Transcript:

Hi.  My name is Sandra Edge and I’m the Deputy Director of Albany ARC which stands for Albany Advocacy Resource Center.  Albany ARC provides services for about 1200 people in 14 counties, and our services are unique in that we provide services really from birth to death.  We’re very unusual in that we have 14 different programs ranging from early intervention to SOURCE, which is a program that supports people or helps people stay out the nursing homes.  But we run a residential program, we run an adult day care, the whole gamut of services, whatever is needed in this area to wrap around a person with a disability’s life.

If you’re a person with a disability you may not need just one service.  You need to be able to function and live in this community which means being a part of the community.  We’re very, very committed to integrating and including people with disabilities into the community.  So we’re not about saying oh, we’re the provider who can protect people with disabilities; we know what we’re doing and you don’t.  We’re about helping people, supporting them maybe physically, emotionally, in whatever way they need, but also helping them to become a member of the community.

So our goal isn’t for people to live in isolated settings.  It’s for them to be in typical neighborhoods, participating in typical activities, and having you as their neighbor, me as their neighbor, so that we’re a welcoming community for people.  You know, we believe that everybody belongs in the community and that’s where people function the most or the best and that’s where you thrive.  The biggest disability, I believe, is loneliness and that goes for everyone.  It doesn’t matter who you are.  Loneliness is the biggest disability.  

If you’re a person with a disability and you don’t have any friends and you don’t belong to the community, you’re even more disabled and you’re more isolated.  So Albany ARC really works hard to support you in the community and to make sure you become a part of the community, and I think that’s how we’re very unique.

For more information, you can call our office, our main office on Point North Boulevard, and that number is 229-888-6852; and our website is www.albanyarc.org.