When I walked in to The Arc of Central Virginia’s beautiful, newly renovated building, I received a warm greeting from Executive Director Karen Wilder right at the front door. During the tour, Karen explained to me how this chapter is dedicated to promoting community-based services through the provision of a day program, respite supports, a summer therapeutic recreation programs for adults and children, and will soon be beginning sponsored placement facilitation.

As part of their day program-this local chapter has worked to develop program supports for individuals with ID/DD who are approaching retirement that help to enhance skills and lifelong learning. When I visited this group-they were practicing and learning about the use of seatbelts, while also engaging in conversation and bracelet-making.
Driving to Lynchburg I had driven past many signs promoting “Click or Ticket” (daydreaming about how local chapters of The Arc are destined to make the “A Life Like Yours” message equally well-known). This group showed me how to they are learning to “Click It” in order to encourage safety in the community.

To promote self-determination-Karen shared that The Arc of Central Virginia holds weekly “Consumer Choice Days” where individuals receiving services choose the types of activities that are available on that day. Some examples have been Bingo, Karyokee, Crafts, etc. Additionally there are four teams of individuals who are not-based at the center. These groups are often found out in the Lynchburg community engaging in activities such as volunteer work, going to the mall, or visiting museums.

Like other chapters we have visited, Karen shared that strong partnerships have been essential in making this local chapter’s efforts such a success. An excellent example of this was The United Way Day of Caring that took place this week. Volunteers from all over the community painted walls, planted gardens, and helped this local chapter put its best face forward! “Partnering with other agencies is essential-providers, community organizations, parent groups, CSBs”, Karen shared. To facilitate partnerships among chapters-Karen suggested that The Arc’s leaders around the state get together regularly-in order to learn more about what each other are doing, have the opportunity to ask questions, and really start a movement! Karen pointed out that sharing training materials with each other such as rights and fire safety would be beneficial to chapters and would help spur motivation for us to learn more about “best practices”.

Karen and I also spoke at length about the situation in Virginia when it comes to community-based services. “We need to work together to educate individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities, families, case managers about what options are available and how can we weave the resources we have creatively, while continuing to advocate for increased funding”.

Many thanks to the very friendly crowd at The Arc of Central Virginia for the opportunity to visit-looking forward to returning later on this summer for the pot-luck!