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Morgan to retire after 45 years with ARC Baltimore

Dundalk Eagle - 5/18/2017

Currently, The Arc of Baltimore Dundalk Center serves more than 150 people with intellectual and developmental disabilities. In the decades since it opened, the center has offered a variety of educational, vocational, recreational and social services to thousands of individuals and their families.

One of the people at the center of that work is Arc executive director Stephen Morgan.

For nearly 45 years, Morgan has dedicated his professional life to serving the Arc's clients. On June 30, he will retire from that role.

Morgan's first exposure to individuals with intellectual disabilities was in 1969 when he worked as a counselor at an Arc-run summer camp.

Upon his graduation from UMBC in 1972, Morgan began his career with Arc, serving as a full-time instructor at a child development center. He would go on to serve as a program director before becoming deputy executive director in 1980. He has been Arc's executive director since 1985.

Morgan has overseen many changes to Arc's Dundalk Center during his lengthy tenure. The center, he recalled, was "pretty new" when he first came to Arc.

"It's one of the centers that I've gone to visit regularly," he said. "Over the years I've spent a lot of time there."

The center, he noted, had a swimming pool when it was first built. At that time, the center served 70 to 85 people per day.

In the 1990s, the swimming pool was converted to program space and an addition was added, nearly doubling the size of the facility.

Today, the Dundalk Center, which Morgan called "one of our signature centers," serves more than 150 people with varying degrees of disabilities and needs.

Arc offers programs for clients in three main areas - community living, employment services and support to parents and caregivers of school-aged children.

As part of community living, Arc aids clients in finding a place to live (from small group homes to independent living), learning new skills and participating in recreational and social activities around the community.

The Arc also helps clients prepare for and find employment. Through the Project Search program, Arc offers the chance for special education students in their last year of school to receive vocational training and intern at a variety of jobs.

The aim, Morgan noted, is to "prepare them for working, which is really what most people want."

The Arc also provides caregiver assistance services, parent education and summer camp programs.

Today's treatment of the intellectually and developmentally disabled looks a lot different than it did even 45 years ago when Morgan began his career.

Before organizations like Arc, which was founded in 1949, disabled individuals were often placed into state-run institutions.

"Obviously, it turned out to be not such a great history," Morgan said, noting that such institutions were often over-crowded and run down.

In the 1960s, the tide began to turn as small community homes became the norm.

But students with such disabilities were still not allowed to attend public schools. In fact, Morgan himself started as an instructor for such students in 1972.

In 1975, the passage of the federal "Education for All Handicapped Children" law mandated that all children be allowed to attend public school, paving the way for free, public special education services in schools nationwide.

"Since then, children can and do receive the education and support they need," Morgan said.

Services for adults have also progressed over time, Morgan recalled, noting that, in eras past, adults with intellectual disabilities did not have many vocational opportunities.

That has changed in recent years.

"The emphasis ? on employment opportunities [has] grown," Morgan said.

Today, Arc is also working toward providing clients with greater social opportunities, including the opportunity "to development meaningful relationships, to date, maybe even get married," Morgan explained.

One potential change Morgan is worried about is the "continued funding of the programs."

Currently, the federal government provides matching funds to states to deliver such services under the medicaid waiver program.

If medicaid is capped or blocked entirely, the programs are in danger of ending.

Despite his worries, Morgan is looking forward to his retirement, content in the knowledge that Arc is in good hands.

"The organization is solid, and I'm confident it will carry on," he said.

Morgan, who is staying in the Baltimore area, plans to travel and relax, though he may eventually "dabble in consulting or volunteer work."

For Morgan, he has relished the chance to serve Arc for the past 45 years.

"I enjoyed it from the very beginning, he said, adding, "The people we have served have sustained me."

Follow me on Twitter @Nrodman_Eagle

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