard’s home and Lester greeted me by saying, “I’m so glad you didn’t wear that tie you had on at the interview…I was worried we had made a bad decision hiring you.” After we had a few laughs, we got right down to work.... Read More.

Lester's Hope for the Future

Letters from Lester

Chairperson, Illinois Council on Developmental Disabilities (2004-2009)

“We have a long way to go and many challenges lay ahead. But challenges can inspire dreams of ‘what could be’ that, in turn, raise expectations and motivate real change. I believe that the degree of expectations will largely determine the degree of progress in Illinois.”
- Listening to Dreams, Committing to Change (March 2005)

“While the obstacles sometimes seem overwhelming, they present a unique opportunity: The responsibility for making change rests on all of us. Instead of only asking why something can’t be done, we should be asking what can be done to make it happen.”
- Lighting the Spark of Change (March 2006)