Training

The Challenge of the Challenge

Our first publication, welcome to the Challenge of the Delaware County ARC was written in 1992 and has been a big hit within our organization and with many folks across the country. It has sold out and been reprinted several times. Earlier this year as we were preparing for another reprint we decided we needed to do more than simply reprint it.

Since 1992 many changes have occurred in our field and in our organization and these needed to be included in The Challenge. Since then we have written one other book, Shift Happens…Making The Arc of Delaware County Shift to Proactive Behavior Management and a monograph, Vantage Point, a Dynamic approach to Employee Orientation. These needed to be referred to in The new Challenge because it is the first book our employees read.

In terms of changes in the field like the term Intellectual Disability vs. Mental Retardation, and the concept of person centeredness were not around in 1992. They too needed to be included in the new publication.

Using The Challenge

It took several months to complete the rewrite and printing. When it was delivered our first instinct was to give every staff member a copy. Our fear though was two fold. First we did not want to hand it out and have it sit on shelves. It is an important read. Secondly we wanted to make sure our leaders were well aware of the changes so they could refer to it, be able to answer questions about it and determine how best to introduce it to their existing staff who have all read the original.

So we have held off on distributing to staff while our leaders read it, let me know what they think of it, ask any questions they may have and finally determine how they will use it in their departments. That is currently underway. Once I hear form them and they are prepared, books will be distributed to all existing employees. In terms of new employees, we will keep our practice of having them read The Challenge within their first week of employment.

Obtaining copies

The Challenge of Caring Without Restraint is now available for purchase through our web sites: www.delarc.org or www.shifthappens.tv . Get your copy today.

Happy reading!