On February 2, 2015, Dungarvin New Mexico officially started providing services to 37 adults and 100+ children age birth to three years in Gallup, New Mexico. Dungarvin assumed the operations of DSI, a service provider in Gallup since 1973 when the organization was formed by Peace Corps volunteers.

DSI, a valued service provider in the Gallup, New Mexico area, asked Dungarvin for assistance due to financial difficulties. Last fall, DSI and Dungarvin entered into a management agreement, which led to Dungarvin officially assuming operations in February. DSI’s goal was to assure the continuity of services to the people they served and to allow the people to remain in their community. Most of the people served by DSI have resided in the Gallup community or in the surrounding Zuni and Navajo reservation areas for many years. They live, work, and belong to the fabric of their local community.

The operations assumed by Dungarvin included Supported Living Services, Independent Living, and a Family, Infant, and Toddler (FIT) program. People were provided a Freedom of Choice opportunity to select a different provider if they desired. Dungarvin and the management of DSI were pleased that the vast majority of people elected to keep Dungarvin as their service provider. Dungarvin was also able to maintain employment for the majority of DSI staff. While some positions changed, many employees remained in virtually the same positions. Again, this provided stability and continuity of services.

Change is always difficult, but Dungarvin and DSI worked hard to assure that this change and transition caused the least amount of disruption and hardship for the people in services. Dungarvin looks forward to continuing the DSI commitment to being a part of the Gallup, New Mexico community.

In addition to the array of services offered to adults through the New Mexico Medicaid Waiver Program, Dungarvin was pleased to assume the Early Intervention Services Program. The Early Intervention Program is part of the Family Infant Toddler (FIT) Program of the New Mexico Department of Health.

The Early Intervention staff members provide services to children who have, or are at risk for, developmental delays, and they also offer supports to their families. These in-home or community based services support a child’s learning and development during the important development period from birth to three years of age. Early intervention personnel offer families or caregivers ideas and strategies intended to promote the child’s development through daily activities and routines. All services and supports are driven by an Individualized Family Service Plan (IFSP) that is unique to the family and child and based on their expressed concerns and needs. Dungarvin currently serves 90-100 families throughout McKinley County including the Navajo and Zuni Reservations. As an additional benefit of these services, parents gain experience as advocates for their own children and are better able to navigate through the school system.

In addition to taking over the DSI services described above, Dungarvin also assumed the “Open Studio/Outsider Gallery” project, an unusual but very successful employment service offered by DSI since 2001. The project includes an Artists-in-Residence program, which provides five people in services with studio space and support from local artists to create original artwork for display, exhibit, and sale. The artists participating in the project must be true “outsider artists”, a term meaning that they are self- trained artists who developed their forms of artistic expression apart from mainstream society and typically based on institutionalization or other isolating circumstances. The Open Studio painters and jewelers receive technical assistance and support, but not lessons or instruction, from the mentors.

The Open Studio artists’ work is exhibited and sold alongside the work of other well-known local artists at the Outsider Gallery. The painters have exhibited their work at various regional art venues and in juried outsider art shows as far away as Massachusetts. As an additional benefit, the Open Studio/Outsider Gallery provides a community inclusive setting for the artists in residence, who have developed peer relationships with the many other local artists who often gather at the Outsider Gallery during studio hours and during Gallup’s increasingly busy Arts Crawl.

Click for more information about the Open Studio/Outsider Gallery. You may also view additional information in Folk Art Messenger’s spring 2014 article. Please contact Ellen Bilodeau in Dungarvin New Mexico (Gallup) if you’d like obtain a copy.

Most of us love working with the individuals we serve because we enjoy seeing the gains in independence and skill acquisition as goals are achieved and outcomes realized. With some individuals, we develop relationships that while professional in scope, become quite personal in our concern, involvement and genuine affection for them as a person as well as an individual receiving services.

Greg has been served by Dungarvin for almost 20 years. He currently lives in a supported living setting with a housemate. Over time, he built up his independent living skills and developed sufficient decision making and problem solving skills that he no longer required 24 hour supervision. He enjoy a variety of social activities in the community from ‘ghost hunting’ with community members at local ‘haunts’, shopping at the farmer’s market in the summer, and walking the beach at the Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore. Greg has a devilish sense of humor, is a great cook, and loves shooting pool and playing table games with his friends.

Greg with his pet rat, “Kitty”

Last year Greg began to lose weight at an alarming rate and soon was diagnosed with cancer. He has undergone many rounds of chemo therapy and has had dozens of changes in medications, countless medical appointments and treatments. He’s had two surgeries. When Greg is asked how he’s doing, he usually says, ‘I have good days and not so good days’. On his good days he still enjoys eating out or a walk if he has the strength. On his not so good days, he may stay in and play with his pet rat Kitty (did I mention Greg’s sense of humor?). Greg doesn’t have family, so he relies on his Dungarvin staff to provide both the personal care he needs during his current serious illness and the emotional support that enables him to cope with the stress, fatigue and anxiety he experiences at times.

Greg’s indomitable spirit helps him face the discomfort, pain and nausea of treatment with courage and frequently a smile, but Greg’s staff are his constant companions on both ‘good’ and ‘not so good’ days. They help him deal with the physical reality of loss of skills and independence he worked so hard to achieve. They support him when he gets low and begins to wonder what might happen in the future. None of us know what the outcome of treatment will be for Greg, but we know that we will be with him through it all, every step of the way.

Greg with his pet rat “Kitty”

Working with Greg, we are reminded that while we come into this line of work for the joy of seeing individuals thrive in services and stay because we are committed to their success, we also must take the ‘not so good’ days with the good days. On those ‘not so good’ days, we must look deep into our own reserves of strength and humor to cope with the pain of seeing the individuals for whom we have come to care so much experience the worst that life can throw at us all.

When Miriam V. found out that people go to the Capitol to fight for (advocate) funding for programs, staff, and people who need supports, she wanted in!

Miriam called me to schedule a meeting at our office to learn more about advocacy, and explained to me that she and her friend, Anthony B., someone who also participates in residential supports with Dungarvin, wanted to talk to the politicians to request help for people who “don’t have homes” and the staff, who “don’t make enough money and have to work other jobs and it’s not fair”.

On Wednesday, February 11th, Miriam arrived at the Capitol ready to move mountains armed with no more than her “go-getter” attitude, Anthony, and their staff, Melissa Ganesh and Andrea Laudano. She listened during public hearings, and then we walked around the Legislative Office Building to find the legislative offices. Wherever we pointed out a legislator, Miriam would walk over and share with them the plight of her “friends at school who don’t have funding like me to live in a good home with staff”. She told the legislators how tough the lives of her staff are and how hard it is to take care of their children and pay their bills with the low pay they earn.

Meeting Jay Case and John Hampton

All of the legislators were eager to talk to Miriam and Anthony. They commended their advocacy work and encouraged them to keep on talking about these issues with other legislators. We were able to take photos with House Representatives Jay Case, John Hampton, and Noreen Kokoruda, and Senator Beth Bye.

Meeting Beth Bye

During our lunch break in the Legislative building cafeteria we were talking to the new DDS Commissioner, and Miriam noticed the Governor trying to unobtrusively carry his lunch tray to a table filled with aides and security. Miriam called out to Governor Malloy and dashed through the sea of visitors and legislators congregating in the already overcrowded room. As Malloy’s aide approached and security looked on, Miriam tugged at his suit sleeve told him about her friends and requested a photo. He graciously posed for a photo with Miriam before slipping off to his security and support team.

Miriam and Governor Malloy

That day, Miriam was joined by more than a hundred members of a grass-roots advocacy group, Our Families Can’t Wait! (OFCW), and the local healthcare union, New England Health Care Employees’ Union 1199NE/SEIU, and delivered more than 2,500 signatures to Governor Malloy and the Appropriations Committee co-chairs.

More than 2,000 individuals and families are on the DDS waiting list with little hope of accessing the residential placements they need. Too many direct care workers at DDS-funded nonprofit agencies are making shamefully low wages and too many have gone without raises for eight years. Community-based nonprofit agencies are at risk of closing more programs for people with I/DD due to inadequate state funding. We understand that these are challenging times, but we’re calling upon the legislature to prioritize funding for people with I/DD and the families, direct care workers and provider agencies who support them; and Miriam and Anthony will be some of the individuals leading the way.

Our hope is that more individuals join Miriam and Anthony to defend their right to happy, robust lives much of which depends on the supports agencies such as Dungarvin provide. It was an exciting day and we are all looking forward to the next rally!

Resourceful and determined describes Nathan P.

It was not long after Nathan heard that Garth Brooks was going to be in concert in Tulsa, Oklahoma, that he starting making arrangements to go to the first of three performances. He loves concerts and goes to many, but when the concert was out of town, it presented additional challenges. Knowing he had the funds for it, he let his Program Director know that he wanted to go. His Program Director agreed and told Nathan to work on a plan. And that he did. He asked our Office Manager to go on-line to purchase his ticket, and  called various staff until he found someone willing to drive him to Tulsa. He was set. To be even more prepared, Nathan got a nice haircut, put on his best clothes and  accessorized with his his recently won medals from Special Olympics.  As the cherry on top, he packed a picture of Garth and him at Special Olympics from several years prior.  He was off!

Nathan had a plan for the picture and those medals. He was determined to get Garth’s attention so he could autograph the photo.  But his determination got him something even more spectacular. During the concert, Nathan tried a couple of times to get next to the stage in order to get Garth’s attention. After being escorted gently back to his high level seats by security, it was on his third attempt that Garth saw the picture during a song and said, “That’s in Stillwater!” Garth walked over and took the picture from Nathan, held it up, and showed it to the world. When he returned the picture to Nathan, Nathan removed his newly won medals and handed them to Garth. As Garth continued to sing, he removed his hat and placed the medals around his neck. Garth then unplugged his guitar, handed it to security and directed them to give it to Nathan!

Nathan was seen on the local news holding up the guitar with a giant smile on his face. For Nathan, things could not have been better. He was in the limelight and it was not long before Nathan was in the local papers and on YouTube. However, that excitement would not last long.

After Nathan returned home safely, a friend and he decided to go to a local casino. Nathan had lost the keys to his apartment, so he decided to put the guitar in the trunk of his friend’s car so that  it would not get stolen. Nathan likes to have fun and it is sometimes difficult to pull him away from that fun.  After a few hours of fun, and after badgering Nathan for a while to leave, his friend decided to go home without him. The next morning, when Nathan called his friend to get his guitar, the friend said that it was stolen and he did not know where it was. Nathan immediately called the police and then called his staff and Program Director. The investigation began.

After multiple phone calls were made, the fact finding endeavors failed and still, no guitar. In the meantime, Nathan had contacted a local news station and they were on their way to get Nathan’s story. It was during the interview that Nathan’s friend called and confessed that he had pawned the guitar for gas money. As arrangements were being made to retrieve the guitar, there was a spark of excitement from the reporter and he asked if he could come along. The reporter followed the entourage to his friend’s apartment where another car joined the caravan to the pawn shop. The friend had the pawn ticket in hand. Nathan’s friend was scared and was very apologetic for his actions. Having pawned the guitar for a mere $30, he did not realize the importance of it. As the reporter was getting the camera ready, Nathan and his friend walked into the pawn shop. With a promise from his friend to return the money Nathan paid to get Garth’s guitar back, Nathan walked out of the pawn shop, looked at the camera, held up the guitar and said, “Got It!!”

Nathan immediately made arrangements for his father to get the guitar for safe keeping. He told the reporter that he wanted to get Garth to sign the guitar. In his determination to get that autograph, Nathan has contacted The Ellen Show and The Today Show in hopes to regain Garth’s attention. It’s a long shot, but knowing Nathan and his persistence and determination, I place my bets on Nathan getting that autograph.