CHAPTER SPOTLIGHT: THE ARC OF DFW AREA

Welcome to our new blog series! Each month, we’ll 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 Julia Chalker, Executive Director of The Arc of DFW Area:

How would you describe The Arc of DFW Area’s community?

“GROWING.  The chapter began in 1971 as The Arc of Birdville, and over the years has morphed into The Arc of Northeast Tarrant County, The Arc Greater Mid Cities, and finally, The Arc of DFW Area. We now cover nine counties encompassing both urban and rural areas, which can be a challenge in developing relationships. We are thankful that technology now allows us to more easily serve more members of our community.”

What programs and services do you provide?

“The Arc of DFW Area does not provide any direct or paid services to individuals with IDD, but we serve this community through information and referral, providing assistance with navigating supports and services, hosting regular training opportunities on important IDD topics (i.e., Medicaid supports, legal rights and options, transition to adulthood, systems advocacy, and special education). We are also proud to support the quarterly A Look Ahead Conference Series and The Self Determination Group, a cross-disability group run by and for individuals with disabilities who work to support the concept of self-determination through education and advocacy.

Our newest initiative is ACE (Action – Collaboration – Engagement: Equipping Advocates to Create Maximum Impact), an advocacy training program launched in January to equip self advocates, family members, providers, and others sharing our mission to participate in systems advocacy at whatever level they are able to.”

What are you most proud of?

“Our Board of Directors, who have been super supportive in helping me transition into my new position as our first paid employee. We have a wonderful mix of members including parents, professionals, self advocates, and siblings, but they also work as financial professionals, a disability rights attorney, an educational advocate, a Special Education teacher, a disability rights advocate, and an experienced grant writer, all with invaluable experience for our organization. 

I’m also very proud that we have already been able to train more than 80 “ACE advocates” who we hope will continue to work with our ACE Action Team or at least advocate on their own with what they have learned.”  

Why is this work important to you?

“I have a younger brother, Bobby, who is 57 and has autism. He is a huge part of my life, and my husband and I just became his guardians, as my mom is 92. Bobby is the reason behind my entering the field of Special Education many years ago and, I believe, how parents and family members know that I truly relate to their experiences, having had this lived experience for so long.

I taught Special Education for a number of years before becoming a Transition Specialist around 2004 when transition planning became a legal mandate as part of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). I retired as Transition Coordinator a year ago from a local school district.  My position as Director of The Arc of DFW Area has allowed me in my “semi-retirement” to continue doing what I am passionate about without all of the not-always-fun school stuff.

I have been passionate about helping prepare individuals with disabilities for the transition to adulthood, with an emphasis on getting parents to understand the need to start this as early as possible, not only because of the long waiting lists for community-based services, but also because anyone can start working on self determination and independence at a very early age.  I am certified in person-centered planning and am a long-time Sibshop facilitator, working with extraordinary young people who are experiencing the good, bad, and in-between of having a sibling with a disability.  

I have served on the board of directors of REACH (Centers for Independent Living) for many years and joined the board of The Arc of DFW Area after The Arc of Greater Mid Cities expanded to my side of the metroplex.”

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

“I have learned how difficult it is to make change happen in Texas. I spend a lot of time, unfortunately, feeling fairly hopeless about things changing for those with disabilities in the State of Texas. I try not to show it and keep telling myself that things DEFINITELY won’t change if we stop fighting. I become incredibly angry about the unfairness of it all and the lack of decency and humanity we see from our state’s decision makers, which I try to constructively channel into my role at The Arc of DFW Area.

I had my first experience in legislative advocacy in 1982, when at age 20 I testified in Austin at a legislative forum on the developmentally disabled. After retiring from education last May, I came across a yellowed copy of my testimony in which I spoke about how the public schools were not able to (and were not required to at that time) educate Bobby, but that he was able to receive services in the community instead of in an institutional setting. That was over 40 years ago, and we are STILL having to advocate for the same issues.”