Today we have a guest blog from the Community Supports Director, Beth Lewis.  Beth is sharing about Companion services at ARC Marion, Inc
A service like Companion is described in the Agency for Healthcare Administration (AHCA)/ Department of Children and Families (DCF) Handbook as, “non-medical care, supervision and socialization activities provided to an adult on a [...]

In September a Florida father, James Willie Jones, was arrested and later charged with two second degree misdemeanors for storming onto his daughter’s school bus and yelling and threatening students who were bullying her.  He has since repeatedly apologized to the children affected who weren’t involved as well as the manner and tone with which [...]

Tuesday’s post was about holding children back that are born with disabilities.  I don’t quite get it, really.  I suppose I can understand the protective nature of parents wanting to keep their children from harm and uncertainty, possibly shielding them from ridicule and pain.  However, isn’t that real life?  It doesn’t make it any easier, [...]

The Florida legislature just went into session last week, and there are already very pertinent pieces of legislation pending that could greatly affect the citizens ARC Marion serves and the developmentally disabled across our state.  In fact, in the next 14 days, the Senate and House Appropriations Committees are considering two options to further reduce funding [...]

Unless you have a toddler who watches Noggin on TV, or a school age child who used to watch Nick Jr. on CBS Saturday mornings, you probably have not seen or heard of “Little Bill.”  I know I hadn’t until about a year ago when we discovered the show that now only runs in syndication.  [...]

A few years back our local United Way hosted their annual campaign kick-off celebration with a twist.  They brought in the comedian, Josh Blue, to be the guest speaker for the event.  Blue won NBC’s Last Comic Standing in 2006 partly because of his humorous jokes about himself.  He lives with cerebral palsy and said [...]

I can’t imagine being nonverbal.  I don’t mean like a baby trying to learn to talk.  My 15-month-old son babbles from time to time with a “ma-ma” or “da-da” thrown in just to get us really excited, but his aunt, my sister, who is 30 years his senior, jabbers similarly to what we hear from [...]

We in “the business” of serving and working with the developmentally disabled have gotten ourselves into a quandary.  While we strive for political correctness, as nearly everyone in this present age attempts to do, we’ve caused much confusion in our terminology and lingo among people of all ages.  Often when I’m speaking to people and [...]