The Arc of Snohomish County and Community Partners Will Offer Limited Screenings of Award-Winning Caregiving Documentary “Unseen” on September 15, 16 & 17

The Arc of Snohomish County, in partnership with community organizations located statewide, will offer THREE screenings of the newly released and award-winning documentary Unseen.

This documentary film shines a light on the many challenges of caregiving and the physical and mental toll commonly experienced by parents and family caregivers raising children with developmental disabilities with high-support and/or complex healthcare needs.

Virtual screenings will be held on September 15th, 16th and 17th, 2022. Each screening will be followed by a panel discussion featuring parent and family caregivers from across the state, as well as researchers who have focused their work on studying the personal, family and community wide impacts of caregiving. Registration is FREE, but space is limited.

REGISTER USING THE LINKS BELOW:

Thursday, September 15th @ 10 am - 12 Noon

Link to register: https://tiny.one/UnseenThurs

Friday, September 16th @ 6 - 8 pm

Link to register: https://tiny.one/UnseenFri

Saturday, September 17th @ 10 am - 12 Noon

Link to register: https://tiny.one/UnseenSat

More About the Film:

“An estimated 16.8 million people in America are caring for a child with disabilities. Many parent caregivers for children or adults who are disabled or medically complex are exhausted and isolated. Their mental and physical struggle is a public health crisis that costs us all. The ‘Unseen’ documentary gives an unfiltered, honest glimpse into their lives to enable a change for millions of caregivers and their families.

The film follows Jess and Ryan Ronne, a blended family with 8 children, including Lucas, who has profound disabilities requiring total care. Their situation has gotten more and more challenging as Lucas gets older and stronger. With limited resources and support, caregiving takes a toll on their physical and mental health.

It is a common story among parent caregivers: the isolation, uncertainty about the future, lack of options, and a never-ending daily to-do list means the role of caregiver overpowers nearly every other facet of life. Video diaries from diverse caregivers featured in the film illustrate this universality, while interviews with mental health experts and policy/legal advocates provide a broader view on the societal impacts.” Learn more at caregiverdoc.com.

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Whitney Stohr is the Leadership & Independent Living Program Manager at The Arc of Snohomish County. She is passionate about advocating for medically complex children and children with disabilities and their families. She is especially interested in caregiving policy and advocacy. She is a mom and medical caregiver herself, who is energized by working closely with other parent and family caregivers. She lives with her spouse and their four-year-old son Malachi in Lynnwood. Connect with her on Instagram @rollin.w.spinabifida. Contact: whitney@arcsno.org.

Find The Arc on Instagram!!

The Arc of Snohomish County has a new Instagram page!

Find us at the handle @ArcSnohomishLeads.

As the page name suggests, our goal with this new account is to highlight and share news and updates on leadership development opportunities, as well as current advocacy efforts, programs and projects. We look forward to celebrating the community involvement and leadership of our staff members, many of whom play an incremental role in policy change and legislative advocacy at the local, county, state and national level through their connections with The Arc and other disability focused organizations.

We also want to use this page to celebrate YOU! We want to highlight all of the ways that you and your family are involved in local leadership and advocacy. Whether it is at your child’s school, an after-school program, a local nonprofit organization, self-advocacy groups, a state-wide legislative coalition, or anything in between — we want to share it!

If you have a leadership or advocacy story to share, contact Whitney Stohr, Leadership & Independent Living Program Manager, at whitney@arcsno.org.

Week Without Driving Challenge 2022

The 2nd annual Week Without Driving Challenge will be held September 19th ­- 25th, 2022.

The Week Without Driving Challenge is a Disability Mobility Initiative led by Disability Rights Washington (DRW) and co-hosted by various community partners across the state. The challenge invites elected officials and other leaders to forego driving for a full week to better understand the difficulty and challenges of accessing community programs and services, as well as school or work, and other activities when you lack the option of driving.

Participating in this challenge is also one way to raise awareness about the need for affordable, accessible and reliable public transportation and connectivity in city planning that ensures easy access to different modes of transportation.

Anyone can participate in the Week Without Driving Challenge, share their personal experiences and raise awareness about these topics.

Will you commit to a full week without driving?

Sign up to join the #WeekWithoutDriving at tinyurl.com/mvuymc5p.

Why is this important?

As shared on the DRW website: “If you can drive or afford a car, you may not understand what it’s like to rely on walking, rolling, transit and asking for rides. But for nearly a quarter of the people in our state — people with disabilities, young people, seniors and people you can’t afford cars or gas, this is our everyday.”

For individuals with disabilities, “access to transportation is consistently listed as one of the top concerns.” It is important that individuals have accessible, reliable and convenient access to goods and services, programs and places in their communities. However, that is too often not the case. There are far too many transportation barriers that impede access to the community.

Furthermore, it is critical that elected officials understand these issues as access to a vehicle and the ability to independently drive from one place to another is an equity concern. Many individuals do not have a driver’s license and many others lack access to a vehicle. DRW further elaborates on this tie to equity: “Those of us who can’t drive or don’t have access to a car are more likely to be disabled, BIPOC and immigrants. We are also elders and young people, as well as those who can’t afford to own or maintain a vehicle.” (Read more here.)

With a more personal understanding of these issues, elected officials and leaders who take part in the Week Without Driving Challenge can put their new knowledge to use through their legislative work and policymaking and by collaboratively planning vibrant communities that work for everyone.

YOU’RE INVITED TO PARTICIPATE!!

Learn more about the Week Without Driving Challenge at disabilityrightswa.org/programs/disabilitymobility.

Additional Resources:

• Transportation Access for Everyone Storymap — by Disability Rights Washington: org/storymap
• Transportation Access for Everyone: Research Paper Release — by Disability Rights Washington: org/transportation-access-for-everyone-research-paper-release
• First Annual #WeekWithoutDriving Changes the Conversation (November 11, 2021) — by Disability Rights Washington: org/first-annual-week-without-driving-changes-the-conversation

Local News Stories:

• Being Car-Less Means Cold Waits, Long Trips: Its ‘Exhasting’ (November 1, 2021) — published by Everett Herald: com/news/being-car-less-means-cold-waits-long-trips-its-exhausting
• Reader View: A Week Without Driving? For Some, That’s Every Week (October 30, 2021) — by Luke Distelhorst, Edmonds City Council Position 2, published by My Edmonds News: com/2021/10/reader-view-a-week-without-driving-for-some-thats-every-week
• Too Many Sidewalks Aren’t Built for People with Disabilities (November 8, 2021) — published by Everett Herald: com/news/too-many-sidewalks-arent-built-for-people-with-disabilities

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Whitney Stohr is the Leadership & Independent Living Program Manager at The Arc of Snohomish County. She is passionate about advocating for medically complex children and children with disabilities and their families. She is especially interested in caregiving policy and advocacy. She is a mom and medical caregiver herself, who is energized by working closely with other parent and family caregivers. She lives with her spouse and their four-year-old son Malachi in Lynnwood. Connect with her on Instagram @rollin.w.spinabifida. Contact: whitney@arcsno.org.

Self-Advocacy Report: A Summary of Activities and Discussion from the July 2022 Meeting of the Washington State Developmental Disabilities Council

Leigh Spruce, Self-Advocacy Coordinator at The Arc of Snohomish County, serves on the Washington State Developmental Disabilities Council (DDC). She was appointed to membership on the DDC by Governor Jay Inslee in 2021.

The role of DDC is to plan, implement and monitor the State Plan that exists to improve supports and services for individuals living with developmental disabilities and their families. The Council’s mission is to advocate, promote and implement policies and practices to create pathways to meaningful, integrated and productive lives for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities (I/DD) over the life course.

DDC meets on a quarterly basis. Leigh Spruce shares a report each quarter following the statewide meeting. Below is her report on the July 2022 DDC membership meeting.

The Washington State Developmental Disabilities Council met [in July 2022] to interview the final 3 candidates who were being considered for the [DDC] Executive Director position. They were interviewed separately. They were asked about their knowledge of the I/DD community, as well as past experience and life experience with this community as it relates to public policy with state government. Each candidate gave a short presentation on what the I/DD community meant to them. After the interviews, we had a discussion about what we thought of each one. We were able to decide who we liked the best of the three candidates and voted. The candidate will be notified at a later date.

We broke off into working groups to examine what needs to be updated with the criteria regarding DDC and its role pertaining to various meetings and public policy, as well as membership and needed supports for the meetings.

[DDC Policy Director] Adrienne Stuart will be stepping down in her role with the DDC at the end of the month [July 2022]. She gave a final summary on the North Star legislative project

 and hopes that the work that has been done will continue. She was pleased to share that because of it, there were important bills [last legislative session] which supported the I/DD community. We were able to lend our voices to getting some things passed through the legislature.

Since the July 2022 meeting, the DDC announced the hiring of their new executive director Brandi Monts, who brings with her to this position her 23 years of experience working in residential services, employment, government, teaching, advocacy and consulting. Read more about Brandi Monts and her new role at the helm of DDC at tinyurl.com/2us4cdn3.

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Leigh Spruce is a Self-Advocacy Coordinator at The Arc of Snohomish County. In this role she supports engagement activities and leadership and advocacy training for adults with disabilities in Snohomish County and across the Puget Sound region. She serves on numerous community boards and committees and is an engaged activist for disability rights. Contact: leigh@arcsno.org.