Who We Are
Arkay is a well established, community based non-profit [501(c) (3)] organization, assisting the community in becoming more aware of the needs and potential of individuals with Developmental Disabilities and Cognitive Impairment. The organization provides vocational and community based services in Wayne and Oakland County to the Developmentally Disabled and Cognitively Impaired community since 1983. The agency, under the direction of a volunteer Board of Directors, received initial funding from Community Living Services (CLS) to provide vocational services, in a community setting, to over 80 adults experiencing complex mental, physical, and behavioral disabilities. Arkay provides individualized services ranging from vocational evaluations and basic skill development activities to real work opportunities with community employers. It offers services that support the Developmentally Disabled, and indirectly, their caregivers.
Over the years, the agency has dramatically increased the number of people it serves. Currently, we are serving over 400 individuals. Arkay receives its funding through CLS, Consumer Link Network (CLN), Integrated Care Alliance, MORC. And Monroe Community Mental Health Authority. Arkay, also, contracts with Wyandotte & Southgate Special Education Services for students who fit into the inclusive supports afforded by the school system.
Arkay will face a number of new opportunities and challenges over the next few years. Dramatic changes within the Michigan Department Health & Human Services and local mental health programs will continue to have an impact on our agency’s service and fiscal operations. Managed care initiatives at both the federal and state levels will demand even greater changes in the way services are funded and evaluated. Arkay has a strategic future and will continually prepare to face new service demands, fiscal challenges, changing technologies, and new consumer populations. We have a future plan in process. Please come by our offices if you would like to discuss it.
Our Mission
To assist the Developmentally Disabled and the Elderly Disabled to achieve community inclusion that enhances potential, employment opportunities, and / or volunteerism.
Promote
Standards and expectations for people with disabilities have changed. In the early part of the 20th Century, many believed that people with disabilities were best protected and educated in large institutions. At this time, people with disabilities had little say in their own destinies.
Arkay promotes the view that people with disabilities should not be segregated; are entitled to equal opportunity; and are usually able to hold employment and otherwise participate in community living. People with developmental disabilities, their families, and other advocates have worked to enlarge the opportunities and choices available to them by changing our society's beliefs and values. They have insisted, for instance, that they are "people with developmental disabilities"- that is, that they are people first, and that they should be defined by whom they are as individuals rather than by the fact that they have disabilities. Everyone should be able to choose how he or she will live, be accepted by others as an individual, and be included in the activities of his or her community.
Our individualized services ranging from vocational evaluations and basic skill development activities to real work opportunities with community employers as well as our dedicated direct care staff strive to provide employment and skill building opportunities to our consumers that create success stories!
URL: | http://www.miarkay.org/ |
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Related Keywords
- Cognitive Disability
- Developmental Disability
- Employee with a Disability
- Employment
- Independent Living
- Integrated Activity
- Integrated Setting
- Integration
- Job Task
- Job Training
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