Exceeding Expectations
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With a reputation as the provider of choice for children with developmental disabilities, demand for services from DAMAR regularly exceeds the residential facilities available. To help ensure that the needs of Indiana children can be met, DAMAR drew up robust plans for expansion. Given DAMAR’s history for superb performance, the campaign to fund the expansion was named Exceeding Expectations.
Launched in November 2005, DAMAR’s Exceeding Expectations campaign spans a three-year goal of generating $6 million in private commitments for the expansion of our residential campus and services. The nearly $16 million expansion represents the largest in DAMAR’s 40-year history. As of early July (2007) nearly $4.5 million had been pledged.
Goals
Specific goals include:
- Construction of three new residential buildings
- Construction of a gymnasium and conference center
- A dedicated DAMAR Academy school building
- Construction of a new Family Services and Program Administration Building
- Education and Training Outreach
- Expanded programs and program sites throughout Indiana
- Additional outdoor recreation facilities
- Annual Fund
Need
To meet the increasing demand for residential treatment and support services for people with dual developmental and behavioral challenges.
DAMAR must continue to evolve and expand its capacity and services in a manner that will foster the greatest success for those children and adults that the 40-year-old enterprise serves.
Three long-term trends (listed below) make this task increasingly difficult:
- An unfortunate general lack of public awareness and/or understanding of available treatment(s) and the nature of the challenges people with disabilities must face on a daily basis.
- Lack of awareness that positive outcomes are possible with highly focused treatment, particularly if this professional treatment consistently given over a period of time. Success is indeed possible, as many DAMAR residents have shown.
- Increasing competition for charitable contributions.
Benefits
- DAMAR’s reputation in developing research-based treatments that are adopted by other providers, such as best practices.
- A higher quality of life for those individuals facing severe developmental disabilities
- High emotional satisfaction for those who contribute, as their donations provide a direct and positive impact on children and adults who otherwise may lack any meaningful degree of independence
Key facts
- One in 10 American families is impacted by developmental disabilities.
- Approximately 15,000 Hoosiers are awaiting disability services.
- DAMAR turns away over 160 children annually due solely to limited residential capacity.
DAMAR Case Statement for Publication
DAMAR CC PLEDGE CARD
DAMAR Services, Inc. 2005-2008 Strategic Plan Overview
