“I found in going around the state and meeting with organizations, they didn't want to talk to one another," states Don Melloy of his experience in the late ‘60s and early ‘70s in organizing Arc chapters in Indiana. The original focus of The Arc was to provide programs for children with disabilities excluded from public school. Don found parent groups didn’t always include all children with disabilities. “But they in themselves had barriers in their minds that it wasn't all handicapped children. There was some distinction between degrees of handicap. And those were artificial barriers that kept rising over the many years of development,” explains Don. In addition to talking about The Arc’s early focus on education, Don discusses The Arc’s movement away from sheltered workshops to community employment. Don himself was reluctant when it was suggested his daughter Cindy could have a community job. However, after seeing Cindy thrive in her job, Don said it was the best thing he and his wife ever did in agreeing to let Cindy find a community job. Don discusses hiring John Dickerson as The Arc's executive director. “He had the personality that would challenge the old school all the time.” That is something Don admired about John, even if he didn’t always agree with him. Don says, “You have to have people coming in to any organization that are willing to take a look at it from a different point of view." Don was interviewed in 2017.
Read Don Melloy interview transcript.
