By Gary Ogle
gogle@wbcowqel.com

The Crawford County Board of Development Disabilities is hosting a unique conference next week. Its content was determined directly by those it is scheduled to serve.

The “Your Life Conference” will be from 9 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. Thursday at Fairway School. The tracks for individual participation and involvement were designed only after finding out what those who will be attending wanted to know says Director of Community Services Kim Kent.

“This is our first ‘Your Life Conference’ and we want to let them know March is ‘Disabilities Awareness (month)’,” Kent said. “The conference is centered around them and what they want to learn and we hope that we can promote community integration and get them out there, and just have a successful life.”

The conference is open to any adult individual who is being served by the Crawford county Board of Developmental Disabilities.

“We have John Martin who is the director at the state level for development disabilities. He’s going to be kicking off the ceremonies,” Kent said. “”We’ve asked the individuals what they would like to learn more about. They’ve helped us set up the tracks for the sessions.”
Those tracks and session, along with the presenters, are both numerous and diverse. One track on local politics will include elected officials County Sheriff Scott Kent, Municipal Court Judge Sean Leuthold, Bucyrus Law Director Rob Ratliff, and Bucyrus Police Chief Dave Koepke.

A representative from the Ohio Attorney General’s Office will discuss Medicaid fraud. The Crawford County Board of Elections will present voting information.

The Humane Society Serving Crawford County will be there. So will Avita Healthcare System to share information about diet and nutrition. Faith Achtermann will present a session on Zumba. Amiee Ward and Doug Cotsmire will talk about their experiences working in the community and the Carlisle House and Champion Foods will discuss employer expectations.

Community resources will be covered by Project Stir, People First and Aktion Club.

“We wanted them to have the opportunity to attend the conference with classes they want to learn more about,” Kent said. “We hope to make this an annual thing and expand it as we go.”

There is no charge for the conference and Champion Foods is donating lunch for participants.