FAQ of the week:
Q: What does CLI do at 38 West Seminary Street?
A: CLI purchased and renovated 38 West Seminary Street for 3 reasons.
The first is the one that everyone already knows, that Ohio's laws no longer allow "segregated" services where a bunch of people with disabilities just hang around inside all day. However, we knew that people would still need a place to leave their lunch and/or use as a depot between community-integrated activities.
The second is that CLI really struggled maintaining a consistent schedule of community-integrated activities using the workshop as our major hub. Too often things would come up and it was too easy to just to pull back for the day. Alternatively, more often than you would think, some people would change their mind at the last minute and insist on hanging out at the workshop even without anything to do there.
The third and biggest reason we purchased this alternative space is that we want to locate the base of services for everyone-- especially people who have significant needs-- as close to community resources as possible. 38 West Seminary is right across the street from the Norwalk Pubic Library and within a block of a number of parks and retail businesses. Not having to load in & out of a wheelchair accessible van can be a big deal for some people. It often takes almost 45 minutes to load up, drive someplace, and then unload at your destination. That's an hour and a half trip to the library before you even visit the library. Instead, now we can just skip the vans and cross the street.
