The Arc of the Central Mountains recently opened their doors to support people through advocacy, outreach, and policy in a rural area of the Colorado mountains. They immediately found themselves in court supporting some of the individuals in their community. One of these cases evolved into providing supports for a young adult who was facing multiple felony charges for stalking and who was in the middle of reapplying for DACA status. The work of The Arc of the Central Mountains has resulted in the creation of a truly community-based support system for this young man, while at the same time building a relationship with a local judicial system, resulting in his four cases being dismissed. In this interview, The Arc of the Central Mountains’s Executive Director Jill Pidcock talks about the about the work the organization is doing and how they are making a positive impact in their community.

How do you connect with the people in this population who need help? Are there any unique challenges to working with this population? If so, what are those challenges and how do you approach them?

Working in a rural area is a major asset in some ways because everyone knows someone who’s willing to contribute. Most often, the people we support come to us through referrals from other families, school districts, and other agencies, like service providers and case management organizations. Our area has a high number of lower income families, Spanish-speaking families, and some undocumented families. Specific to our undocumented families, the children are able to access academics and are supported through IDEA until 21 years old. But at 21, they are unable to access any services or supports through state or federally funded programs.

How did you establish your relationships with your community partners? Did they previously work with the disability community in this context, or have you engaged in educational efforts with them as well?

We first reached out to the extremely supportive public defender and immigration attorney working on our young man’s DACA status. We quickly found ourselves in a courtroom with a compassionate judge and an assistant district attorney who had clearly never had any people-first language training. I took him to lunch and took the time to learn about him and to share the mission of The Arc of the Central Mountains as well as our intentions of finding solutions in our community. By the end of the lunch, he was asking me if we could do outreach and education for the district attorney’s office (perhaps he didn’t want to be left out because the public defender’s office had already requested the same thing).

We also needed to figure out where our young adults could go for assistance and how to get that assistance paid for. One local disability organization has created a Provider Collaborative, which we work with on a regular basis. The collaborative comes together to determine what gaps are preventing a person from living a self-determined, robust, inclusive, community-based life. All of these individuals came up with strategies for supporting this young man.

To pay for these services, we are working with a community foundation providing grants to mental health providers, DVR is funding the job coach (once the DACA status was back in place), Catholic Charities is contributing, and so is a local autism crisis fund. All of these creative funding sources, along with MANY volunteer hours, have come together to create a truly community-based support system.

Your chapter joined The Arc just over a year ago. Have you found the chapter network useful in your work? How have you utilized it to inform and strengthen your efforts?

In our short life span, we have utilized the chapter network countless times. I use my “life line” with the other Colorado chapters whenever we are faced with something needing extra insights. Additionally, we are grateful to have had the opportunity to develop good foundational relationships with The Arc’s national office in its many areas of expertise, from new chapter relations to rights policy. We are equally as delighted to be a part of NCE, as it has proven to be invaluable from a leadership development aspect as well as continual resource and idea sharing through the listserv.

People with disabilities constitute our nation’s largest minority group, which is simultaneously the most inclusive and the most diverse. How can chapters broaden their outreach to be more inclusive of the various identities that make up the community they serve?

We find that getting out into our communities is very important. We create relationships with parent groups, both in person and on social media platforms. We also build relationships with language inclusive organizations, school districts, local banks and foundations, case management and service providers, and human service departments. Building those foundations is where we find our best success in problem solving and collaboration. We are a small office and cannot do it all—we rely on our connections in the community to be successful. Please feel free to reach out directly to explore ideas at Jill@Arccentralmountains.org.

What do you envision for the future of this initiative and the systems being put in place to support it?

We are slated to continue outreach to several of our local police departments as well as continued education to other county district attorneys and public defender’s offices. We are encouraged by the truly collaborative community-based support outcomes that have resulted from our outreach efforts – especially supporting those who may have eligibility challenges accessing services and supports due to ability levels, language, and citizenship.