We assist people with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD) get what they need when they need it through advocacy. We also offer solutions-focused training and tools that change knowledge, attitude, and behavior to improve the quality of life for people with IDD.
Education
Adults
Children and Youth (infants - 19 years.)
Crime/ Abuse Victims
Disabled
People/Families with of People with Developmental Disabilities
THINK+change is a social enterprise of The Arc of Aurora that brands the training and education work of The Arc of Aurora. THINK+change allows us to expand and refine our training and education outreach, all to benefit people with intellectual and developmental disabilities.
Education is the least intrusive form of advocacy, which The Arc of Aurora has been doing successfully for more than 40 years. The past nearly fifteen years have seen the organization focusing on training and education about the incidence, prevalence and impact of crime victimization of people with intellectual and developmental disabilities. Anecdotes from trainees appear in the "Testimonial" section on our site page. We have successfully hosted more than 25 trainings over the years and have an email list of more than 1000 people interested in receiving information about future trainings.
Civil Rights, Social Action & Advocacy
Adults
Children and Youth (infants - 19 years.)
Females, all ages or age unspecified
Males, all ages or age unspecified
People/Families with of People with Developmental Disabilities
The Arc of Aurora provides individual and systems change advocacy to assist people with developmental disabilities and their families to obtain the services and supports they need to live a full and inclusive life.
The Arc of Aurora keeps aggregate data on who calls us (in relation to the person with a developmental disability), the type of disability the person in need of advocacy support has, whether the person in need is an adult or child, whether we provided information and referral or opened an advocacy case, and who referred the caller to us. Too, advocates track both open and closed cases. Our advocacy agreements enable us to focus our work on behalf of the client to meet his/her individual need as well as to identify (with the client) when that need is met.
Anecdotally, we know we are successful from feedback similar to this:
"... I REALLY want to thank you for the professional yet compassionate, good, realistic advice you showed me in our phone call ..."
" Our family is so grateful for The Arc of Aurora and all you do!"
" She {the advocate} was an excellent advocate for {our son} and had extensive knowledge regarding his rights as well as the rights we as parents had. I could not help to observe that the other side also had the highest respect for {the advocate} and the work she is doing. I felt that she went above and beyond of what was expected of her ..."
