Building a Community for Everyone STEPHEN GLICKSMAN, PH.D. ’91 Yeshiva College, ’97 Ferkauf Graduate School of Psychology Adjunct Associate Professor, Yeshiva College and Ferkauf Graduate School of Psychology
Director of Innovation, Makor Care & Services Network Founder and Director, Makor College Experience Program
M oral philosopher, developmental psychologist and passionate advocate, Dr. Stephen Glicksman never stops fighting for children and adults with intellec- tual and developmental disabilities (I/DDs). Not too long ago, those with I/DDs were often hidden away, institutionalized and sometimes mistreated. Dr. Glicksman, YU professor and Director of Innovation of Makor Care & Services Network, has played an essential role in changing that. “Our fo- cus is: What are people going to be saying about us 50 years from now?” he said. Through his advocacy, Dr. Glicksman has become a thought leader on how to help people with I/DDs take their rightful place in society through inclusion and development. Growing up in Livingston, New Jersey, Dr. Glicksman was always interested in the intersection of psychology and morali- ty. He discovered that confluence in the field of developmental psychology. While pursuing a doctorate from Yeshiva Universi- ty’s Ferkauf Graduate School of Psychology, he began working for Makor (Hebrew for “source”), an Orthodox Jewish social services network founded in 1978 by Jeanne Warman, a Brook- lyn mother of a developmentally disabled son. It became the group-home model for people with I/DDs in the New York Jew- ish community. Twenty-five years later, Dr. Glicksman has helped Makor touch the lives of countless individuals through its myriad programs and 32 residential facilities. Makor is one of only three agencies out of some 800 in New York State to earn the state’s coveted Compass designation for outstanding service and innovation. In 2017, bringing to fruition an idea he’d had for decades, Dr. Glicksman founded the Makor College Experience at Ye- shiva University, a multiyear non-degree program that creates a college-like experience for young Jewish men with I/DDs. The curriculum includes morning Torah learning and after- noon classes on topics from science and civics to life skills and personal development. Students explore different possibilities
for employment, with the goal of placing graduates in the workplace so they can transition to a life of independence post-Makor. “College is where young adults explore their identity and have worlds open to them,” Dr. Glicksman said. “In our YU Ma- kor college program, we’re opening those worlds for people with I/DDs as well.” Another way Dr. Glicksman applies his innovative thought leadership is by insisting on the rights of people with I/DDs to make decisions—called the “dignity of risk”—while at the same time, protecting them from harm and helping them become re- sponsible members of the community. It’s a nuanced approach forged by Dr. Glicksman’s background in moral philosophy and identity as an Orthodox Jew. “Our agency is steeped in Torah,” he explained. “So the idea that we don’t have unlimited freedoms is built into our DNA, as is the understanding that we have a responsibility to the com- munity, to ourselves and to God. So from our perspective, if we want people with intellectual disabilities to become part of soci- ety, we must give them responsibilities.” As Dr. Glicksman sees it, it’s not actually the people with I/DDs who are being integrated, it’s the community that is be- ing made whole—a philosophy he instills in his graduate stu- dents at YU. “It’s a mindset that’s at the foundation of everything we do,” Dr. Glicksman said. “Teaching people with I/DDs how to be members of a community, and teaching the community to ac- cept them as equals, not simply tolerated, but to really be in- cluded. It is based on love.”
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YU Today : Powered by Innovators, Guided by Values
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