Center. “We have one man who has spinal bifi da, he wanted to be a mechanic. He is in a wheelchair. We ended up giving him a scholarship to BGSU in engineering. We are working hard with various contacts we have in his specialty to see if we can make a connection for him.” Stuart said his approach to aspirational growth has been more receptive here in Toledo than it was in Berkeley. There, he was constantly pushed to provide more social services and getting his clients benefi ts. Stuart did not disagree but said if that is his primary focus than this program never solves itself. He had to ask, “Is this a numbers game or is it an outcome game?” “If I provide services for 300 people, and they keep coming back for the same services am I really helping them or just checking off the boxes on some government form? Or do I focus on 20, 30, 40, 50 people like Jose Rivera and really get them off the street?” Stuart James and The Ability Center: How the "Think Differently Then Act!" Campaign will Help Make Toledo the Most Disability-Friendly City in America By Ed Conn I fi rst met Stuart James, Executive Director of The Ability Center, when he was the keynote speaker at a Maumee Chamber of Commerce luncheon in the spring. In 20 minutes, his thoughtful fi rst-person accounts and storytelling introduced us to a concept which has now become the Think Differently then Act! Campaign. Stuart joined The Ability Center at the end of 2021, after serving as Executive Director for The Center for Independent Learning in Berkeley for seven years. During his tenure there, he renewed TheCIL’s commitment and vision for a truly inclusive world and nearly tripled the organization’s endowment. “My approach to independent living is to be very aspirational. We can give you these services, we can give you the assistance, but if you don’t know what direction you are going you may never get anywhere. It becomes quite a quagmire. So we need to set goals for individuals, realistic enough so they understand if we are going to go this way we fi gure out together what you will need to get there, so that we don’t spend a lot of time doing things that are not helping you.” “One of the people we helped in Berkeley is a guy named Jose Rivera. Jose was as smart as you can get. He speaks 7 languages, he graduated Georgetown, MBA from Wharton, executive for Microsoft. He had it all. Wonderful wife, big house, nice car. The recession of 2008 hit, and Jose went upside down fi nancially. He had an epic meltdown. He went from a luxury lifestyle to basically eating out of dumpsters.” Eric Rine Page 8 Photo credit: The Ability Center Wheelchair ramp Mother and Daughter Photo credit: The Ability Center His wife divorced him; would not let him see the kids. He tried to commit suicide, but his brother found him and got him into a mental health facility. He went through electroshock therapy and fi nally ended back on the streets. He came to TheCIL because as smart as he was, he could not fi gure out how to get out of the system. He was $8 million in debt; his wife was calling him a deadbeat dad. Stuart said the fi rst order of business with Jose was to get him stable. They then asked him, “Where do you want to go?” He said he wanted to get a PhD in Language and go teach. “Once his goal was set, we knew we had to get funding for his schooling. We helped him get into the school he wanted. He reestablished his relationship with his oldest daughter. He graduated with his degree a year early. He has been published 3 or 4 times and now he has become a big advocate for changing social service systems.” Locally, Stuart said there have been numerous success stories that have come through The Ability We pivoted our discussion to the launch of the Think Diffferently then Act! Campaign. Stuart likened it to his presentations to government agencies. “Sometimes when I talk to them, they get my words but they don’t really understand what I am talking about. Part of the Think Differently Campaign is to get people to have the same picture on people with disabilities that I do.” “I have four year old twins. Once I was shopping at one of the bigs and my kids were running around like four year olds do. A few concerned shoppers noticed this and went to get store personnel because they thought the kids were unsupervised. It did not occur to them that I was their dad. It is these types of prejudices that the Think Differently Campaign is trying to resolve.” One of the misconceptions is that all people with
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