I am pleased to announce that
Berkshire County Arc is celebrat-
ing its 45th anniversaryt this year.
Our agency continues to grow
and to improve its services, and
we are very proud of our long his-
tory of serving individuals with
disabilities. To celebrate this
great event, we will be holding a
special dinner on Wednesday,
May 26, at 7:00 P.M. at the
Crowne Plaza. Guest speaker will
be Gerry Morrisey, Commis-
sioner of theDepartment of
Mental Retardation. I hope
many of you will choose to join us
to help remember some of the sig-
nificant events of the past forty-five
years.
As for the present, everyone at
BCARC is extremely busy and
involved in many projects. This
is the year that all of the residen-
tial programs are up for rebidding
by the Department of Mental Re-
tardation, so we are very busy |
writing proposals and making pre-
sentations. While it presents much
work, it has become an interesting
activity as we are able to review all
of the very positive accomplish-
ments our residential programs
have made during the past few
years. These include downsizing
some of our large programs, cre-
ating supported living situations,
establishing community mapping
plans for the individuals, and mak-
ing significant gains in helping in-
dividuals find better memberhsip in
their communities.
On April 15th, the Department
of Mental Retardation's QUEST
team will be arriving to review all
of Berkshire County Arc's pro-
grams. This evaluation takes place
every two years and involves a team
of DMR staff reviewing the pro-
grams of the individuals we serve
for approximately six weeks. Dur-
ing their visit, they will be talking
with individuals and their families; |
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