Chapter Spotlight: The Arc of McLennan County

This post is a part of our blog series where we periodically feature one of our local chapters to help you get to know our network. Member chapters provide supports, services, and/or programming to meet the needs of their region and help people with IDD live and engage in their communities. 

An interview with Coleen Gantt Heaton, Executive Director of The Arc of McLennan County:

How would you describe The Arc of McLennan County community?

“Our community is active, welcoming, and always evolving. The Arc of McLennan County has been part of this community since 1954, but we never want our long history to become an excuse for doing things simply because “that’s the way we’ve always done them.” At the heart of everything we do are three words: Advocate. Relate. Create. We want people with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD) to have meaningful choices, meaningful relationships, and meaningful opportunities to contribute to their community. One of my favorite things about The Arc of McLennan County is that our participants are not just in the community; they are increasingly becoming recognized for what they contribute to the community. They volunteer, work, create, lead, serve, build relationships, and make a difference.“

What programs and services do you provide?

“Our Opportunity Center provides weekday programming for adults with IDD, volunteer through Meals on Wheels and other community projects, develop vocational and independent-living skills, participate in internships and work experiences, and take part in creative and entrepreneurial opportunities. Our Aktion Club, in partnership with Kiwanis, has become an especially important part of our work. Members have opportunities to lead and serve their community through projects such as park cleanups and other volunteer activities. We want adults with IDD to be seen not only as recipients of community service, but as community volunteers and leaders themselves. We are also continuing to develop workforce opportunities through The Arc Works, expand arts and entrepreneurship opportunities, and develop an Efficiency Apartment Training Space where adults can practice the everyday skills involved in living more independently. Our work continues to grow because we listen to the people we serve and ask what the next opportunity can be.”

What are you most proud of?

“I am most proud of the change in expectations. There is a tremendous difference between keeping someone busy and helping someone discover purpose. I see that change when our participants go to work, deliver Meals on Wheels, clean a community park, lead an Aktion Club meeting, create something they are proud to sell, learn a new skill, or speak for themselves in a room where someone else might once have spoken for them. I am also incredibly proud when the community begins to recognize their contributions. Inclusion is not simply inviting someone into the room. It is creating a community in which people are known, valued, expected to contribute, and missed when they are not there.“

What have you learned during your time with the organization that might surprise some people?

“One of the biggest things I have learned is how often the barrier is not the disability. The barrier can be our expectations, our systems, our schedules, or our assumptions about what someone can do. People with IDD do not need us to manufacture meaningful lives for them. They need access, opportunity, support, expectations, and people willing to listen to what they want their lives to look like. I have also learned that meaningful inclusion sometimes requires those of us in professional roles to get out of the way. Our job is not to be the main character in someone else’s story. It is to help make sure they have the tools and opportunities to write their own.“

What are some details about you and your professional and personal experience?

I have worked alongside people with disabilities and their families since 1993, and I became Executive Director of The Arc of McLennan County in 2023. More than three decades in this field have given me the opportunity to see disability services change tremendously, but they have also reinforced some very simple truths for me. People want purpose. They want relationships. They want choices. They want to contribute. They want the dignity of being expected to grow, and allowed to grow. As Executive Director, I am fortunate to work with an incredible group of participants, families, staff members, volunteers, board members, businesses, and community partners. I am constantly looking for the next connection or opportunity that can open another door for the people we serve. I believe strongly in community, in figuring out how to make things work with what you have, and in leaving things better than you found them. 

Is there anything else you’d like to share?

“The Arc of McLennan County may have been founded more than 70 years ago, but we are very much looking forward. We want our community to know people with IDD as coworkers, artists, volunteers, neighbors, customers, leaders, friends, and contributing members of the community. Our goal is not simply to create a great disability organization. It is to help create a community where people with disabilities have genuine opportunities to build the lives they choose. That is what Advocate. Relate. Create. means to us, and we are excited about where it is taking us.”