Supporting People with Developmental Disabilities During COVID

The COVID-19 pandemic forced many of us to shift our activities to virtual meetings, e-classrooms, live-streamed worship spaces, and more. But what about programs serving people with developmental disabilities? How have those programs shifted to serve clientele, even in residential programs, who have difficulty with many of the necessary COVID safety measures like physical distancing, wearing masks, or engaging virtually?

Recently, the State has earmarked $10 million of the Nonprofit Recovery Initiative for licensed nonprofits providing services to the disability community to help defray costs directly related to the ongoing need to purchase personal protective equipment (PPE) and cleaning supplies in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Despite this new funding stream, challenges remain. We’ve invited a variety of experts to share their insights into the issues providers supporting the developmental disability community are facing during the pandemic, what supports are available, and what gaps remain. The pandemic began during a time of historic change in the developmental disability service system, creating tremendous pressure on community providers. We’ll take time for funders to share information about types of requests they are seeing and what their response has been.

Our speakers will be:

• Kathleen Durkin, The Arc Baltimore;
• Laura Howell, Maryland Association of Community Services;
• Dr. Monica McCall, Creative Options; and
• Cindy Plavier-Truitt, Interim President and CEO, Humanim.

This program is for members of Maryland Philanthropy Network only.