31/Jul/2009
People With Disabilities Receive
Help from The Arc of
According to the dictionary, an Arc is the apparent path the sun follows from the time it moves above the horizon each morning until it slips out of sight at night. And that is an excellent description of the work The Arc of Baton Rouge does daily for our community.
From birth until old age, The Arc provides meaningful assistance, therapy, employment and enrichment activities for people with disabilities in the seven-parish area in and around the capital city.
“Our mission is to improve the quality of life for children
and adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities and their families
through advocacy, services and support,” said Barry Meyer, executive director
of The Arc of Baton Rouge.
Attending an Arc Plane Pull Meeting are from left (seated) Mike Tucker, Arc Executive Vice President Barry Meyer, Brandon Black, Plane Pull Committee Chairman Mary Durusau and (standing) Julie Baxter, Communications Director Paige Gagliano, Mary England of Trianon and Trish Sedlin.
In 2008 the Arc served 824 children and adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities and their families. According to Meyer, the Arc’s staff of over 300 will serve 500 children and adults with disabilities each day.
Intellectual
Disability
The Arc of Baton Rouge began in 1952 when the mother of a child with an intellectual disability recognized the lack of adequate services for her child and appealed to other parents. Together they formed the Society for the Education of Exceptional Children.
As the group began to grow, so did the valuable services
they provide. Today The Arc offers
The Arc also provides transition from Early Steps/Early Intervention to other Early Childhood programs through family training and technical support. Last year 185 child care providers and teachers were trained to include young children with disabilities in their Early Childhood programs and classrooms.
Family-Centered Program
Through this family-centered program, children birth to three years of age receive early intervention services like speech therapy, occupational therapy, physical therapy, special instruction or social work services. Child care providers, teachers, support personnel and parents are also provided with training, technical assistance and mentor/coaching.
“Our real goal is to promote the successful inclusion of children with disabilities in the world,” Meyer said.
Of special concern to The Arc is the fact that one in three children with a disability will be abused.
“What’s most disturbing is that less than ten percent of abuse and neglect of children and adults with disabilities is reported,” Meyer said.
The
Arc provides geriatric care to seniors with disabilities. This is one
of the Arc's many services provided to disabled people in the Greater
Baton Rouge area.
Support services provided by The Arc include an extensive Community Life Program which assists people with disabilities to do more for themselves. The program develops a personalized support plan, teaches necessary skills and promotes community involvement.
In-Home Support
The ARC also works to protect people with disabilities from being institutionalized.
“It actually costs three times as much to institutionalize a person than it costs to provide in-home support services for the same person in their own home,” according to Meyer.
This philosophy led to Respite Care Services, an in-home setting that offers a four-bedroom home to eight individuals. Residents are provided with constant support in their typical daily routines by trained staff This program often delays or prevents institutionalization.
Metro Enterprises
Interestingly, The Arc operates one of the top 25
manufacturing firms in
The company’s employees also produce laboratory vial closures with tolerances down to .005 of an inch, process over 6,000 items for mail each month and clean some 500,000 square feet of office space weekly.
Another division of Metro Enterprises is Baton Rouge Vocational Services, a program that helps adults with disabilities by assisting them in obtaining employment throughout the city and region. They also prepare individuals who are deaf or blind for competitive employment.
Inclusive Recreation
Last year The Arc of Baton Rouge won the National Inclusive
Recreation Award from the Arc of the
This new Inclusive Recreation Program provides support services for children with disabilities participating in BREC holiday camps and summer camps. The Arc and other agencies provide basketball, soccer, kickball, flag football, T-ball, etc. for people with and without disabilities.
“What’s special about our program is that children with and without disabilities play on the same teams,” explained Meyer.
The Arc of
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