The Arc of Northern Shenandoah Valley serves individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities in Winchester city in Frederick County, Clark County and Shenandoah County. The specifics that we work with, we work with a lot of individuals who are affected by autism, cerebral palsy, any type of developmental disability including ADHD and intellectual disabilities. We run the gamut of services for those individuals.

The Arc has actually been in the Northern Shenandoah Valley since 1967. It was formed by a group of parents who had children with disabilities who were being excluded from community activities. They wanted the opportunity to give their children a life like everyone else. So, The Arc was formed and has been an advocacy organization since.

I have been involved with The Arc of Northern Shenandoah Valley since 2008. I was hired, then shortly after being hired at The Arc, my son was diagnosed with autism. That really set my path straight on advocacy and wanting to serve families. I’m in the trenches with the families that I serve. I’m battling right alongside with them, which makes it even more special for me.

We work with families from the very beginning to the very end. Serving them, making sure that they have access to services and supports that they need to live a life like yours. The services and support that we offer, we do advocacy where we meet with legislators to advocate for funding for individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities to stay in the community. We also offer scholarship funds, which is actually one of my favorite things because we can give money back to the community for things that will help our folks stay healthy and safe in the community. We also serve as an information and resource referral service, linking families up with agencies and organizations that can be able to help.

We also do a lot of caregiver resources. A lot of that goes into training and educating parents on what services are available. We’ve developed a caregiver notebook, so it’s easier for our families to manage their children or their adult’s medical needs, appointments. When you become a special needs parent, you have to document everything. We’ve worked to make that a little bit easier for families.

I wish people would know about the Arc of Northern Shenandoah Valley. One of the biggest challenges that we face is we are a very small organization that doesn’t get out into the community a whole lot. We would love to serve anyone that is impacted or has questions about developmental disabilities.

The hardest part about my job is so much to do and so little time to do it. Being an advocate and being a special needs parent myself, it’s very difficult because I want to serve our families as much as possible. There’s just not enough hours in the day.

The help that we could use now, we always need financial support. We give 100% back to the community from our fundraising efforts, including our Boo at the Zoo event. Everything that goes in, none of it goes to administrative costs. It goes right back into the community that we serve.

If I had one thing handed to me right now, it would be the ability to fund 20 kids with autism to be able to take life-saving swimming lessons. The reason that this is very important to me. Personally, I am the parent of a child with severe autism who is very attracted to water. After seeing multiple incidents of children with autism wandering and then later being found in a body of water. I said, “We need to stop this. “This is something that The Arc can do, “that we can support people “and, potentially, save someone’s life “by teaching them how to swim.”

We do the Putting on the Ritz Gala that is coming up on March 22nd. Basically, that is our annual awards banquet where we honor people that serve those with developmental disabilities such as educators, service providers, families. Anyone who makes a difference, we want to honor them. We do accept nominations from the community, which you can find on our website.

We serve hundreds of individuals through social media, through advocacy, through information and referrals. A lot of the work that we do is individual based. We meet with families and we take the individual approach that every person is unique and every person has their own path to follow. We work diligently with families as long as they need it.

A first meeting with The Arc would generally be over coffee. Starbucks or Firefly, we generally meet. We learn about what your family needs. I ask you about your child or the adult. What kind of services you are receiving currently or, if you’re not receiving any services, what might be available for you. I take my time and we break everything down into manageable segments because when we work through advocacy and through information, we have a whole lifetime to plan for. I like to do several meetings. We talk about the immediate needs, set a game plan. Once those initial needs are addressed, then we will move on to the longer stuff.

The Arc is always in need of volunteers as we are a very small organization. Assistance with social media, assistance with doing fairs in the community and serving as an Arc advocate is always needed. You can contact us at www.arcnsv.org to let us know you would like to be part of our team. Our scholarship funds are basically set aside monies for individuals who have intellectual or developmental disabilities to participate in community activities. That can be horseback riding. It can be providing an iPad so a person with autism is able to communicate. It can be through security measures, through security cameras for children that elope. It can be for weighted blankets. It can be for anything that is going to help the individual with a developmental disability live in the community and be a little bit safer and healthier and happier.

The best part of my job is when a family actually gets what they need. When they find out that there is a service out there, available to them that they didn’t know and their life changes. It warms my heart so much to be a part of that. That’s the best part of my job.

To get in touch with us, the easiest way is to call us at 540-692-9650 or through our website, there is a referral form. You can tell us exactly what you need. You can visit www.arcnsv.org.