Last month, we asked you to help us reach our end-of-year fundraising goal.
Thanks to you, our end-of-year fundraiser was a success! You helped us raise more than $30,000! Every dollar supports our commitment to advocating for, educating, serving, and supporting people with disabilities—a mission we’ve stood by since 1967.
Your donations support the preschoolers getting ready for kindergarten at the Open Door Learning Center; the students from across the region getting an education they couldn’t get anywhere else at the Aurora School; the people exercising and overcoming disabilities at the Ability Fitness Center; the young people getting one-to-one behavior services at the Aurora Behavior Clinic; and the thousands of people every year getting resources, help and hope through the ALLY Advocacy Center.
Most of all, you support our mission to create a just, equitable world for people with disabilities.
“People with disabilities have the same needs as everyone else, and the fact of the matter is, their disability isn’t what disables them—it’s the world we live in that’s not accommodating.” – The Arc of Loudoun Board Member Ross Barchacky
Of course, it’s never too late to join in that work!
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The Arc Packs 150 Sensory Kits—With Lots of Help
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In December we packed up another big batch of sensory kits—and we had some helping hands!
Loudoun County’s Accessibility Services Manager/ADA Coordinator Sahar Behboudifar, pictured above on the right with ALLY Advocacy Center Administrative Director Eileen Shaffer; the Town of Leesburg’s Assistant Town Manager Kate Trask; and officers with the Leesburg Police Department stopped in help our volunteers pack sensory kits!
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What are sensory kits?
People with autism or some other disabilities may be overwhelmed by stimuli in the environment, such as sights, smells, or sounds. The overstimulation can be very stressful and, if it gets to be too much, can sometimes lead to a meltdown which may cause a person to lash out verbally or physically.
Sensory kits are sets of items that can distract, soothe, and encourage focus. Ours include thinks like pop tubes, fidget toys, weighted blankets, chew necklaces and noise-cancelling headphones. They can be helpful for people in all kinds of situations, ranging from sporting events to first responder interactions. And in December, all those helping hands helped us pack 150 kits!
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Feeding Therapy Group Open
The Aurora Behavior Clinic has spots open in the Feeding Therapy Group, co-led by an Occupational Therapist and Speech Language Pathologist.
We offer an hour-long group therapy session once a week, with focuses on concerns such as self-feeding, texture difficulties, or oral motor deficits.
If that doesn’t fit into your family’s schedule, we also offer monthly live and virtual caregiver trainings, as long as live and virtual consultations with our professional staff. Email abc@thearcofloudoun.org to sign up or learn more!
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HHS Seeking Input on Autism Co-occurring Conditions
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The committee that coordinates the federal government’s efforts related to autism is asking for public input.
The Interagency Autism Coordinating Committee is seeking input identifying priorities for conditions that commonly co-occur with autism, including physical health, mental health, and other related conditions. The committee is requesting public comment on their impact, as well as research, services, and policy needs that may be helpful to consider in addressing them. The survey is open until Feb. 14.
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We had three snow days last week! With Martin Luther King Jr. Day falling on Monday of last week, that was a lot of days out of class!
If you’ve ever wondered—our policy is to follow Loudoun County Public Schools on inclement weather at the Aurora School and Open Door Learning Center. So if the school district is closed for snow, so are those programs.
Our other programs and administration make their own calls depending on the situation. So the Aurora Behavior Clinic, Ability Fitness Center and ALLY Advocacy Center may still offer services on days when the public schools are closed. (But in general, if there are dangerous conditions outside, we always want to play it safe!)
If you’re not sure whether a program will be open—as soon as the decision is made on weather-related closures, we post that information on our social media channels and website. If you’re a client of one of our programs, you can also reach out to your point of contact at that program, and you may also get an email letting you know that a program will be closed.
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In December, Kaiyu graduated from the Aurora Behavior Clinic!
Okay, you don’t technically “graduate” from Aurora Behavior Clinic, but Kaiyu’s family decided he’s ready to move on to new things, and gave us permission to share some of his story!
“For the last couple of years, we have been looking into Kaiyu’s next leg of his journey,” they wrote. “Trying sports, and activities that would add to Kaiyu’s growth and allow him to better engage with his contemporaries.”
block ready for your content.
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“His performance over the years is a reflection all the efforts that you and the other clinicians have so diligently worked to bring forward. His social capacity is almost at a neurotypical level, and at times shines above his peers.
His understanding of speech and social behavioral skills have grown in large thanks to all your efforts, and we are truly grateful. I am sure he will miss his interactions with the staff, and with some of the many other children he worked alongside with.”
Kaiyu, we couldn’t be more proud of you! We’re going to miss you!
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ALLY Again Hosts Crisis Intervention Team Training
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The ALLY Advocacy Center once again hosted a day of Crisis Intervention Team training for law enforcement and partner agencies from across the region.
Local, state and federal agencies all send staff to the weeklong CIT training, and one of those days is at The Arc of Loudoun. Attendees tour the Aurora School and the Ability Fitness Center, then go get additional resources and information and hear first-hand perspective and experience from adults with disabilities at the ALLY Advocacy Center.
The training equips first responders and partner agencies with the skills and strategies to respond compassionately and effectively to people in emotional or psychological distress, emphasizing de-escalation techniques, active listening, empathy, and culturally sensitive approaches. It’s a collaboration between The Arc of Loudoun; Loudoun County Mental Health, Substance Abuse & Developmental Health Services; Friends of Loudoun Mental Health; the National Alliance on Mental Illness – Northern Virginia; the Loudoun County Sheriff’s Office and the Loudoun Commonwealth’s Attorney.
This was the 56th class of CIT in Loudoun since it began in 2019!
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What’s it like to be a Behavior Analyst?
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“I’ve been bitten, I’ve been kicked… And even on the hardest of days, when you leave here, people are smiling.”
Before she left, former Aurora School Assistant Principal Dr. Jenna Odeh sat down on camera to explain what the Aurora School does, how the school helps the students do hard things and achieve more, and what it’s like to be a Board-Certified Behavior Analyst (and why she loves it.)
See the videos on our Instagram, Facebook or TikTok!
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The Loudoun Impact Fund, a joint effort of the Community Foundation for Northern Virginia and the Community Foundation for Loudoun and Northern Fauquier Counties granted $116,000 across 15 nonprofits, including The Arc of Loudoun! That brings the fund’s total giving since 2014 to
more than $1 million!
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This year
our Holiday Giving Program distributed gifts to 200 recipients! This year 61 holiday elves donated gifts—but really there were many more, since many of those “elves” were actually groups or families!
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The Loudoun Chamber Foundation awarded $4,000 each to The Arc of Loudoun and eleven other local nonprofits! That’s a total of $250,000 in grants for nonprofits focused on the economy, workforce development, public safety, and wellness in Loudoun!
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The Arc of Loudoun is an equal opportunity employer that is committed to diversity and inclusion in the workplace. We prohibit discrimination and harassment of any kind, whether it regards age, color, disability, ethnicity, family or marital status, gender and gender identity, language, national origin, physical and mental disability, political affiliation, race, religion, socio-economic status, veteran status, and other characteristics that make our employees unique. The Arc of Loudoun makes hiring decisions based solely on qualifications, merit, and business needs.
If you require a reasonable accommodation in the application process, interviewing, or otherwise participating in the employee selection process, to perform essential job functions, and/or to receive benefits of employment, please contact the Human Resources Department at 703-777-1939.
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