ARC: A Program In Transition

ARC: A Program In Transition
New leadership and greater emphasis on self-determination mark changes in the program for the developmentally disabled. BY VIRGINIA KNAPP Staff Writer CHAPEL HILL - Change is never easy, but the Arc's outgoing executive director, Wendy Trueblood, and her replacement, Mary Justice, are trying to smooth the way as much as possible. "I'm sensitive to the fact that change is hard", Trueblood said. "But this creates a great opportunity for the Arc. And it makes me feel good having a person like Mary in place with the skills and abilities she has. It makes change that much easier". Trueblood, 39, who has led the Arc of Orange County for six and a half years, is leaving the field to which she's devoted her adult life. Justice, a "50-plus" UNC graduate with a history of nonprofit work, is stepping into the post of executive director at the end of the month. "I'm excited about the possibilities ahead, and that's a good feeling to have at any job", Justice said. "There's always going to be things that come up, but you just have to settle in and play it by ear".
The Arc, which provides education, services and advocacy for more than 500 local people with developmental disabilities, has already seen many changes since Trueblood started there, but this latest transition will bring more. "The biggest challenge is that a lot of the community at large doesn't know about the developmentally disabled or ignores their issues", Trueblood said. "And raising funds for what is an unsexy issue is always difficult". Fund-raising and heightened public awareness are the two top priorities for Justice. "The services the Arc provides are solid and they are there", Justice said. "I want to look at things like getting people more aware of the issues of the developmentally disabled and how they can become more involved in making the community a better place for people with developmental disabilities to live". The differences in the two women's backgrounds highlight the shift that the organization is going through. Trueblood, who graduated from N.C. State University with a master's degree in special education, previously worked for the Orange-Person-Chatham program for the developmentally disabled and the Chapel Hill Parks and Recreation Department's program to mainstream special populations. "By far her biggest strength is her great empathy for the population and being a great advocate for the clients. They truly love her a lot", said Lori Ireland, president of the Arc's board Of directors. "She has so much experience and history in the field". Yet Trueblood's lifelong interest in nature and the outdoors is also calling. She is leaving the Arc to pursue a career in environmental resource conservation after a sabbatical. Justice was a political science major at UNC and led several nonprofits in New Mexico for more than 20 years. Her family still lives in North Carolina, however, and she wanted to find a job closer to them. "Mary comes at it from almost the opposite side", Ireland said. "She has far less experience with developmental disabilities, but she has a lot of experience in fund-raising and running larger programs. She will be a real positive for us in the development area". "Wendy has done such a wonderful job of getting the programs, in place, and they are being run really well by the individual program directors we have", Ireland added. "We're really looking for Mary to take the Arc to the next level". Justice said she felt lucky to be coming into an organization that enjoyed such a strong reputation among the developmentally disabled as well as the rest of the community. "What really impresses me is the respect they feel for these people, and the very considerate and the kind way they promote their services", Justice said. That close relationship with both clients and fellow service providers is something that Trueblood said she would miss. The feedback from families helped her last in the executive director's seat for as long as she did, Trueblood said. She said she has surpassed by two years the average length of time served by a nonprofit leader. "What has kept me going is hearing from the letters written by parents or hearing from other staff members the comments that people we serve make about how the Arc has helped them and kept them going when they were just hanging on", Trueblood said. "What I enjoy most is working with the families we serve." Of all the new programs that have come into being, Trueblood said she was most proud of helping start Project: FAST, a program that provides quick assistance to families of children with developmental disabilities when unmet needs arise. It is that type of program that the Arc wants to develop more of. Self-determination helping families and the developmentally disabled choose the services and types of assistance they need -- is a growing movement among service providers for the developmentally disabled. "It's a good time to have someone new come in to see what is going on and what the unmet needs are", Trueblood said. "The Arc is in a really interesting position of continuing to focus on advocacy and being the voice for the developmentally disabled, but also in terms of meeting best practices standards for providing services. "Right now, we offer services that come in these boxes", Trueblood said. "We want to become more economical and efficient with our resources, and if families had more control over what services they choose, we could". Justice said the agency should be able to delve into those larger service issues quickly because its existing programs are already healthy and thriving. "The Arc has a very good reputation, and it's in a very sound condition", Justice said. "I'm lucky coming into a place where there is a strong foundation". "Some of what we want to do is expansion of existing programs; some of it is finding new and better ways to serve that community", she added. "Then we'll be trying to find the funding sources to do all that". Virginia Knapp can be reached at 932-8742 or at vknapp@nando.com