New Star, Inc.

Logo for New Star, Inc.

Challenging limits. Changing lives.

Date Founded

1950

Industry

Services

Type

Nonprofit

Mission

To provide choices and opportunities for persons with disabilities and their families through a culture of innovation and caring to enrich their lives and maximize their independence.

Services Provided

New Star envisions a community where they will be the leading services solution provider to minimize discrimination and waiting lists while maximizing access to the services and supports that empower individuals to pursue community employment and living if they so choose, in order to assume their rightful roles in society as productive, valued citizens.

New Star is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization serving individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities that reside throughout the South Suburbs of Chicago and Northwest Indiana. Their programs are driven by a passion for creating life-changing vocational, educational, therapeutic, and residential opportunities for those we serve.

The agency covers a broad range of service goals for consumers, from achieving independent living and securing full-time jobs to accomplishing small personal goals that make their life more rewarding. New Star provides consumers with developmental and vocational training, integrated community housing, transportation, workplace assistance, respite care, life skills training, therapeutic recreation, as well as a self-advocacy group, PossAbility Partners, active in advocacy on the local, state and national levels.

New Star, Inc. Indiana program provides a variety of services including residential, respite care, plus recreational therapy.

How Many People Reached

Today, services are provided to more than 650 individuals and their families. Consumers range in age from 5 to 95 years and include people with Epilepsy, Cerebral Palsy, Autism, and other substantial, chronic disabilities incurred before maturity.

How Donations Are Used

The Board of Directors, staff, volunteers, and funding partners are passionate about helping the individuals they serve create meaningful days, productive years, and, ultimately, more fulfilling lives. Unless indicated for specific projects, donations go towards programming. The agency adheres to the Donor Bill of Rights and respects the donor’s trust in their gifts to New Star.

Project Spotlight

Serving The Aging with Respect (STAR) Senior Center

New Star has developed an innovative program that will support individuals with intellectual/developmental disabilities who are aged 60 and over with complex medical conditions. Renovating Phoenix Court into STAR Senior Center will not only provide long term care for an elderly population but create a model for future needs. It will be one of a kind in the south suburbs of Chicago. There is no other location for senior individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities to receive one-on-one specialized care.

The project will convert a residential building into the Serving The Aging with Respect (STAR) Senior Center. The STAR Senior Center will address the needs of aging individuals with intellectual/developmental disabilities while allowing the staff to care for their complex needs.

Due to a limited number of services available to seniors with intellectual and developmental disabilities, many individuals in need of long-term care will transition to nursing home facilities, where they may experience isolation due to a lack of understanding by staff of their unique needs and lack of peer interactions.

By converting the building, it will allow these individuals to remain in an environment that is trained on their care specific to individuals with intellectual/developmental disabilities instead of having to be admitted to a nursing facility. The STAR Senior Center is innovative in the south suburbs and will include at-home day training, one-to-one staffing, occupational and physical therapy services, and home health nursing services.

Virtual Day Programming

The COVID-19 crisis has changed the way people – of every ability - interact with others and how they learn. Virtual programming has been shown to be an extremely viable and safe option for both families and the individuals that are served. Virtual programming provides individuals with the ability to partake in social gatherings, educational opportunities, recreational therapy, and much more.

New Star is establishing a consistent and robust virtual programming platform, that will allow individuals to participate in programming from their homes and bridge the gap while providing individuals with opportunities to thrive through our Virtual U program.

Virtual U will connect individuals to programs that will help them find their strengths and passion while increasing their skills and socialization.

Individuals will have the ability to participate in more than just the virtual face to face meeting with the instructor. Each class will have a specific curriculum that will determine the length of the course, the number of days the class will be meeting virtually, and the activities that individuals will be able to participate in outside of the virtual live program (videos, activity sheets, quizzes, etc.).

Awards and Accreditations

In 2018, New Star was chosen to be one of seven agencies to present at the “The Arc Tank 2.0” conference hosted by the Northeast Arc. The competition, which was created to positively disrupt the conventional methods of providing services to persons with disabilities, attracted more than 100 applications. The competition awarded the top three presentations with start-up funds for their specified projects. The winners were selected by a panel of judges who heard their pitches at an event held at the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library, a partner in the initiative. The winning proposals received awards from the Changing Lives Fund that was established through a $1 million donation from Steven P. Rosenthal, founder of West Shore, LLC.

New Star was awarded $70,000 to continue with the development of a mobile application, Stronger Community Opportunities through Organized Transportation, or SCOOT, that provides safe and reliable transportation for persons with disabilities by drivers who are vetted and trained by New Star. The project is unique in that the rideshare drivers will be Direct Support Professionals, allowing families to be comfortable that the driver transporting their loved ones understands the special needs of his riders. Transportation is one of the most significant barriers between people with I/DD and their full participation in the community and SCOOT aims to make sure they can travel easily and safely from home to jobs and community interactions – a key to solving the problems of isolation.

Where To Donate

Donate here.

Contact

1005 West End Avenue
Chicago Heights, IL 60441
(708) 755-8030
ptrebe@newstarservices.org

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