In June, the University of Nebraska Board of Regents approved many exciting new possibilities for services and programs at the Munroe-Meyer Institute.
Actually, they approved a new building. (See the full story in this month’s newsletter.) But as we plan our move to the Ak-Sar-Ben campus, what we are most excited about is not the building, but what it will allow: new services, program growth, and new opportunities to fulfill our mission and promise to the population we serve.
The new building will be designed with the patients and their families in mind. It will set a national standard as to how to design facilities that serve intellectual and developmental disabilities in an interdisciplinary fashion. Patient families will play a critical role in designing it.
On both the clinical and researcher sides, we will be bold and visionary. This is a century of human-technology interface, and we want to be leaders in adapting and developing novel technologies for the population we serve – in communication, mobility, transportation, augmented and virtual reality, and many other arenas.
A partnership with UNO will be critical for this endeavor, as it has significant and complementing strength in biomechanics, bioinformatics, engineering, education and many other areas. Clearly, the proximity of the new facility to UNO will allow us to establish critical new relationships and further grow existing ones.
This is an amazing, caring and philanthropic community, and it deserves a state-of-the-art facility with cutting-edge services and programs! Now is the time for us to roll up our sleeves and make that happen!