Current Projects -
Sacred Heart Parish Site

The Arc of New London County is grass roots not-for-profit membership organization governed by a volunteer Board of Directors. It was founded in 1952 by parents of children with Mental Retardation as the New London County Association of Retarded Children. These Families saw a need to provide educational opportunities for their children which were not available to them at the time through public schools. Many of these early programs were operated in church basements and donated space. As a result of the early successes demonstrated by these programs and the advocacy of the parents, legislative changes were made in the 1960’s and many children with disabilities began to receive services in their local schools.

The Arc gradually changed its focus towards working with adults in need of services. The Arc moved to Preston in 1957 where a workshop was established. This workshop provided assembly-like work in a sheltered environment. This was considered cutting edge at the time. Recreational and social programs were also operated out of the Preston site. In 1986, the Arc sold its Preston site and moved to leased space located in the Industrial Park in Norwich. During this period the name of the Association was changed to The Arc of New London County.

In the early 1990’s the workshop was closed and all participants in the Sheltered Workshop Program were transitioned to competitive group and independent employment. Today close to 50 individuals are working competitively in businesses and industry in area communities with the support of Arc job coaches and employment specialists.

At the same time the workshop closed, The Arc established a Community Integration Program (CIP) for those individuals who were either not able to work or who were approaching retirement age. This program provides training in community living skills, sensory stimulation, volunteer activities, community inclusion and interaction, and intensive staff supervision and support.

The Arc Recreation Program has continued to operate successfully since the early days of The Arc. It has changed from providing large group activities to conducting meaningful person centered recreation, social, leisure and sports activities in area communities.

In 1998, The Arc of New London took over the operation of a residential camp at Camp Harkness in Waterford. This camp is located at the pristine Harkness Memorial Park on Long Island Sound. The accessible beaches and cabins provide a valuable vacation opportunity for the campers and much needed respite for their families and caretakers.

In 2001, The Arc started two small programs for school age children. Both programs provide job experiences and training for children who are age 14 and older.

In June 2005, The Arc began providing emergency Respite services to DCF displaced adolescents. By November 2005 a total of four (4) young women funded by DCF were being served in emergency respite. All four young women, who have multiple mental health issues, are also clients of the Department of Mental Retardation. In conjunction with DMR and DCF an alternative Community Living Arrangement was developed to provide a more stable and safe environment. A comprehensive habilitative plan for each of the young women was established which includes medical, psychiatric, educational, vocational, and behavioral services meeting both DCF and DMR guidelines. The goal of the program is to provide seamless services so that when the women age out of DCF services, DMR will continue the funding of supports.

• Community Inclusion Program (CIP)

• Employment Programs

• Residential Services and Supports

• Recreation Program *

• Camp Program

• Summer Pre-Vocational Program

• Transition to Work

• Respite (in-home and out-of-home)

Up to 3 per weekend

• Family Supports

The total number of individuals served today is approximately 480 children and adults (including summer camp.) The age range is 4 to 80. Individuals function at a variety of levels with some needing significant support to perform daily tasks while others live and work independently, needing only limited support from The Arc.

Until ten years ago, The Arc served approximately 120 people. This number remained at this level for many years prior to 1994. With the increase in funding from the State Department of Mental Retardation, Department of Children and Families, The United Way of Southeastern Connecticut, and through the generous support of several area towns, corporations, fraternal, civic and service organizations, and individuals, The Arc has been able to experience planned growth and address the increasing needs of the population of the Region as identified by families and stakeholders.

The Arc employs 62 full time, 26 part time and 18 client employees for year round programs. An additional 46 seasonal summer staff are employed to work at Camp Harkness and summer after school programs.

The Arc Center in Norwich is over capacity. Many of the people served by The Arc live in shoreline area communities. Also, many new referrals of school-aged teens are from schools in the shoreline towns. In 2006, The Arc began seeking space to locate a satellite Vocational Training Center in the shoreline area. Many of the sites explored were either inappropriate or cost prohibitive. During this exploration process, The Arc became aware that the Sacred Heart parish in Groton had a site, the Mary Margaret Center, which was available for rent to a program with a mission that is compatible with that of the parish. After due diligence by both parties, a lease agreement was drafted. Under the terms of the agreement, Sacred Heart parish will offer 6,000 square feet of the Mary Margaret Center, at a significantly reduced rate, to The Arc for its Vocational Training Program.

It is expected that the planning stages for the implementation of initiatives, renovations, start up costs and the initial funding of human resources necessary to execute these initiatives will need to come from grant funding, after which, funding from traditional sources such as DMR, public school contracts and client fees will become available.

The first initiative that The Arc of New London County would like to pursue is the use of The Mary Margaret Center at Sacred Heart Parish in Groton. This facility, originally utilized as a convent, and then renovated by Pfizer as a day care facility, is currently in minimal use. It is up to code in all respects, and modification for the purposes envisioned by The Arc would involve minimal expenditures. It is a three floor facility of approximately 12 to 13 thousand square feet, with the first floor and main floor handicapped accessible, with handicapped lavatories. The Arc could make use of the main floor facility for its Day, Work and School-to-Work transition programs. It is likely that additional areas could be utilized for evening educational, recreation, before and after school respite care, and other program initiatives. We have had a number of meetings with Sacred Heart to assure that we could meet their objectives. We have found that the missions of both organizations are in synchronization and believe that a partnership or collaboration between the parties can be quickly evolved.

The employment (vocational) program at The Arc of New London County provides services for individuals with intellectual (mental retardation) and other related disabilities from the age of sixteen and older. Below is a description of each program:

Individual Placement: Currently, 13 individuals are competitively employed in community jobs with drop-in supports by employment specialists who go directly to work sites to provide supports. These individuals do not come to the Arc program/office sites as their employment is in community businesses.

Group Support Employment: Groups of three to four individuals with a job coach work together at various work sites such as the Sub Base in Groton, Computer Science Corporation in Norwich, The Norwich Inn and Spa and the Eastern Connecticut Chamber of Commerce. A job coach is with the individuals at all times to provide supervision and work supports. There are currently eighteen (18) individuals in this component. Initially, twelve of the eighteen will be coming to the Groton site in the morning and in the afternoon to meet their vans to be transported to work and then home.

Progressive Program: This program was developed to support individuals who cannot or do not wish to work five days per week. We provide them with part time employment opportunities along with life skills training and community inclusion experiences. A few examples of life skills education include: cooking, banking, how to use public transportation, computer/office skills, and socialization. Community outings include: going out to lunch, utilizing the library, shopping, gardening and seasonal activities. The staffing ratio is one staff to three individuals. Initially, there will be eleven (11) individuals attending the Groton site each day.

Transition to Work: Students attending area public schools from age sixteen to twenty-one years old participate in this program. Currently six area school systems contract with The Arc to provide a transition from school to the world of work. This program is designed to develop employment building skills, job exploration, job development, job placement and life skills training. This is accomplished by providing individualized person-centered training and 1:1 job exploration. The goal of this program is to provide transition to successful employment and independence when the student ages out of the school system at age 21. Initially, four (4) students will be attending the site on a given day. It is anticipated that most of the new program growth and expansion in the Groton/Sacred Heart location will take place in this program since additional training space will be available and access to new potential employers along the shoreline will open up. Also, several new school systems will be easily accessible to our program

It is clear from our research thus far that there is a very real need for before and after school care in this area, so that those parents with children facing intellectual and educational challenges can be served, during those periods when their parents need to work or when they need respite. It would be our intent to spend time in planning for how to research, plan and execute such a program, also making use of the Sacred Heart facility. Fortunately, Sacred Heart has been instrumental, through its RISEN program, in already assisting with inclusive education of special needs students

The target population for The Arc Vocational Training Center currently exists and is served presently from its facilities in Norwich. Most of the current participants in the Employment Program would be relocated to this facility. This will free up space in the Norwich site for program enhancement and expansion.

Students with special needs attending shoreline schools will be a source of enhancing and expanding our Transition to Work Program.

The implementation of these programs would be initiated by July of 2007, assuming grant funds sufficient for its evolution were made available.

1. The opportunity of procuring an additional site for The Arc will promote future growth of our Transition-to-Work Program.
2. With the addition of more training rooms where we could provide more individualized support, we will ensure at least a 90% successful employment placement.
3. Additional space to provide vocational opportunities for individuals with higher needs of support will expand our services to provide opportunities to a population that is currently underserved.
4. The effectiveness of all Arc programs will be measured utilizing the newly developed DMR Outcome Measures tool.

The Arc of New London County:

Ms. Kim Blair, Director of Employment Services, has over 20 years experience in providing residential, day and vocational services to people with intellectual and related Developmental Disabilities.

Mr. Thomas J. Sullivan, Executive Director, has 40 years experience of providing programs, services and supports to individuals with disabilities and their families in 3 states (CT, TN and FL)

It is expected that long term funding for these efforts will principally be provided by DMR, under its Home and Community Based Waiver programs that fund resources for DMR clients. Also, as we expand our services to include more of the shoreline communities, contracts with additional public schools will be initiated to provide school to work transition services.

1. A minimum of 90% successful employment placements for all Transition to Work students.
2. Consumer and Family Satisfaction Surveys will be done annually
3. Third party program evaluations and inspections are carried out, unannounced, by DMR Quality Assurance staff. The Arc programs have a very high compliance history with these inspections and will continue this trend in the new satellite facility.