By Mary Gaasch, Director of Advocacy & Community Relations U.S. Representative Dean Phillips volunteered as a Direct Support Professional (DSP) at our Carlson group home in Wayzata on Monday. During his visit, Rep. Phillips worked with the people we support to serve them lunch and cleaned up...
We Need Legislative Change & Support By Mary Gaasch, Director of Advocacy and Community Relations In October, Jacob Snell, the Program Manager for our west metro (Hammer) Royal Oaks program and I attended ANCOR’s Policy Summit in Washington, DC. ANCOR (American Network of Community Options and...
Make sure your vote counts! This year, all of our statewide offices are up for re-election. We’ve also had redistricting this year, which means big changes in many districts. Legislators who are re-elected will get to know new districts, and Hammer and NER will have upwards of 50+ new...
Written by: Frances Matejcek, Hammer Advocacy intern, Macalester College student Francis joined other volunteers from the “This Is Medicaid” campaign to call voters in key states to preserve Medicaid and oppose the proposed Medicaid cuts in the healthcare bill. The bill has since...
By Kristin Pyka, Accounting Director The election this week has been eventful, to say the least. Many races were decided by margins that were the slimmest we have seen in some time. In the end, the Republicans control the Presidency, House, and Senate on the federal level. In Minnesota, the...
Read the Winter 2015 Discoveries in our new format!
By Self-Advocate, Amber My name is Amber. I am 29 years old, and I have an intellectual disability. Because of this, I live in an apartment in Plymouth where I receive support from Hammer Residences. I am very independent and like to be active. I am a Special Olympics athlete, and I work as a...
By Terriann Matejcek, Director of Advocacy & Volunteer Resources I first met Alden when he was a member of Hammer’s self-advocacy group “Power People.” Each meeting, he brought with him many local papers and spent time coming up with great ideas for how the group could promote better living...
By Patience Zelee, Assistant Program Manager My name is Patience Zelee. I am a single parent of a six year old, and I have worked full-time as an Assistant Program Manager/Direct Support Professional (DSP) at Hammer Residences for seven years. I came to the U.S. from Liberia, West Africa, in 1998....
By Terriann Matejcek, Director of Advocacy and Volunteer Resources On your TV, computer or smartphone, you may come across images of malnourished puppies, impoverished children who should be in school, someone with a disability being bullied or any number of other social injustices. What is your...
By Terriann Matejcek, Director of Advocacy & Volunteer Resources Often our work and our world are moving so fast that we forget to take time to celebrate. We forget to step back, take a breath and say “Wow. That really was something!” On Tuesday, June 10, legislators, family members,...
By Beth Fondell, Hammer Advocate, Volunteer & Former Board Member Everybody likes a good story, right? A “happily ever after” tale has a special appeal. As a fifth grader, it was the biography of Helen Keller that peaked my interest in the lives of people with disabilities. At the time, I had...
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