DSC is full of truly incredible people, and we want to share these beautiful stories with you, the public! Stay tuned as we highlight important people and things that help DSC in fulfilling our mission!
Click on each heading below to read more stories.
Learn more about DSC's Community Living Program.
Meet the 2022 Tree of Hope Family, Caleb & Cali and their mother, Amber!
DSC's Meet Me on Monday's are back!!
With the arrival of October, we are commemorating National Disability Employment Awareness Month (NDEAM). NDEAM recognizes the wide variety of contributions of America’s workers with disabilities—past and present—and showcases supportive, inclusive employment policies and practices.
And with that, we'd love to introduce you to DSC's Employment Services! DSC’s Employment Services encompasses a broad range of services and programming, which equips adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities with the skills they need to find and maintain gainful employment. One of the overarching goals is to ensure people with disabilities find jobs with competitive wages, meaning no less than minimum wage.
Click Meet Employment Services! above to read more.
Kathy’s favorite thing to do in her free time is to go shopping! She truly has the golden touch when it comes to finding the best deals around and enjoys purchasing t-shirts, sweatshirts, and carry bags. In the past year, Kathy has been apart of shopping road trips with some of her friends and support staff to Springfield, Tuscola, and Decatur. She is very excited for her next shopping trip to Peoria in May! Another activity Kathy enjoys is eating; she loves to sample various food choices at local restaurants for lunch and even attends a cooking class sponsored by the resident chef at Olive Garden with some of her peers from DSC.
Dori enjoys working with everyone at DSC and lets it show through her friendly smile. Recently, Dori worked with other consumers at DSC to cook a Saint Patrick’s Day feast. She worked hard with other consumers to prep and cook all of the food for Saint Patrick’s Day.
When Dori’s not in the kitchen, she volunteers with other DSC consumers at Salt & Light and the Swann Special Care Center. Dori also really enjoys park walking, a paid community job that takes place four days a week. Dori and her coworkers pick up trash left behind to restore the beauty of our Champaign community’s parks through Champaign Park District. Dori has been park walking for over 10 years now. Brian Richter from DSC says that Dori is one of the mainstays for the project. Dori loves to get outside and get some exercise. Several years ago, Dori and a few of her coworkers made a pledge that she leads that after they’re finished with the parks, “Today is the day that I made a difference. My community can count on me to keep it clean!”
In her free time, one of Dori’s favorite things to do is to visit her nieces and nephews who live in central Illinois.
Meet Melanie!
This artistically gifted woman is a consumer at DSC. She enjoys coming to and working at DSC. One of Melanie’s favorite activities is to paint. She has sold many of her paintings in the past and has even sold one to a former mayor of Champaign! Melanie likes to depict nature scenes and animals in her artwork. She says she often starts painting, unsure of what she would like to paint and lets inspiration guide her as she goes. Melanie paints to relax and de-stress from her everyday life.
Melanie will be selling her paintings at the upcoming Roger Ebert's Film Festival 2016 at The Virginia Theatre in downtown Champaign! Melanie will be selling her paintings outside the entrance of the theatre this Saturday, April 16th. Come see and purchase some of Melanie’s beautiful artwork!
