The Staff Never Gets Enough Credit

For months this blog has been devoted to the special people in this world who are developmentally disabled.  Though they may not look the same, talk the same or act the same as you, they are real, genuine individuals who care about their work, their play and their communities.

There’s another group of people who deserve a lot of attention, too.  Even if they seem to be the ones in the background most often, without them organizations like ARC Marion could not survive.  They are the folks who often go unnoticed, who make the least amount of money and who work the long, hard hours…the staff.

Just like a shepherd uses his crooked staff to lean on, support him and help him along his way, an organization is only as good as its employment staff.  At ARC Marion, the folks working with our developmentally disabled clients are just like the shepherd’s staff.  At times our clients need them for support and help, but all the while they are there taking them hand and hand and leaning on them when they need that little extra assistance.

It’s never been about the money.  It can’t be.  After all half of ARC’s staff makes less than $8.50 an hour to do what they do every day.  It’s really about their hearts.  They love the people at ARC, and they love helping people in general.  Recently a staff member received a letter of commendation from another non-profit Executive Director in our community.  The letter proclaimed how wonderful it was to work with such a caring, dedicated individual who helped one of their clients out of a sticky situation.  Why? Because she cares, and those are just the kind of people who do the hard work with little credit.

I salute you, any employee who works with and for the developmentally disabled, the disadvantaged, the helpless in need.  You deserve all the credit in the world!