Busy all year ’round
EDITOR’S NOTE:
This is one in a series of outreach columns from the Champaign County Board of Developmental Disabilities.
At the Champaign County Board of Developmental Disabilities, we provide valuable services and support to people with disabilities in the community all year round.
Although our employees work all year to ensure people with disabilities are receiving the services they need to live and work in Champaign County, summer does bring a few new opportunities for our Board to get involved in the community. For the fifth straight summer, our Board has partnered with the Champaign Family YMCA and Champaign Residential Services, Inc. to provide a camp experience to eligible children in the area. These students with disabilities are supported by trained providers to participate in activities along with typical peers at a week-long YMCA day-camp.
An invisible service in need of help
By Blythe Alspaugh
Jeremy Holsing, left, packs food in bags for a local student in need with his DSP, Kyle Casey. Holsing volunteers through the Backpack Program at First United Church of Christ, in Troy.
PIQUA While there’s a current shortage of help for those with disabilities, Bobby Pritchard and Jason McCabe don’t seem to notice.
“Things are good. She’s been checking up on us almost every day,” Pritchard said. “She’s helping us out very good.”
“She” is Joan Haney, Pritchard and McCabe’s primary direct support professional (DSP), who has been working with them for 10 years and 16 years respectively. As a DSP, Haney helps the two with tasks such as grocery shopping, laundry, cooking and paying their bills. Currently, Haney is on medical leave and while she does still check in on the two, her husband has been helping with some of the tasks she normally does. Pritchard and McCabe’s families have also stepped in to h