CLEVELAND — Each March, the developmental disability community comes together to raise awareness.
It includes highlighting the need for inclusion and sharing the barriers people living with their individual challenges face every day.
But advocates say more is still needed for them to continue their work throughout Northeast Ohio.
When it comes to the friendship between Grace Brennan and Jade Thornton, it’s safe to say the two instantly clicked.
They help each other in more ways than you can count, from coloring together to taking field trips to see how the world works.
“It’s been nice to know that I’m making an impact, especially with being able to help her mom out, get back to work and understanding the struggles it is with having a child that may have a disability,” said Thornton.
“Grace is considered moderately, cognitively delayed,” said Grace Brennan’s mom.
Before meeting Jade, Wendy Jack says she struggled to find the right care for her daughter, which she believes comes down to dollars and cents.
“It takes a special person, and it’s like a teacher; they don’t make a lot of money,” said Jack.
That’s when Jack found "Close 2 Home Residential Care Facilities" with De’Juan Bridges and Onslow Williams.
Together, they run a certified healthcare agency in Cleveland, which provides services in seven counties.
They offer home and personal care and non-medical transportation and serve people with developmental disabilities like Grace Brennan.
“One day I had met with Onslow, and we were just sitting down talking, and we were trying to come up with ways where we can be financially independent and also serve the community,” said De’Juan Bridges, who’s the CEO of Close 2 Home Residential Care Facilities.
Bridges and Williams also use their platform to advocate for their staff and others to get paid more, which they hope will attract qualified workers to meet the community’s needs.
“It can be a challenge because again in the times that we’re in right now, everybody’s hiring but no one wants to work so you have to be competitive from an employer standpoint,” said Williams.
Greater Arc of Cleveland President Gary Tonks says developmental disability providers aren’t being paid enough; so, their organization is pushing Gov. Mike DeWine’s office to boost state contributions.
“Governor DeWine has proposed a 16.5% increase in pay that will bring our direct care staff - someone that comes in and helps me dress, eat, go to the bathroom. That would bring them up to an average of $16 an hour. We are working within a coalition to raise those salaries to an average of $20 an hour,” said Tonks
“They need to be able to live and support themselves in their own families, so it’s important that they make more than $13 or $14 an hour,” said Jack.
Close 2 Home welcomes interested families and those looking for employment to contact them.
Their email address is closetohomellc@gmail.com.
You also can follow them on Instagram.
Watch live and local news any time:
Download the News 5 Cleveland app now for more stories from us, plus alerts on major news, the latest weather forecast, traffic information and much more. Download now on your Apple device here, and your Android device here.
You can also catch News 5 Cleveland on Roku, Apple TV, Amazon Fire TV, YouTube TV, DIRECTV NOW, Hulu Live and more. We're also on Amazon Alexa devices. Learn more about our streaming options here.
