The State Of The Arc
The Arc of Butte County started 50 years ago as a group of parents seeking support and guidance from each other and help from their government. Our local Arc joined a network of state and national chapters to effectively advocate for the improvement in the live of children and adults with mental retardation and their families.
The Arc of Butte County early on built family support groups to assist and educate each other as well as the public. These family support programs are still going strong today.
The financial support from local organizations and business as well as the hundreds of individuals in our community allow us to offer these programs free to the individuals and families we serve. The state of the arc today is truly a partnership between the community and our agency.
The Arc today provides many family and client services. Over the last 8 years we have moved from providing just respite services and family support programs to providing a wide range of adult programs.
The adult programs include:
- An independent living skills program
- A day program that includes both center based and community based experiences as well as a vocational readiness and work experience program. Our work program combines both paid work at minimum wage and skills training.
- A socialization training program
- A recreational therapy program
- A community support services program
- A behavioral intervention services program
- A social recreation services program
Over the past four years we have in partnership with the regional center opened a computer learning center, a Saturday respite program that provides a well-needed drop-off program, and we're expanded our family support program.
The last fiscal year we offered over 153,608 hours of services to individuals and families in Butte, Glenn, and Tehama counties.
But to me, the state of the Arc is much more than the statistics cited above.
What I believe we are today as individuals and what the Arc as an agency is about: is making a difference day to day in the lives of individuals and families
To make this difference the Arc is fortunate to have a very dedicated and hard working staff and ongoing commitment and support from Far Northern Regional Center and the community.
The Arc in order to continue to provide high quality programs and services took on two long term projects. The completion of these two long term projects will provide a long term base for the Arc. The first project was to find a home for the Arc. We now have that home on Park Avenue in Chico, where we have built a new thrift store and remodeled two old structures. The larger structure provides a home for an adult day program, kitchen and rental space for community events. The second structure provides 5000 square feet of office space for our administrative staff.
The second project was the purchase and rehabilitation of a 24 unit apartment project that provides a supportive housing program to provide much needed decent, safe and affordable housing for our consumers.
The Arc looks forward to meeting the needs and challenges of the individuals and their families with mental retardation and related developmental disabilities over the next year, and in the years to come.
Board Of Directors - 2007
Michael McGinnis, Executive Director and Elaine Pegg, Vice President
Executive Officers
- President - Ed Caldwell
- Vice President - Elaine Pegg
- Treasurer - Scott Laursen
- Courtney Casey
- Past President - Kimberly King
Members At Large
- John Breedlove
- Nelson Corwin
- Linda Young
- Steffen Nelson
- Brad Stovall
- Tom Tarman
- Matthew Bently
- George Furrugia
- Laura Lukes
- Mary "Ginger" Williams
