Lima, Peru
Event: Wheels of Community, Centro de Ann Sullivan, Lima, Peru, last week of October, 2011
Facilitator: Ken Lassman
Summary: The Ann Sullivan Center (Centro de Ann Sullivan) is one of the premier community centers for people with disabilities in South America, providing all kinds of services for many populations. It’s also a model center in helping Peruvian children and adults with disabilities gain greater freedom and independence. During the last week of October, Ken Lassman will be part of a team going from Kansas to Lima to help Peruvian children and adults in wheelchairs (or in need of them). The team will build, modify and repair wheelchairs, and educate disability specialists on how to continue this work. The team is also bringing with them a large amount of wheelchair 
parts and tools, which aren’t easily available in Peru. During the week there, Ken Lassman will lead a One City One Prompt workshop to bring together members of the team, and the community of the Ann Sullivan center to write and tell stories about community building to bring together people of all abilities. To see a video of the project overall, please see this site.
Ken Lassman is an occupational therapist, director of Habilitation Services at Kansas Neurological Institute, and director of a statewide wheelchair clinic. He is also an ecological writer, and most recently, the author of Wild Douglas County. He also writes a daily guide on what to look for in the natural world today displayed at Z’s Divine Espresso in Lawrence, KS. He is fifth generation on the land where he lives with his family, just south of Lawrence, Kansas.
