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  • Participants who regularly go out in the community

    89%

  • Hours spent in the community

    20,000

  • Volunteers

    125

  • Program Participants

    300

Founded in 1948, The Arc of Philadelphia, through its volunteer board, staff and membership has led the way in protecting the rights of and promoting opportunities for children and adults with disabilities by advocating with and for all children and adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities and their families to promote active citizenship, self-determination and full inclusion. The Arc of Philadelphia affiliated with The Arc of Pennsylvania and The Arc of the United States and is a member of the SpArc Philadelphia family of organizations.

The Arc of Philadelphia’s mission is to advocate with and for all children and adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities and their families, to promote active citizenship, self-determination, and full inclusion.

 

The Rights of People with Cognitive Disabilities to Technology and Information Access

People with cognitive disabilities have an equal right to technology and information access. A coalition of disability organizations and individuals asserted this right in a formal declaration, announced at the Thirteenth Annual Coleman Institute National Conference on Cognitive Disability and Technology, held October 2, 2013, in Broomfield, Colorado.

We invite all of you to read this declaration, The Rights of People with Cognitive Disabilities to Technology and Information Access, and to affirm your commitment to the equal rights of people with cognitive disabilities to technology and information access by endorsing it on the website.

 

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Students and Program Participants Work Together to Dream Up New Green Space

byGwyn Garrison

We are thrilled to have a partnership with the Thomas Jefferson University Landscape Architecture program to help us design a new outdoor space at SpArc. Students from a studio class are working on models of the space, based on feedback from stakeholders at SpArc.

Most recently, the students worked with program participants to learn about what they want in the new space. Participants and students worked together on activities including collage, drawing, writing, and verbal expression to discern the participants' vision for the green space.

Some ideas for the space from participants included – park benches, a basketball court, bird baths, a stage, a walking path, even a pond!

At the next planning session, the students will work with models of the space that participants can add to and shape with clay representations of their ideas. 

The project will culminate in an end-of-semester review of student models of the prospective space, which will be presented to key Thomas Jefferson University and SpArc stakeholders.