People Incorporated has provided community transition services to adults with epilepsy for almost since 1980. The first program was People House, a group home at 1380 W. Minnehaha Parkway in Minneapolis that served up to 14 young adults at a time. It was replaced by SEARCH in December 1987. In 1991 Anne Barnwell worked with Stacy Nichols (O’Leary) to create People Inc.’s Home Health Agency, and the two programs have worked together ever since.

People House was created as a collaboration between People Incorporated, the Epilepsy Foundation of Minnesota (EFM) and MINCEP Epilepsy Care. Marion Enos was Program Director for People House and she managed the program successfully. The program ran for almost seven years when in 1987, due to changes in funding for group homes, People House was forced to close.

In 1987 Glenn Anderson worked with Florence Gray, the Associate Director of Research at MINCEP, and Anne Barnwell, Advocacy Coordinator at EFM, to create a new program to replace People House. They successfully lobbied the Hennepin County Commissioners for funding for a new pilot project for adults with epilepsy. That project turned out to be SEARCH. In 1988 EFM, MINCEP and People Inc. successfully lobbied the MN legislature for ongoing funding for this service. This grant has been our primary funding source since then.

As Program Director from December 1987 to September 1988, Dana Higgins was assigned the task of actually creating SEARCH. Dana hired and trained the first staff, arranged for office space with Minneapolis Public Housing, and admitted the first participants. Staff has experienced low turnover - 3 staff have been with SEARCH over 10 years. In August 1988 People Inc. hired Anne Barnwell to be the Program Director for SEARCH (Epilepsy Services) and Dana returned to duties at People Inc.’s administrative offices.

Since its creation in December 1987, Epilepsy Services as changed in many ways - We now serve individuals in buildings outside of 630 Cedar, have an outreach component of Epilepsy Services and have collaborated with other programs such as the FIND Inc. Cedar Avenue Program, and People Inc.’s Home Health Agency. Epilepsy Services is now an established member of the epilepsy community.

There continue strong ties between People Inc, MINCEP and the Epilepsy Foundation of MN. Staff from EFM serve on Epilepsy Services’ Advisory Board. Anne Barnwell, Program Director for Epilepsy Services, once served on the Advisory Board of People House as a staff person for EFM and has been a member of EFM's Professional Advisory Board since 1988.

Respectfully submitted by: Anne Barnwell