An East Bay nonprofit group that gives attendant care, free transportation to seniors and folks with disabilities in addition to wheelchair repairs will quickly mark 30 years in Berkeley, the birthplace of the impartial residing motion.
Straightforward Does It Emergency Companies was based in 1995 by Cecelia Weeks, who ran the operation out of her Berkeley residence and relied on just a few VW buses to get purchasers to and from the place they wanted to go.
However during the last three a long time, the nonprofit has grown considerably.
To this point this yr, Straightforward Does It has answered almost 12,000 calls from individuals who want a journey or an emergency caregiver. Caregiving help is offered across the clock and rides run between 8:30 a.m. and 11 p.m. The group additionally supplies a wheelchair rescue program for individuals who develop into stranded when their wheelchair malfunctions or breaks.
Now, the group is requesting $15,000 via Share the Spirit to supply emergency electrical wheelchair and scooter repairs for 150 adults and seniors in Albany, El Cerrito and Richmond who’re at the moment not eligible for the group’s providers.
“They are wonderful, they are very community oriented, they care very much about the services they provide and the community they serve,” stated Peni Corridor, a consumer who has used a wheelchair for 40 years following a again damage. “They are very into knowing their clients and having personal connections and knowing what people need. They are the AAA for people in wheelchairs.”
Corridor makes use of the free transportation service to go to medical appointments, the grocery store, to see pals and go to live shows, she stated.
“Anything non-disabled people do, we try to do, and Easy Does It is a big part of that. It’s not just a convenience, it’s a necessity. We are very lucky we have it in Berkeley. It would be much harder without them,” stated 76-year-old Corridor.
Peni Corridor, of Berkeley, exterior her condo in Berkeley, Calif., on Friday, February 12, 2021. (Jose Carlos Fajardo/Bay Space Information Group)
Straightforward Does It has roots that hint again to a person named Edward Roberts, who in 1972 helped discovered Berkeley’s Heart for Impartial Residing, the primary impartial residing middle within the nation.
Roberts, who was paralyzed from the neck down after contracting polio when he was 14, spent a lot of his time in an iron lung — a therapeutic chamber used to power air out and in of the lungs.
Within the early Seventies, Roberts efficiently fought to make the College of California’s Berkeley campus accessible to himself and different college students with disabilities. Within the course of, he began a incapacity rights motion that unfold across the globe.
Straightforward Does It was a pure outgrowth of that impartial residing motion, stated Bruce Curtis, the manager director of Straightforward Does It, who grew to become a quadriplegic following a diving accident in Southern California at age 17 in 1967.
Transportation and restore supervisor Levan Talakhadze, left, and restore technician Richard Hamilton, proper, examine a pair of batteries within the upkeep store of Straightforward Does It Emergency Companies on Monday, Oct. 28, 2024, in Berkeley, Calif. In 1995, individuals with extreme bodily disabilities created Straightforward Does It Emergency Companies to supply low-cost emergency attendants, wheelchair restore and transportation providers when regular group incapacity providers are usually not working. (Aric Crabb/Bay Space Information Group)
Essential elements of Straightforward Does It are their wheelchair restore and wheelchair rescue applications, middle officers stated. Wheelchair rescue affords “roadside assistance” for anybody whose wheelchair breaks down and leaves them stranded.
“They will come to the location and fix it on the spot and if they can’t fix it on the spot, they will take the device back to the shop and fix it,’’ said Trevor Jacobson, who heads up communications for Easy Does It.
Curtis said the nonprofit organization, which has scores of volunteers and several dozen employees, is unique in America.
It doesn’t exist anywhere else,’’ Curtis said.. “There is no one who is doing a blend of safety net services for disabled people and seniors with visible disabilities and who has those services 24/7.”
Corridor stated she’s used the wheelchair rescue service no less than 15 occasions through the years and could be misplaced with out it.
“In case your wheelchair is the way you get round, to have somebody you may contact who will truly choose you up in the event you get stranded is superb,’’ she stated.
WISHDonations will assist Straightforward Does It Emergency Companies to supply 150 hours of restore providers, plus wheelchair loaners, to seniors and bodily disabled adults and broaden service into Albany, El Cerrito and Richmond. Purpose: $15,000
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