Ron Sharpe, Executive Director of The Arc of the Bay, stands smiling in front of a sign with the chapter's name on it.

The Arc of the Bay in Florida has had an exciting few months! In 2017, the chapter affiliated and branded with the national office – executed seamlessly by their executive director Ron Sharpe. This past month, the chapter participated in a summit focused on transitioning from facility-based to community-based employment. Ron reflected with us on the challenges and opportunities that strengthen and propel his chapter forward as they continue to advance our universal mission of inclusion for all.

 

First, we wanted to formally welcome you to our chapter network; your chapter recently rebranded and joined forces with the national office! What initiated that process?

We were strategically planning on how we were going to celebrate and fully maximize our upcoming 60th anniversary in 2017. We had a focus group & graduate students from our local Florida State University – Panama City Campus provide research & feedback that while we have been in Bay County, FL for 60 years, many families and businesses still didn’t know who we were, St. Andrew Bay Center, and what our mission was. We were already affiliated with The Arc of Florida, and when we reviewed what The Arc of the U.S. had to offer, we knew it would only strengthen our daily operations with the wide range of resources that would be made available to our agency…including branding and name recognition. 2017 represented the largest overall growth that we have experienced within the past 10 years in every facet of our business model…double-digit increases in our ADT enrollment, Supported Employment services and including our overall fundraising.

At the end of last month, you attended the Provider Transformation Network Summit in DC on transitioning from facility-based employment to community-based employment programs, along with four other chapters. What motivated you to attend, and what were some of your takeaways?

I attended the PTN Summit hoping to learn from other leaders within those four chapters in what they found to be successful or not within their communities within this transition. I was able to hear that we are all experiencing some of the same struggles and opportunities, but learned of different or new ideas to hopefully getting new results. We all came from different levels of years of experience, but through our ideas and building relationship, we now have another resource network to continue to build upon as we continue to work through this transition.

The national landscape is changing, with an increasing emphasis on community employment opportunities for individuals with I/DD. How is this affecting the direction of your organization as it relates to employment services? What kind of work are you doing in your chapter to advance community-based, gainful employment for people with I/DD?

The Arc of the Bay has fully embraced this process ranging from implementing an initiative of The Arc of Florida “Dream Inspired Planning” where our individuals shared what their job goals are communicating through pictures on their own dream boards to promoting individuals and their job skills and experience in our local paper every Friday in a section we created and titled “Employment Highlight”. The process with “Dream Inspired Planning” reinforces “self- advocacy and self-determination in setting future goals on what they would like to do. We also use every social media to advocate on behalf our clients, our employers and our staff on the successes made.

Do you have any advice for other chapters looking to strengthen their employment initiatives?

Sounds so simple, but think out of the box when thinking about new employment opportunities! Everything we do is “NETWORKING” and making contacts. Look at civic clubs, like your local Rotary or your chamber of commerce.

14 thoughts on “The Arc of the Bay: Thinking Outside the Box to Improve their Chapter and Community

  1. I’m the co-founder of JustCBD Store company (justcbdstore.com) and I’m presently trying to grow my wholesale side of business. I am hoping anybody at targetdomain give me some advice . I considered that the very best way to accomplish this would be to talk to vape companies and cbd retailers. I was hoping if anybody could recommend a reputable website where I can get Vape Shop B2B Data List I am already considering creativebeartech.com, theeliquidboutique.co.uk and wowitloveithaveit.com. Not exactly sure which one would be the best option and would appreciate any support on this. Or would it be easier for me to scrape my own leads? Suggestions?

  2. This is a really good tip particularly to those fresh to the blogosphere. Brief but very precise info… Thank you for sharing this one. A must read article!

  3. Your style is really unique in comparison to other people I have read stuff from. Thank you for posting when you’ve got the opportunity, Guess I’ll just bookmark this blog.

  4. Good post. I learn something totally new and challenging on sites I stumbleupon on a daily basis. It will always be useful to read through articles from other authors and practice a little something from their sites.

  5. Great blog here! Also your web site loads up very fast!
    What host are you using? Can I get your affiliate link to your
    host? I wish my web site loaded up as quickly as yours
    lol

  6. Unquestionably believe that which you said. Your favorite justification appeared to be on the internet the simplest thing to be aware of.
    I say to you, I definitely get annoyed while people think about worries that they plainly don’t know about.
    You managed to hit the nail upon the top as well as defined out the whole
    thing without having side effect , people could take a signal.
    Will likely be back to get more. Thanks

  7. Thanks for one’s marvelous posting! I seriously enjoyed reading it, you are a great author.I will remember to bookmark your
    blog and may come back at some point. I want to encourage continue your great work,
    have a nice day! adreamoftrains web hosting sites

  8. After looking into a number of the blog articles on your site, I seriously appreciate your way of blogging. I saved it to my bookmark website list and will be checking back soon. Please visit my web site as well and let me know your opinion.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *