Grantee Spotlight – The Arc of Greater Williamsburg Improves Quality of Life
By: WHF Staff
The Arc of Greater Williamsburg has served adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities in our community since 1976. When young adults with disabilities age out of public school at age 22, they often find a gap in services. Through their many programs and activities, The Arc aims to reduce this gap and enhance the quality of life for their clients in the Greater Williamsburg Area. These activities include educational, health and wellness, life skills, cultural, social, and recreational enrichment programs to help clients reinforce their existing skills and acquire new ones. The Arc also provides clients with door-to-door transportation to their programs, which makes participation possible and provides caregivers a respite.
The Williamsburg Health Foundation supports The Arc’s Fitness Program, which plays an important role in maintaining and improving clients’ health and well-being. Adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities are less likely to engage in physical activity and spend more time being sedentary than those without intellectual disabilities. This physical inactivity leads to higher rates of obesity and diabetes when compared to the general population. The Arc’s Fitness Program reduces barriers to engaging in physical activity by providing a 90-minute weekly fitness and wellness class, where clients receive round-trip transportation to and from their homes. In 2023, The Arc provided 1,422 hours of fitness classes to 179 residents of Greater Williamsburg, and they anticipate numbers will remain consistent this year.
To learn more about The Arc of Greater Williamsburg’s programs to improve the quality of life for adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities, please visit their website.
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The Williamsburg Health Foundation (WHF) is a private health foundation with the mission to collaborate, innovate, and invest to impact systems that improve the health and well-being of individuals living in Greater Williamsburg. The Foundation was established in September 1996 when the Williamsburg Community Hospital and Sentara developed an affiliation agreement and later merged. This agreement included a provision for a new, locally organized, and managed Foundation to benefit community health. Since inception, WHF has awarded over $110 million in grants to improve community health and well-being.