Meet Ed Fleming
Ed Fleming is a QIDP (Qualified Intellectual Disabilities Professional) at the Center of Hope. We asked Ed to share some of his thoughts about the time he has been at the Center.
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Please describe your role at the Center. My role here at COH probably would depend on who you ask. My official position is a QIDP. Which means I am responsible for developing the plans for the participants in 3 classrooms, overseeing the implementation of the plans, mentoring the classroom staff, assuring the safety, care, and growth of each of the participants on a daily basis. Now, I suppose some of my colleagues may describe my role differently (i.e. comedy relief, confidant, friend, story teller), anyway it’s a lot of responsibility to multi-taskJ.
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Why did you choose this field? I started in this field the summer I graduated from Rockford College ’85. My girlfriend at the time’s mother was working at Illinois Growth Enterprises (now Bridgeway) and told me I should apply. Well, here I am, (I’ll let you do the mathJ), all these years later, still going strong. (The girlfriend, however, is long goneL)
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What makes you excited to come to work each day? What makes me excited to come to work every day is the same thing that anyone that has been in this field for any length of time and that has had the privilege to work with the individuals and co-workers that I have been fortunate enough to have worked with; it is the relationships. The people I work with and who I am here to work for make me smile and laugh every day.
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What has been your biggest surprise since you started working at the Center? How fast the days go by! With the day’s schedules broken up in a variety of activities, it makes the days seem to fly by.
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What advice would you give someone who is interested in working at the Center? My advice to anyone interested in working at the Center; if you like meaningful work, work that when you go home at night and you lay your head on your pillow, you can say, “I made a difference, today” then give this a chance.