Thank you for your interest in Progressive Services Network (PSN).  We are a Chicagoland charitable not-for-profit (501c3) organization, established in 2003, dedicated to promoting rich and fulfilling lives for individuals with developmental disabilities.   Through fundraising activities, marketing programs, and outreach efforts, PSN strives to promote the development and growth of a continuum of cutting-edge community-based options for developmentally disabled individuals, as a much needed alternative to isolation at home or institutional warehousing.

FROM THE EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
THE CHALLENGE
THE VISION
THE MISSION
THE PLAN OF ACTION
OUR BOARD

FROM THE EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR

Thank you for your interest in Progressive Services Network (PSN), a Chicagoland charitable not-for-profit organization dedicated to making a positive difference in the lives of adults with developmental disabilities.   

As the father of a young adult son with autism, I’m well aware of the enormous challenges and obstacles which families with a special-needs child all too often encounter. While school-aged children with developmental disabilities are integrated into educational and community settings, their legal entitlement for these programs abruptly ends when they reach age 22.  PSN was established in 2003 to address the lack of funding and services for these individuals as they leave the school environment and become young adults. 

With a volunteer Board of Directors -- half of whom are parents of children with special needs -- PSN strives to: promote the growth, development, and availability of cutting-edge, best-practice, community-based day and residential supports for adults with special needs; raise public awareness; and influence public policy support of community-based options.  

With your help, monies raised will enable individuals with developmental disabilities the opportunity to live and participate in their own communities, through programs which foster community integration and social interaction, maximize independence, and honor personal spirit.   Programs of this kind will provide a much needed alternative to inhumane and costly institutionalization, or needless isolation at home.   

Thank you for your interest in Progressive Services Network.  I hope we can count on you to support our efforts to help individuals with developmental disabilities lead rich and fulfilling lives.  I’m confident that PSN will make a significant difference. 

Larry Markin

Executive Director 

THE CHALLENGE

• Each year, thousands of infants are born in Illinois with developmental disabilities and enter the state’s disability system.  Many will require life-long support.

• As these individuals age out of special education entitlement at age 22, their options for housing, vocation, continued learning, recreation, and community/peer interaction will be extremely limited.

• Illinois ranks dead last, 51st of the 50 states and D.C., in percentage of individuals with intellectual/developmental disabilities living in community-based residential settings of 6 or fewer individuals, serving only 30% of this population in settings of this kind. It is shameful that Illinois holds the worst ranking in this regard .

• Illinois ranks 9th highest of the 50 states and D. C. in percent of individuals with intellectual/developmental disabilities living in institutional settings, despite the fact that institutional care is restrictive and expensive, averaging $130,000 a year per individual in a state-operated facility.

• Of the millions of dollars Illinois spends annually on institutional care of the intellectually/developmentally disabled, approximately 60% is disproportionally paid to state operated facilities for care of just 13% of this population.  Most other states have already closed or are closing these types of facilities.

• Illinois ranks 43rd lowest of the 50 states and D.C. in funding community-based supports and services for individuals with intellectual/developmental disabilities as an alternative to institutionalization.  Illinois’ institutional bias prevails, despite the fact that community-based supports and services are overwhelmingly preferred by individuals and their families, and average less than half the cost of institutionalization.

• With the majority of the “Intellectual/Developmental Disabilities Budget” directed to institutional facilities, fewer dollars are available to fund community-based options, leaving most of these programs under-funded.  Many are unable to accept clients with complex needs because they are more costly to serve.

Illinois’ misguided practice of funding expensive and restrictive institutional care for developmentally disabled individuals, over lower-cost and person-centered community-based options, provides an inadequate and inhumane system of care.  With your help, Progressive Services Network will bring needed change.

THE VISION
It is our vision that individuals with special needs have access to quality supports and services that offer opportunities for building rich and fulfilling lives, among peers, within a community setting. 


THE MISSION
It is our mission to foster the development and growth of a high-quality, community-based, supports and services continuum for developmentally disabled adults, comprised of best-practice residential, educational, vocational, social and recreational options.   A continuum of this kind would help address the desperate need for day and residential programs which foster community integration, social interaction, and independence, and which provide a preferred alternative to inhumane and costly institutionalization, or needless isolation at home.

THE PLAN OF ACTION
Our plan of action includes:

• Fundraising efforts to provide financial support to best-practice community-based organizations, and help them sustain and expand their cutting-edge programs

• Education and marketing efforts to raise greater public awareness

• Advocacy efforts to influence public policy support of community-based options, as well as increased overall funding of programs for the developmentally disabled

OUR BOARD

Board of Directors

Larry Markin
Executive Director

Jami Bay
President

Ellen Bronfeld
Vice President

Mark Weiner
Secretary

Michael Hartman
Treasurer

Susan Caplan
Director

Dean Klassman
Director

Margaret Tanenberg
Director

Bruce Teitelbaum
Director

Board Members

Stuart Greenberg
Gerilyn Miller-Brown
Rita Obeler
Andrew Platt
Saul Rhum
Stuart Rozen
Jeff Weinstein