It fits right in with the vision of the national organization. Scocchi’s organization continues as a program of The Arc, now under the direction of Mary Lou Rossi. When The Arc of the United States approached her about re-starting a state chapter, Scocchi insisted on bringing the special education advocacy program with her. She had never dealt with special education issues.īut her advocacy for her son grew into into a one-woman non-profit organization called Rhode Island Advocacy For Children, providing one-on-one help for about 200 families a year. A former CEO of a human resources staffing agency, she was then in her forties. Scocchi had moved to Rhode Island from New Jersey twelve years earlier as the mother of a young child with developmental disabilities. In 2018, the national organization tapped Scocchi to lead the Rhode Island effort, at first on a part-time basis. The connections the Circles make on a personal level reflect the core mission of The Arc as a catalyst for family support and advocacy efforts intended to make the community a welcoming place for people with developmental disabilities. It has “redefined the way that I want to do the work that I do post-Covid.” Faust works as Director of Self-Advocacy and Work Preparedness at Looking Upwards, a service provider. The healthy relationship Circle has provided a “safe way for people to socialize and have new friendships and actually take part in some meaningful conversations,” she said. “The Arc of Rhode Island and others who have supported this effort deserve enormous credit,” he said.ĭarlene Faust, facilitator for a Circle focused on healthy relationships, agreed with Savage, saying her experience has been gratifying on a personal and professional level. “People are genuinely connecting with one another,” Savage said, noting that some of the groups are led by adults with disabilities. “Chat Saturday” is but one facet of “Circles of Connections,” The Arc’s person-to-person response to the isolation of the COVID-19 pandemic that Renaud said he knew “was going to be really intense for the people with developmental disabilities and their families.” “People look forward to the day they will have a circle,” says Ken Renaud, associate director of The Arc. Under the leadership of Joanna Scocchi, it has revived not only its legislative advocacy but it offers support to parents facing special education issues and facilitates partnership-building activities in the community, sometimes one person at a time.Ī case in point is the young man who agreed to go out to a Saturday lunch in Newport with his brother and his brother’s girlfriend only on the condition that he could be back home in front of his computer screen in time for his late afternoon “Chat Saturday,” an online social circle. The state organization, which had been dormant for a decade, has grown into an office of four during the last two years.
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