Opportunities for a lifetime

Ever since the day 30 years ago when Robert Edelsohn was diagnosed with neurological problems and developmental disabilities resulting from brain injuries at birth, his mother, Micki, has been devoting her considerable energy to helping him reach his full potential.

As Robert grew older, Micki Edelsohn expanded her focus but never slowed her efforts. She has continued to work to make sure her son has the services he needs to succeed, but she's also established a foundation that has raised millions of dollars and has built more than 20 group homes--and counting--where adults like Robert can live their own lives with the assistance they require. Along the way, she's worked with Delaware's largest private employer, MBNA, which contributed to several of her group homes at the same time the company was setting up its own model program to hire people with developmental disabilities.

Now, Edelsohn and her husband, Wilmington neurologist Lanny Edelsohn, are extending their impact again. They have raised the funds to endow a chair in the College of Human Services, Education and Public Policy
to study such issues as what services exist for adults with developmental disabilities, where those adults live and how they can be active members of their communities. The chair will be named for the Edelsohns' son, who lives in a group home and works full time for MBNA.

"I have been fortunate to live in a community where so many people, corporations and foundations have continually supported my efforts to build neighborhood group homes," Micki Edelsohn says. "Now, I want to address the issue of staffing the homes with well-trained, caring professionals."

The Robert Edelsohn Chair in CHEP's Department of Individual and Family Studies will play a key role in expanding education, research and awareness of such issues, according to Michael Gamel-McCormick, associate professor in the department and director of the College's Center for Disabilities Studies.

"The immediate benefit of having this position is that it will get attention focused on adults with developmental disabilities, which is an area that very much needs that kind of academic attention," Gamel-McCormick says. "The focus has been on children with disabilities, because there are government entitlement programs that encompass birth to age 21, but we really don't have good research at the adult level."

Micki Edelsohn agrees, noting that many programs and services for people with disabilities focus on early intervention. Such services are vital, she says, but they can leave clients in the lurch when they reach adulthood and no longer are part of the public education system--just at the time when they face new challenges.

"As people with developmental disabilities get older, they can sometimes be harder to care for, and people who might want to work with children are less likely to want to work with adults," Edelsohn says. "But, like all of us, they're going to live most of their lives as adults, and we have to find ways to support them."

It was talking to Gamel-McCormick about such issues, she says, that led to the idea of establishing an endowed chair to study services and best practices for adults with disabilities and to encourage UD students to see the field as a vital profession.

"The adult service system in the United States has not had the academic attention it needs," Penny Deiner, chairperson of the Department of Individual and Family Studies, says. "That really is the gift that Micki Edelsohn is giving us--the ability to take a look at the full lifespan and quality of life for people with disabilities." The department, she adds, already has a focus on "risk, resiliency and optimizing development," and the Edelsohn Chair will maintain that focus while expanding it to encompass adults with disabilities, as well as children.

Edelsohn has raised the $1 million to establish the endowment. "I was deeply gratified when, once again, people responded positively to my request for funds," she says. "I am truly excited to have the opportunity to work with the University of Delaware to take the housing program to a higher level."

The task of hiring the first Edelsohn Chair begins this spring, with Gamel-McCormick heading the search committee. Both he and Deiner say whoever ultimately is hired will be an academic researcher but also someone who inspires enthusiasm for the study of disabilities and is skilled at building partnerships with the community.

"It's going to be an unusual search because it's for such a specific position," Deiner says. "We expect it will take some time to look at who's available nationally, decide on the best person for the position and then give that person time to make the move from their current responsibilities."

Meanwhile, as the search committee is beginning work, another project that will enhance CHEP's disabilities studies programs is under way. Edelsohn's Homes For Life Foundation is building a group home just off campus on South College Avenue, with the idea that UD students and researchers, including the Edelsohn Chair, will work with the home and its residents.

"The house will be a natural placement for students to do practicums and for researchers to do pilot projects, for example," Gamel-McCormick says. "These two things coming together, the Edelsohn Chair and the group home so close to campus, are a wonderful opportunity for us, and we're looking forward to it."

The house, under construction by Ryan Homes, is expected to be completed this spring, Edelsohn says. Like all Homes For Life projects, it will have four bedrooms for the four residents, as well as shared living, dining and kitchen facilities and living quarters for the staff member who assists the residents and ensures the home runs smoothly. The residents, all men, will have jobs during the day and participate in various social and community activities in their leisure time.

"The whole idea of all my homes is to be part of a neighborhood--to blend in," Edelsohn says. "Even though we're nonprofit, we choose to pay property taxes because we don't want to be treated differently from the other neighbors. People drive by the homes and see the residents getting on buses every day, going to their jobs, being productive. This home near the campus will not be any different."

Homes For Life raises the money for each home and its furnishings, oversees the construction and then turns over the deed to The Arc of Delaware, a nonprofit agency that advocates for people with cognitive disabilities. The Arc's housing program is responsible for maintaining the group homes, and staffing is contracted through a provider agency that specializes in such professional services.

Gamel-McCormick, who himself lives near where the Newark home is being built, describes the neighborhood as friendly and inclusive. He says UD students can play an important role in helping the home's residents integrate into the town and the University community.?

Gamel-McCormick agrees with Edelsohn that exploring the best ways to recruit, educate and retain staff members in group homes will be a significant function of the Edelsohn Chair. Other issues the position may examine include housing, employment and social opportunities for adults with developmental disabilities, he says.

Edelsohn knows firsthand the importance of all these issues, especially the worries that plague parents of group home residents.

"It's a terribly frightening thing for us to think how vulnerable our children are, how dependent they are on others to treat them well and make sure their needs are met," she says. "The most normal thing for them is to grow up, move away from home and live as independently as possible, but it's still a very unsettling situation for parents."

As for her own son, she says he has accomplished more than she and her husband ever dreamed of for him. Now in his early 30s, Robert Edelsohn maintains close ties with his parents, but he lives in a group home, where he and his three housemates also consider themselves a family. He works full time in the MBNA Support Services department with other employees who have developmental disabilities, doing such tasks as packaging and shipping promotional items to customers and delivering mail to various MBNA sites.

"It's a legitimate job that performs a needed service for the company, and Robert has a real paycheck and all the benefits of other MBNA employees," Micki Edelsohn says. "My son is a tax-paying citizen, and he's happy and productive, with a life that's independent of his parents. But, he needs assistance to live this kind of life, and we all need to have the best people providing that assistance."

--Ann Manser, AS '73, CHEP '73