2011 has been a very exciting year for the JJ’s List Team. We’ve been hard at work and are loving every minute of the journey. If we had the opportunity to cross paths with you this year, thank you. It’s been an honor and we hope our paths will cross again many more times ahead. Your support is very important to us.

Here’s a peek at this year’s highlights at JJ’s List:

Presentations In 2011, JJ’s List presented at more than 30 events and reached over 1,000 people face-to-face. The content of the presentations was jjslist.com or Internet Safety and Productivity for people with disabilities.
Disability Awareness Players  The Disability Awareness Players made up of an ever-changing group of volunteers who engage business audiences in learning disability-aware interaction skills for customer service and employment experiences. The JJ’s List Disability Awareness Players presented at several locations including: Siemens Corporation, Deerfield Public Library, McGaw YMCS, Northern Trust Bank, 3 Whole Foods Market locations, the Wilmette Chamber of Commerce.
Blog Launched in Jan 2011 on WordPress, and now fully integrated onto our website, our blog has 24 entries to date by staff and guest bloggers. We were invited by “Think Beyond the Label” to post two guest blogs in November and hope to do more with them in 2012.
Safe and Productive Internet Life and Literacy Skills (SPILLS) Curriculum JJ Hanley wrote the 20-lesson, standards-based curriculum in response to teachers’ demands for a tool which with to meet state mandates for Internet safety, while addressing the special learning needs of students with disabilities. SPILLS was successfully beta-tested in five Illinois special education departments and was implemented in a workshop with Cove School this past summer.
The Bridge Builder Project Teams of two visited local businesses to start conversations about building their disability-aware customer service Built employment readiness and independence skills among 9 participants with disabilities who teamed up with volunteers without disabilities. Through this project, 34 local businesses began building potential sustainable, long-term relationship with JJ’s List volunteer teams.
CampusCATALYST and Interns We’ve been fortunate to have some bright young minds from Northwestern University work with JJ’s List this year. This Fall, 4 undergrads from campusCATALYSThelped us explore how to best engage university students in participation on jjslist.com and in writing reviews. We’ve also had the pleasure of having Thomas Gao and Laura Danforth as interns. Thank you all! Hope you walked away with a greater awareness about disability in our community.

We love what we do and we’re passionate about the impact we can continue to bring in the community, but we need your support to keep the momentum going!

In these tough times, your support will play a crucial role in helping us continue to build community integration and essential employment skills for people with disabilities. Please consider making a donation. Thank you.