This is a sad time for the SKIL Resource Center and the many people with disabilities whose lives our beloved co-founder, Jeanette Pruitt, touched over the years. Jeanette and her sister Marty Wooten co-founded SKIL in 1992 after becoming concerned that people with disabilities in the area had major life needs not being met. They petitioned the state of Kansas to open an independent living center. SKIL is in existence today because of these two selfless, visionary sisters.

Jeanette was a tough, tireless advocate for people with disabilities and had her own disabled condition. She waged her final, hard-fought battle against it on January 10, 2021 at the Neosho Memorial Regional Medical Center. She was only 68 years old at the time of her death.

Jeanette was the inspiration behind the advocacy that formed SKIL. Her work to establish our agency led to the work we have done to help thousands of people with disabilities. She was always an advocate and spent many hours travelling to Topeka and Washington to push the independent living agenda. Jeanette loved SKIL, and SKIL loved her. She and Marty were also founding SKIL board members who faithfully served for 19 years before retiring in 2011.

We will deeply miss Jeanette and all that she stood for. Her heart, and her incredible legacy to people with disabilities and the entire southeast Kansas area, will live on as we continue her vision and mission to serve.

Love, Shari

We lost a big piece of SKIL history on Jan 10 th. Jeanette lost her long battle to her congestive heart failure. She has fought and fought as she was a true fighter at heart.

Jeanette and her sister Marty were the founders of SKIL. Jeanette has always been an Advocate for people with disabilities and spent many hours traveling to Topeka and Washington to push the Independent Living agenda. She loved SKIL and spent many years on the Board of Directors. She loved the people who worked at SKIL and was always their advocate when developing policies.

She had so many personal experiences to share and that helped shape the philosophy of the management of SKIL. Jeanette’s kind selfless heart will live on as we do the work in our communities.

Thank you Jeanette for all your guidance and love! You will live on in our mission forever.

As we continue to celebrate the beginning of a brand new year, I hope all of you are safe, well and at peace even as our world is not all peaceful. True peace must start from within us, then it can be effectively spread to others.

One way to stay peaceful of mind amid the pandemic is by faithfully utilizing personal protection equipment. As you know this equipment, often known often as “PPE,” is vital to protecting people from the spread of the Coronavirus. At SKIL, we have a bountiful supply of PPE on hand for our Direct Support Workers, or DSWs.

With the continued rise in COVID cases, we all need to stay mindful of protecting ourselves and those for whom we care. Caring for another is one of the most admirable jobs someone can do. We want you to be safe while doing that job! And we have abundant PPE supplies to help you accomplish this.

SKIL has masks, hand sanitizer, face shields and cleaning wipes to give our Direct Support Workers at no cost to the DSWs. Workers can pick these up at any of our offices. If you cannot get to an office to obtain these vital supplies, we can mail you a box of them. Just e-mail SKIL’s Heather House at: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. with your name and mailing address, and we will get a box of PPE right out to you, free of charge.

I urge you to stay peaceful and protected as we continue to fight COVID-19, while doing your best to keep those you care for best protected, too. Any questions, please do not hesitate to contact us.

Love, Shari

Happy 2021!! We have entered a brand new year. I don’t know about any of you, but I am celebrating this fact. The year 2020 is a year we will never forget, for it was a year that rocked our world from the Coronavirus and the devastation it wrought on people around the globe.

Now, we have survived to forge into another year. The year 2021 is a year to look forward, not backward. It’s a year to be filled with hope, not despair. People all over the world are looking for solutions to the death and destruction that COVID-19 has heaped upon us. The measures that we are urged to practice—social distancing, wearing masks, hand-washing and sanitizing, are solid, sensible safety precautions that are helping to lessen the spread of the virus. The vaccines that are being distributed are offering many a huge dose of tangible hope.

Here at SKIL, we are working on possible agency changes at all of SKIL’s facilities, to decrease the number of people that can possibly be exposed to the virus. While we do not yet know what these changes will look like, I feel that a level of security is coming over us, hopefully both as individual Americans and for our entire nation collectively. We at SKIL intend to go forward in hope and safety, with your best health interests and those of our employees uppermost in mind.

As we enter 2021, please consider this: It can be more difficult to look forward, be positive and focus on real, lasting solutions to life problems instead of staying stuck on the negative. That’s because the bad and negative aspects of our lives are real. And they can become so familiar that we may get more accustomed to staying focused on them rather than on the good parts of life. We’re all only human, after all, and such a mindset is certainly a human trait that we have experienced at one time or another.
Every day we live, our lives are all about choices, and whether we realize this fact or not. It’s a choice to get up and do our best to live each day to the fullest. It’s a choice to choose hope and positivity rather than despair. And it’s a choice to look for real solutions to our life problems instead of staying focused and stuck on the problems themselves.

As we enter the New Year, what will you do? Despite the negative aspects of my own life, I intend to forge positively into 2021. I want to live a better, healthier and more balanced life than I lived in 2020. Will you join me, in being more positive, less negative, focusing on hope instead of despair and seeking real solutions to the problems and struggles of life? Let’s proverbially clasp hands and walk together, toward better lives for all of us in this world we call home. If you have barriers that keep you from achieving your goals, please do not hesitate to contact us.

I wish you all a Happy and Healthy New Year.

Love, Shari

Direct Support Workers in Kansas are deemed health care workers, in the context of receiving a COVID 19 vaccine.  As such, DSWs need to contact their local Health Departments, Community Health Centers or Federally Qualified Health Centers (FQHC) to request vaccinations. The supply of vaccinations, at the local level, will dictate the responsiveness of the requests.