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Welcome to Disability
Advocates and Resource Center,
lighting the path to
independence for all.
Serving Pitt, Beaufort, and
Wilson Counties.
Helen: Hi, I am Helen
Pace, Executive Director of
Disability Advocates and
Resource Center and our acronym
for that is DARC.
So, if you hear people talk
about DARC, it is us.
We are located at 702 A Johns
Hopkins Drive, here in
Greenville.
We would like to invite
everybody to come over to our
facility and join us and see
what we can do to help you in
the community, for you to have
a more independent life.
Male 1: First of all, DARC
means to me Disability
Advocates and Resource Center.
And that is what we need to
become, the advocates for
persons with disabilities.
Female 1: Our goal is to
help all persons with all types
of disabilities to live as
independent of life as they
possibly can.
We will have consumers that
will call our office that are
either newly released from the
hospital, could be living with
their disability for several
years and maybe need some
advocacy or peer mentoring or
even referrals for medical
equipment.
Male 2: DARC will help
the individual consumer try to
become more independent in
their every day life skills if
they are disabled, with
transportation, housing needs,
we can help research what is
available in housing.
We can also research
transportation needs if they
don't have transportation.
We do referrals in these
areas.
We also do independent living
skills.
If they have a particular type
of skill they need more
improvement on, whether it be
self help, cooking,
educational, computer,
budgeting.
Whatever they need we can take
a look at it.
If we can't provide it then
maybe we can refer it to
another source.
Female 2: It's a place for
advocacy for your different
issues, whether it would be
with your healthcare or your
job or something to do with
your specific case with your
disability, but it is not just
that they are advocating for
you, they are helping you learn
to advocate for yourself, so
that you can learn how to best
help yourself in what you need.
Male 3: We serve all
types of disabilities, from
physical to developmental,
vision impairments, hearing
impairments, any type of
disability that you can think
of.
Male 4: DARC means to me
service of the community of
those in need.
Our organization is nonprofit.
We are not here to turn
numbers over or to see the most
people.
We are here to help who needs
to be helped, no matter what.
That is what DARC means to me.
Female 1: Basically my
job here is to peer mentor
individuals that come in that
may either need help as far as
advocacy and talking about
their disability or may be
going through a rough time in
their life and just need
somebody that can kind of
relate to what they're feeling
and what they are going
through.
Male 3: I did not
have the privilege of having an
organization such as DARC and
if I had it would have come in
handy in multiple situations.
The first one I can think of
is back when I was in school,
dealing with IEPs, individual
education plans.
I fought with the school
systems multiple times over
those.
I would want it one way, they
would want it another.
Having to meet in the middle
was not always pretty.
Another aspect I can think of
is when I got my driver's
license.
That was a huge obstacle to
overcome and if I had had an
organization such as DARC they
could have told me about
vocational rehabilitation,
which I didn't know about at
the time, that could have
helped me with the process of
getting my driver's license.
Somewhere like DARC could have
helped me with transitioning
from high school, because I
went to a tiny tiny high school
where my graduating class was
20, to ECU where you have got
thousands.
So, they could have helped me
with the transition of small
town to welcome to Greenville.
Then transitioning even from
college life into the work
field.
So, it would have been very
very helpful.
Helen: We really have a
lot of services to provide.
We have benefit specialists
here on staff that do a great
job with peoples' income when
they are getting SSI or
Medicaid, Medicare, and she
does a wonderful job with
advocating and making sure that
the consumers get the benefits
that they are entitled to.
Female 4: I am here to
help any individuals that are
having difficulty, you know,
just working through the
system.
It might be with the
Department of Social Services,
or with Social Security, or the
Medicare system.
They are getting letters and
they don't understand, or they
don't know where to turn.
Or they do have a child with a
disability and they are not
sure whether to file for
disability for that child.
I can maybe shed some light
and give them some information
and try to help them with those
issues.
Male 4: I sustained a
motorcycle injury when I was
26-years-old.
I woke up not able to move.
My arm had been ripped off my
body and was put back in place.
I wouldn't move that.
It is just a very helpless
feeling.
The nurses at the hospital
were very great but at the same
time I didn't know what was
going on.
So to have someone come in and
explain things to me a little
better would have been a little
helpful.
The obstacles really,
physically for me, were just
working through the physical
part, getting my body back to
work as my spinal cord
regenerated and came back.
I was able to get most of my
function back which I was very
grateful for.
The obstacles came after the
discharge from the hospital.
What next?
What now?
I attacked physical therapy
and vocational therapy with all
my energy.
What next when that is done?
When that year or two is done,
then what am I going to do?
Then you need to be active in
your community.
That is where DARC will come
in.
Helen: We provide the
four core services of
information and referral, peer
mentoring, advocacy, and
independent living skills
training.
We are building a nice lab
here at the office for people
to come in and be able to
access the internet, work with
a CCTV for the visually
impaired, to be able to learn
how to use a computer.
We can teach you how to get
started, maybe how to have a
Facebook or an email account if
you don't have one at home, and
other equipment as we speak.
So we are going to have a nice
lab for the consumers to come
in and use.
Male: Either
through a brain injury or a
spinal cord injury or some sort
of accident that leaves you
disabled to a point that it
affects one or more lifestyle
qualities, in other words your
ability to dress yourself, feed
yourself, cook for yourself, in
other words remain independent.
The first thing we are going
to do is we will have somebody
over at the hospital before you
ever are released, to explain
to you just how your life has
changed and what you are going
to have to expect, what is
going to be happening, not just
physically but mentally,
spiritually.
There will be somebody over
there to talk to you.
We will then have you come
here when you are able, and we
will walk you through the
process of how to apply for
Social Security, how to apply
for Medicaid if it pertains,
how to get the services you
need and the places you need to
go to get those services.
We will help you with your
employer if necessary.
We won't actually contact your
employer but we will help give
you the tools you need to be
able to discuss with your
employer how your disability
may change how you do your job.
That is what DARC dose.
Helen: We have a nice
brochure here that tells who
and what we are.
In the back is a donation
form.
So if you would like to send a
donation, and we use our
donations to help consumers in
time of need when they need
durable medical equipment and
they can't afford it.
We do have the medical locker.
But also, for other emergency
situations.
Say they need to pay a deposit
on housing, if they don't have
any housing.
We can help kick in some money
to help pay for that deposit or
whatever.
If they need a lift chair and
their co-pay is way more than
they can afford we kick in and
help with that feature.
So, anything that we can do to
help someone else when they
can't help themselves is
something that we just really
like to do.
Male 1: Our goal, or my
personal goal when I started
the independent living center
out of my home was that one day
we would be a one stop shop for
persons with disabilities and
families of persons with
disabilities and employers of
persons with disabilities, that
that would denote for them you
come to us and we will help you
solve your problems for you to
live as independently as you
chose to.
Helen: I love the staff
here.
I love the consumers.
I just have a passion for
working with people.
Sometimes when they can't help
themselves and we can step in
and help them get the services
they need, it just makes a
great day at the end of the day
when you feel like you've just
done even a little bit for
someone and they appreciate it.
We are located at DARC,
702 A Johns Hopkins Drive,
Greenville, NC 27834.
We can be reached at
252-355-6215, or 888-541-7227.
For additional information
please visit www.darcnc.org.