About Us

Programs and Services

The Arc/NSV provides a variety of regular trainings and support groups, based on the input of families and guided by selected experts, from September through July of each year.  These groups provide emotional and informational support to parents raising a child with intellectual and developmental disabilities.  Group members work together to build insights into the stresses, griefs and joys related to this deeply human challenge.  They also provide a space for members to process through the technical information they may need about specific disabilities and/or the complex and ever-shifting systems parents must work with in accessing needed supports. 

Indeed, the challenge of working intimately with large bureaucracies - schools, Medicaid, Social Security, among others - can be overwhelming.  Yet, when the related tasks of benefits planning, special needs trust funds, and guardianship arrangements are not attended to, they can create real financial crises for communities, never mind trauma for individuals when parents pass away without supports in place. 

Unfortunately, individuals in communities, including community leaders, are often quite unaware of their relationship with people who experience disabilities - the costs of exclusion and the rewards of greater inclusion.  For this reason, The Arc/NSV works to build community awareness about disability related issues including management of The Kids-On-The-Block, a puppet troupe operated by youth volunteers.  The Arc publishes a quarterly newsletter for members and friends, and works to provide inclusive social and recreational opportunities for adults with ID/DD who, otherwise, may have very limited opportunities.  The Arc's recreation committee aims to ensure that dances are sponsored by various civic organizations on a monthly basis.  Finally, The Arc/NSV hosts an annual banquet in honor of its constituents and during which eight distinct achievement awards are given to individuals nominated by the membership and selected by committee for valued contributions to the disability community.

Most importantly, The Arc/NSV, as the local chapter of the nation's leading advocacy organization, is entrenched in the complex and often invisible work of advocacy - educating agency people, legislators, the press and communities about the needs of a vulnerable and often voiceless minority.  Advocacy requires fluency in agency jargon and intimate knowledge of family problems.  It requires networking and learning.  There is no direct payment for this work, other than the intrinsic rewards of community building.  The Arc/NSV, nevertheless, chooses to focus on this work since no other group can advocate with as much genuine authority as a true grass roots organization of individuals, family members and devoted professionals.  The Arc is committed to this focus for as long as service gaps require the organized efforts of families to be filled.

This special focus demands a minimum of one large fundraising event each year.  The Arc/NSV Board of Directors address this need through its annual Walk-A-Thon on Winchester's Old Town Mall.  The event meets goals of awareness and community building at the same time that it funds the work of the organization.