January 2015

UCP’s Kitchen Remodel Taking Shape

Our long anticipated kitchen remodel has begun.  Classic Design started work January

12th.  UCP Clients and Staff can’t wait to use the fully accessible kitchen designed by LDA Partners specifically for the people we serve.  The new design will enable the people we serve to learn how to prepare, cook and enjoy meals in a facility built just for them.

We still need your help with this project.  Join us in our passion to help people live “Life Without Limits” by helping us complete this vital project.

To donate to our cause online click our “Support UCP Donate Today” button.  If you will be paying by check click here for our donation form.

All Donor Names will be prominently displayed.

Michelle Francis now a Program Manager

for UCP will say the best advise her doctor could have given her parents was to “treat her as if she didn’t have CP”.  Her parents took the doctor at his word and at 6 months of age and diagnosed with cerebral palsy she was treated no differently than her siblings.  As a toddler she found her own way to accomplish how to walk and run…although it took her a little more time.  While in school she learned to rise above other kids who made fun of her by showing them their remarks didn’t faze her. While in school her first job was with Jack in the Box where the physical part of the job was difficult but she managed her own way and then became an excellent drive thru cashier.

It wasn’t until Michelle was in her 20’s when her family contacted UCP and this became a pivotal point in her life.  UCP recommended she go through the Dept. of Rehabilitation where she found herself being interviewed to become a Job Coach with UCP’s Supported Employment.  Once hired she assisted others with disabilities to learn their own way to accomplish what most people found as simple tasks.  She worked with local businesses to cultivate job opportunities for UCP’s program participants.  She helped in the development of the Supports to Achieve Independent Living program or SAIL.   In 1999 Michelle became the Program Manager for the SAIL’s program that is designed to empower program participants to live independently in their own resident in their own way.  Using a person-center approach all efforts are made to assist individuals to obtain and maintain living arrangements of their choice.  Michelle continues to follow her doctor’s advice; she lives her life as if she doesn’t have CP… a Life Without Limits.

United Cerebral Palsy of San Joaquin, Calaveras & Amador Counties (UCP), a 501 (c)(3) community benefits nonprofit organization has advocated for children and adults with cerebral palsy and other disabilities for more than five decades. Today, UCP programs and services make a positive impact to over 2,000 children and adults with disabilities and their families and nearly 310,000 education, advocacy and direct services hours are  provided. Programs and services include: Supported Employment (SE), Supports to Achieve Independent Living (SAIL), Respite Care, Clinical and Family Services, Assistive Technology, three Adult Day Centers (ADC), a Community Integration Day program (Program Without Walls), and UCP newest program (Applied Abilities Program) that just celebrated it’s 1 year anniversary in November is a community integration and behavior management day program. Our vision is that everyone is entitled to a “Life Without Limits”. Our passion is to make this vision a reality for the individuals we serve.

Mission: We support a “Life Without Limits” by creating systems that are progressive, accessible, and dependable, reflect quality outcomes and promote independence.

Support UCP by Donating Now