When passing by the plaza located at the corner of Annie Glidden and Lincoln Highway, people usually stop to go to Molly’s or to get a Greyhound ticket. But people often just glance past the tiny offices that reside in the corner.

One of those offices houses the Regional Access Mobilization Project, an organization that focuses on independent living.

RAMP’s mission is to “promote an accessible society that allows and expects full participation by persons with disabilities.”

“The center is non-for-profit and non-residential,” said Melissa Yerk, services manager for RAMP.

The organization works with people with disabilities in DeKalb, Boone, Stephenson and Winnebago counties.

“We are consumer-driven and wrap our services to directly what they want to do,” Yerk said.

Bob McGhee, personal assistant coordinator for RAMP, has been working at RAMP for seven years. He first got interested in the organization when he was the victim of an accident in 1992 that left him with a physical disability. Afterward man came to visit him and showed him that having a disability doesn’t leave a person helpless.

“Someone cared enough to show me that he had a job, he had a family, he had children and that I could do it,” McGhee said.

McGhee was part of the Rockford Chariots, a wheelchair basketball team.

“My coach said, ‘So when are you going back to work?’ instead of if,” McGhee said.

Yerk has worked at RAMP for two years.

“What RAMP believed in, I believed in,” Yerk said. “They feel the same as I felt.”

Some services the organization provides include meals, transportation and peer support.

50 percent of the people who work for RAMP have some type of disability.

“We’ll hook them up with someone on staff or someone who had a similar situation,” Yerk said.

The organization also can promote advocacy on behalf of the individual.

“It could be a removal of a physical barrier or attitude behavior,” Yerk said.

RAMP also provides youth education, such as going into schools and working with the students.

Individuals who have self-identified disabilities also can receive assistance from the organization.

RAMP will collaborate with other resources and agencies if it is unable to provide the assistance a person needs.

The organization also can help provide personal assistants for its consumers. Personal assistants help people with disabilities to do daily chores that may be too difficult for some to do for themselves.

“It keeps people from going into institutions and residential homes,” he said.

RAMP will be a referral service for people interested in becoming personal assistants, but those in need of a personal assistant will be in charge of hiring.

The organization also provides a free monthly publication titled ‘Slant,’ which provides information on legislation, advertising equipment and advice from personal assistants.

McGhee wants to remind people that RAMP is for either one-time help or help in a continuing process.

All services RAMP provides for its consumers are free. However, it will charge for accessibility audits and sign language interpreters. The fees for such services vary.

“We are always here to help people the best as we can,” Yerk said.

The office in DeKalb is in the process of expanding. One way is by teaming up with NIU as an effort to help future teachers. They also are looking for a person to act as an independent living advocate and a sign language interpreter.

Those interested in the services RAMP provides or anyone seeking to get involved, can call the office at 756-3202 or 756-3556 for TTY. They can also visit the Web site at rampcil.org.