Arc of the Quad Cities
The Quad Cities has a large variety of different agencies that work with individuals with special needs. Because of this, it can be hard to find the right place to get services from, especially with such varied circumstances for each family. Today, I wanted to highly one of the service providers in the Quad Cites, Arc of the Quad Cities. The Arc of the Quad Cities was started in 1952 and is located in Rock Island, Illinois. Their primary goal is to empower individuals with disabilities to “empower people with disabilities to believe in their own unique abilities and achieve their full potential by providing quality, innovative services that focus on advocacy, independence, employment, meaningful community life and personal happiness.” The rest of the article will be a few of the ways they do that to see what they might be able to do to help out your family.
Main Services
Advocacy Services
One of the neat things that the Arc of the Quad Cities does, is to actually help promote advocacy for the individuals they work with and families. This can be done through recommending certain support groups, and assisting to find recreation activities, and many other things. Advocacy services are a cornerstone of the Arc of the Quad Cities, and can help your family find what they need as well.
Assistive Technology
This is a really neat service, because it allows individuals with disabilities to learn about how to use the various different assistive technologies out in the world, to help them in their daily lives. If someone currently is employed out in the community, this might involve helping them use a phone more efficiently. Someone who uses a devices to help them communicate would be able to practice using these things with a staff member as well. The Arc of the Quad Cities also helps individuals get funding for certain assistive technology and also maintain it as well.
Community Day Services
If you are familiar with DayHab services, this is exactly what that is. The Arc of the Quad Cities offers day services that focus on development of behaviors, participating in activities out in the community, hands on skill learning, and much more. This is a great option for a family looking to have their child or loved one more busy and developed during the day.
Community Support Services
Community support services give individuals with disabilities the opportunity to work one on one with a direct support professional to help with cooking, cleaning, transportation, budgeting, and much more. These professionals may come in to your home for only a couple hours, or several hours daily. They act an extra pair of hands that can help any individual with special needs and their family get what they need done, done.
Residential Services
If you are looking to give your loved one a little more independence in their life or are not able to care for them anymore, the residential services option might be a good choice for you. This provides most individuals in the program, the opportunity to live in a group home setting with either intermittent supervision or 24 hour support, depending on the needs of the individual. Living in the home, individuals would get help cooking, cleaning, bathing, participating in community activities, and anything else the day would have in store for them.
Work Services
We all need a place to contribute to society, and feel like we are making a difference. The work services portion of the Arc of the Quad Cities does just that. If an individual is not able to hold a stable job out in the community at a grocery store, movie theater, or restaurant, the work services area provides supervision to a variety of light “assembly line” tasks that they can do at the Arc Building. Performing service contracts, packaging of products, and document destruction are just a few of many jobs they might work through in a day.
These are just a few of many great things that the Arc of the Quad Cities provides to the QCA. For a full list of all of the events, volunteering and employment opportunities, and other happenings at the Arc of the Quad Cities, feel free to visit their website here.
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