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Clockwise from lower right: Joyce Keller, visiting JARC clients Clay Barbour, Carol Aufieeser,
Jonathan Arens and Gerry Tischler. All the clients live at JARC's Berlin Home in
Bloomfield Hills except Aufieeser, who lives in Oak Park.
totally set a new pace for the organiza-
tion, he adds.
Joyce is one of the most capable and
effective leaders I've seen in the profit or
nonprofit world," says Dan Gilbert,
chairman of Rock Financial and
Quicken Loans in Livonia and current
president of JARC's board. "She has a
big heart as well. She's truly in it for the
people with disabilities."
When asked about her early achieve-
ments, Keller says that in her first 10
years, she got virtually every Jewish resi-
dent with a developmental disability
out of a Michigan state institution.
"She got JARC out of the closet and
into the community," says Jacobs.
Keller sees other important changes
fostered at JARC through her years.
"
"What's changed most is the
assumption of ability in people with
disabilities rather than their inabilities,"
she says. "People used to focus on
deficits and now we look to capitalize
on strengths. That's a big change in the
field."
Carol Aufseeser, 55, came to JARC
in 1982 from a New York home for
people with disabilities. "I didn't have as
good a situation there as with JARC
here," says Aufseeser, who lives in her
own- JARC apartment in Oak Park.
Her group home in New York was a
small place and not run well, she says.
"Now I have good friends — and JARC
helped me find a job."
Keller says JARC provides residential
support for people with disabilities in a
setting of their choice, from group
homes for four to six people staffed 24
hours a day, to apartments where people
can live alone and get staff support once
or twice a week. Aufseeser used to live
in a group home and as she built up her
skill level, she chose to move on to
more independent living, Keller says.
"Everyone has gifts and talents,"
Keller says. "Our job is to find out what
they are.
She says that "nudging" the rest of
the world to be more open and see
these possibilities is JARC's next task.
"The people we serve are limited by
our view, our vision of what they can
do, not by their own limitations."
Bob Boesky of Farmington Hills and
Naples, Fla., says JARC changed his
daughter Julie's life as well as his. He
eventually became a board member.
Before JARC, Julie was in
Evangelical Children's Home, a
Lutheran family home in Detroit that
served 10-12 individuals in one resi-
dence rather than six residents, as in
JARC homes.
Boesky says he got involved with
JARC years ago when his wife died and
he was left to care for five children.
He remembers the first day he
brought Julie to the Oak Park JCC to
take a bus with the other children to a
JARC picnic, but she wouldn't go.
"Now my daughter, at 42, is so
happy," Boesky says. "Her language
skills have improved and she has a
FROM THE HEART
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