Excerpts

Supporting Individuals with Developmental Disabilities and Their Families

The Other Six Days

The life outcomes experienced by people with developmental disabilities offer a challenge to faith communities to respond in new, inspired, and meaningful ways, as well as an opportunity for faith communities to improve life outcomes for these individuals. Too many children and adults remain disconnected from others in their communities; experience lives of poverty; or lack the resources, opportunities, and supports to pursue and attain personally important goals (e.g., Gardner & Car- ran, 2005; Park, Tumbull, & Turnbull, 2002). Yet, many congregation members are simply not aware of the needs of people with disabilities and their families, as well as the many ways that they—both individually and collectively as a faith community—might offer support. The potential for congregations to dispense grace, extend relationships, and affect the lives of people with developmental disabilities and their families is enormous, but these rich and deep reservoirs of support remain largely untapped.

How can you be responsive to the needs of people with developmental disabilities and their families in your congregation, neighborhood, and city? What can you do to help people with disabilities participate more fully within your congregation and in the wider community? Congregations are still discovering all that is possible. This chapter describes both ordinary and creative ways that congregations might reach out to meet the needs of children and adults with developmental disabilities and their families. Congregations usually want to be responsive, but often lack direction; service providers desire to engage people in their communities, but frequently lack natural partnerships with members of those communities; and families may hold great hopes for their congregation, but remain unsure of how to invite their involvement and ask for their support. The purpose of this chapter is to 1) challenge congregations to grasp hold of a vision for how they might participate in meeting the needs of their neighbors with developmental disabilities; 2) help service providers recognize new avenues for partnering with congregations to promote community inclusion throughout the week; 3) and stimulate people with disabilities and their families to consider the source of support their congregation could be in their lives and to communicate their needs. Consider the many ways in which you might affect the lives of people with disabilities—not just on the days when they enter your building—but throughout the rest of the week.