Disclaimer: This blog touches on historic information about people with disabilities. It quotes from letters written and legislation passed over the last 50 years. Some of that historic information contains language we no longer use as a society and is not used today at Systems Unlimited. Here, we believe the words you use and the way you portray individuals with disabilities matters. We advocate for people-first language that emphasizes the individual rather than the disability.
“I’ve never known a time when there hasn’t been Systems Unlimited in Eastern Iowa.”
That’s a statement our team often hears. And it’s something we’re extremely proud of. That’s because it speaks to our long history of success and growth. It also speaks to the fact that we’ve become part of the fabric of Eastern Iowa and those we serve.
But let’s take a minute to wind the clock back to remember how it all began.
It’s June 1971 and Systems Unlimited is preparing to open its doors. The world is a much different place. As hard as it is to believe, Disney World is just opening, The New York Times is starting to publish sections of the Pentagon Papers, and the very first email is being sent out into the world.
That was more than 50 years ago. It was an era when many adults and children with disabilities had few options for support services and independent living. That reality is what galvanized a group of Eastern Iowa parents to come together to try to solve this problem.
The Power of Parent Advocacy
To know the whole story, you actually have to go back to 1958, the year Johnson County ARC was incorporated. Except for a few special education classes, the only programs for the developmentally disabled in Iowa at that time were at state institutions in Glenwood and Woodward. Many parents across the country were concerned that institutionalization was the only option: they started joining together in associations on local and state levels to create alternatives.
In Iowa City in 1958 there were no services for people with disabilities who wanted and could do more. There were no education programs in the schools, no day programs or supported employment, and no supported living or apartment living with personalized support. The University of Iowa offered no courses for teacher or staff training. The Children’s Hospital and School at the University, which served children living with physical disabilities for the whole State of Iowa provided some diagnostic and consultative services, but that was it.
This, despite the fact there were more than 80,000 people with developmental disabilities in Iowa in 1958. The state of Iowa was using terminologies and putting people into categories back in that time that we would not do today. With that in mind, this is what the state reported.
“Of this total, 2,000 were severely and profoundly r****ed, 8,000 were in the moderate or trainable category, and the remaining 70,000 were mildly r****ed.” Despite the enormous need for care and nuance, the system throughout the United States was failing.
As one of the founders of Systems Unlimited wrote in a retrospective 30 years later, “It should have been obvious to anyone examining the dimensions of the problem in Iowa that the needs of most of the 8,000 could not be met by the existing facilities. Glenwood and Woodward had been reduced to the level of providing little more than custodial care. And, a child placed on the waiting list at birth might be admitted five years later.”
Many parents were unwilling to accept that this was all that could be done.
“To most of us,” the founder stated. “It seemed to be a fundamental truth that if you were handicapped with a learning disability, the closer you could be involved with the society you were being trained to live in, the more effective the training would be. If a person could remain in his or her own home and the family provided with the support systems as needed, such as in-home counseling, respite care, daycare, training classes, and workshop facilities, then that would be the best of all possible worlds.”
Reimagining Services and Support
The problem was this world did not yet exist. By 1960, members from Johnson County began to form an Association and an executive board. They wanted to step in and find ways and create local services that did not exist. The first opportunity to do this was to provide a school for those with disabilities for children being raised in their family homes in Iowa City and Johnson County.
“As an organization, we would love to be able to name every person who helped create Systems Unlimited or the programs we have today,” said Jolene Sorenson, Systems Unlimited marketing director. “They all deserve it. Unfortunately, it would be a very long list to include here. But we do know some of the names that were captured in the incorporation.”
For instance, among the first leaders were Virginia Nelson (the first president) and her husband, Dr. Norman Nelson, former University of Iowa Dean of the College of Medicine. Their support and guidance got the Association off to a good start with a strong emphasis on making things happen. Other leaders included Ruth Becker, Sam Becker, Jay Oehler, Nadine Oehler, Charles Kadera, Dottie Ray, Dean Bebee, Ethel Bebee, David Gause, Pat Gause, Jim Wilson, Darrell Flinn, Carol Flinn, Jude West, Nancy West, Jim Gardner, Lynn Gardner, Stan Lorens, Robert Irwin, Phyllis Irwin, Gerry Clausen, Chris Clausen, Helen Saxton, Delores Krotz, and Harold Simmonds.
This is the group that helped galvanize the first classroom. Because there was no room in the public schools, Frank Snider, the County Superintendent of Schools, started a pilot class on Saturday mornings at Mark Twain School. The County Board, at the urging of Snider, agreed to operate the class on a regular daily schedule for the 1959-1960 school year at Blackstrap School, a one-room country schoolhouse south of the airport on Highway. A second class for a younger group of children, also sponsored by the County Board, was added the following year. This class was held at the First Presbyterian Church until its members were added to the Blackstrap class and moved to the CSA Hall on North Johnson Street in Iowa City in September 1962.
The Association paid the rent and the parents provided the muscle to transform the lower level of the Hall into usable space. Early teachers, aides, and consultants were so successful in identifying children who should be in the program, that by January of 1964 the school had outgrown the CSA Hall space.
There still was no room for the classes in the Iowa City schools. The Association purchased the former Mennonite Church on Clark Street at the intersection with Bowery knowing the County would rent the property back to operate it as a school. The Church was purchased by the Association on June 24, 1964, with the note and the money from the mortgage to the Hills Bank, and leased to the County Board for five years.
With volunteer help, primarily from parents and members of the Carpenters Union, the building was made ready for fall classes. Munro Shintani, in his letter informing parents of the move to Clark Street said, “The members of the Association who have worked so hard for this building should be commended as their efforts have been Herculean and endless. Without their efforts, the majority of these children would still be staying at home or be in institutions.”
The University of Iowa, Iowa City School District
There was more good news on August 19, 1964, when the University of Iowa announced the opening of Pine School at the University Hospital School for Handicapped Children, to be operated jointly by the University and the Iowa City School District. These new classes would help the Association get out of “the school business” seven years later so it could turn its attention to other needs that were not being met.
One year later, in 1965, the Association started the summer recreation program that ran until 1973 when the operation of the program was turned over to Systems Unlimited. Other milestones:
- 1967 Creation of a preschool class at Faith United Church in Iowa City which two years later was moved to Coralville to be operated by the Joint County Board of Education.
- 1968 The Day Care Center for those who were not enrolled in the school programs opened at Gloria Dei Lutheran Church. It was moved in 1971 after the other classes moved out, and was taken over by Systems.
- 1974 The younger children in the program were moved to the Joint County School Building in Coralville in September 1974 until all of the children were transferred into the Iowa City School system in 1979. Systems continued the program for adults at the Nelson Adult Center.
“It was almost 20 years after the founding group’s first appearance that all of the school programs became an integral part of the Iowa City system,” the founder wrote.
Funding and Residential Program Start
Along the way, this founding group would intersect with Goodwill Industries of Southeast Iowa. There were two Goodwill concepts that had a direct effect on the formation of Systems Unlimited. The regional concept that Systems adopted when it was created originated with Goodwill Industries of Southeast Iowa. Some of the less populated rural counties did not have sufficient numbers of people with disabilities to support a sheltered workshop of their own. By joining together, everyone could share the benefits of a workshop located in the region’s population center and still be relatively close to home. The other Goodwill concept, which was not adopted by Systems, was that the organization be at least partially dependent on private donations for its continued existence.
“During the summer of 1971 it was decided Systems would instead, look only to public funding (federal, state and county) to pay all of the costs of the services to be provided,” one of the founder’s wrote.
While all of this was going on the formation of a residential program was never far from the founders’ minds during the 1960s. During that decade, great strides were made across the nation in public awareness. Courses were being offered in many Universities, including the University of Iowa, to train the new professionals, both in teaching and social work. Scattered here and there around the country local programs were being started.
“Our successes with the school programs and in helping launch Goodwill with its activity center had given us confidence that a proper residential program could also be created,” a founder wrote. “But first, we had to determine what was a “proper” residential program. No standard existed for us to follow. Some of us were sure about what we did not want. We did not want to create a mini-institution in Iowa City where those who needed care would receive custodial care and little else.”
The Systems plan did not spring forth in one sudden burst of creativity. To say that it evolved is an understatement. The leadership and members of the Association were aware that they first had to decide who would be served by the residential program and how they would be served. To complicate matters, the State was continuing to follow its plan by returning patients from the institutions to county homes, which was creating a new crisis in care.
It was in this climate of uncertainty in November of 1970 that Dr. James Gardner, as President of the Association, appointed a residential care committee consisting of Helen Saxton, Stan Lorens, Jay Oehler and himself. The committee was soon expanded to include Richard Dolezal, Willard Peterson and Mary Leonard. Richard Dolezal had done considerable work on his own investigating funding sources for residential programs and facilities. Mary and her husband Benny had been involved in the development of a residential program in Dubuque using a converted orphanage. Willard was the Vice President of the Association in 1971-72 and President the following year. The committee accepted the challenge to proceed immediately to develop the residential program, agreeing that the time for action had come.
The Executive Board of the Association, at a meeting in August of 1970, attended by Jude West, Jim Gardner, Dave Gause, Darrell Flinn, and Warren Morrison, in an effort to get things started, had set a specific goal of establishing a semi-independent living apartment for two at the Mayflower residence hall at the University of Iowa in 1971. Although this goal was not achieved that year, the residential committee adopted the concept of semi-independent living as an important part of the residential program to be.
The Group Began to Ask “What If?”
The committee, during a series of meetings in March, April, and May of 1971, started to ask “What if?” This helped them reach a consensus on the following elements or concepts the program should contain.
“What if?”
- A family environment could be created to the fullest extent possible at each residence.
- Regular single-family residences will be rented in good neighborhoods.
- Each house could be operated as a family home for no more than five people.
- Each person who lived there could have daily training in family living skills tailored to the individual’s needs in addition to the training received at school or workshop.
- Each participant was required to have daily activity outside the home–at school, workshop or activity center–supplemented by shopping and recreational activities.
- Each person could be challenged and helped in a caring environment to develop to the fullest extent possible, with emphasis on self-help, social and physical skills.
- Each house could have additional help as needed during mealtime, getting ready for bed and getting up in the morning.
- Supervised apartment living could be provided following the model developed by Jude West and the Executive Board in 1970 for those who demonstrate the capacity to live with less supervision.
- The organization could rely solely on public funding for the operation of the program.
In 1971, this group of parents approached the Johnson County Board of Supervisors at a meeting in Iowa City, Iowa. With a win of one vote, Systems Unlimited was able to open its first home for children in Iowa City. The philosophy of individualized care and promoting independence that drove these early efforts are still part of our services today.
The first Systems home, located at 1017 Tower Court in University Heights opened on schedule in November 1971. The second home opened in February 1972, and by the end of 1972, there were five homes and three supervised apartments operating.
Looking back, it was the determined effort by Association members and others to first create the programs that were needed and then to continue to sustain and nurture them, that gave birth to Systems Unlimited.
Today, Systems Unlimited recognizes these leaders for setting the bar high and for the thousands of direct staff, teachers, supervisors, counselors, and administrators who strive to keep the bar high.
As one founder wrote: “One has to wonder how much of all this would have happened the way it did if three key people had not been in the right positions at the right time. Frank Snider to start the first class, Brooks Booker to make Goodwill a reality, and Bob Boaz to see Systems through its first five years.”
To learn more about Systems Unlimited, check out our About Us page.
