Will County Gazette

The Village of Bolingbrook recently proclaimed March 14-28 as Ability Awareness Week.

At the March 14 Bolingbrook Village Board meeting, officials heard Mayor Mary Alexander Basta make a proclamation for Ability Awareness Week in the village. Basta spoke about the Secondary Experience Transitionary Program (STEP) at Valley View Schools serving Bolingbrook residents. The STEP program is an extension of special education that serves adults from the ages of 18-22. The program seeks to encourage independent living skills and job experience for students, teaching them vital life skills to be able to be more independent, bringing them to different available jobs around the community, and helping them transition out of the school phase of life and into adulthood.

Basta proclaimed March 14-28 as Ability Awareness Week. She named Bolingbrook as an inclusive community that was glad to have a program helping everyone be able to reach their full potential and be a vital part of their home, and celebrated those with disabilities in the community, recognizing that all individuals are different and those with disabilities have a right to be a part of the community just like everyone else. 

Several students and instructors from the STEP program were present at the meeting to hear and accept the proclamation, bringing a banner with signatures of all the STEP students. Jill Kocur, an instructor with the STEP program accepted the proclamation, thanking the mayor and board for the recognition. Kocur thanked all the businesses in the community who had accepted the students and welcomed them in to show students possible jobs, and hiring several alumni of the STEP program. 

"We are lucky enough to have alumni and then current students representing our program here. I just wanted to also highlight how lucky we are to be a part of the Bolingbrook community, because we do have a lot of businesses who are already showing that they are super inclusive of our students and of people of different abilities," Kocur said.

Several fast food restaurants, grocery stores, and small businesses were proud employers of alumni. The students also introduced themselves to the board, some speaking about how they felt included in the community and others about the jobs that they now held at various businesses.