Springfield, IL (CAPITOL CITY NOW) – Springfield area families in the special-needs community had a chance Saturday to learn what services and programs are available Saturday at District 186‘s annual Empower All Abilities conference.

The keynote speaker, instructor and advocate Shelley Moore (pictured, left) said one teaching job she had was in a school whose special education classrooms were in their own wing, separated from the rest of the school by two sets of locked doors.

“That’s what mainstreaming was: ‘come to the neighborhood schools.’ That’s not what we are advocating for today,” said Moore. “How are we opening up those doors and having disability as a part of the community? Because it is a part of the community and the world and to help teachers to know and support teachers in how to do that work and support peers and families to be able to do that work because it just is — it’s a part of the world. It’s a part of the community.”

The program, said District 186 executive director of student support services Ward Lamon, “is something that we’ve done for seventeen years, and it’s ebbed and flowed, and when I came on board, I looked at what we’ve done in the past, and I said, this is an amazing opportunity for us to touch so many people within the community. We really just need to step this up.

“And that’s what we’ve done.”