The Boggs Center Shares Annual Report for Fiscal Year 2020
Sunday, November 1, 2020Deborah M. Spitalnik, PhD
Each year as I write to share the contributions of The Boggs Center and our collaborations with all of you, I appreciate what we have been able to accomplish together and also am always aware of how much more there is to be done. Looking back on the past year has, for all of us, been a very different and difficult experience. Little in any of our collective experience has prepared us for the loss and disruption in every family and community, things that have been experienced even more devastatingly in the lives of people with disabilities, their families, and the supporters and systems that work on their behalf.
From July 2019 up to early March, we continued to provide the educational programs, technical assistance to communities and systems, research and information that have been the hallmark of our partnerships and mission. In March, with the onslaught of the pandemic, all our lives changed.
This report reflects the dedication and efforts of everyone at The Boggs Center in the ways that, as individuals and as an organization, we have worked to convert our programs and activities in virtual and remote formats that continue to support the disability community while keeping everyone safe. We are gratified to have so many people attend the DD Lecture Series virtually, utilize our new "Just in Time Webinar Series" and to have been able to teach our fellows, students, and community trainings remotely. Developing and curating resources on COVID-19 targeted to people with disabilities, their families, and caregivers has been one of our highest priorities. We are gratified that we have been able to involve medical students from Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School in these processes.
In listening sessions with our federal DD Act partners, Disability Rights New Jersey and the New Jersey Council on Developmental Disabilities, the expressions of concern in the community, as well as our Consumer Advisory Council, have guided our actions and direction. Please let us know what other things would support our community.
In the disability community, we have always been aware of how interdependent we all are. Our collective efforts to support public health and safety measures, as all our efforts at The Boggs Center, are devoted to enhancing the common good. For all those who have lost loved ones, are struggling with illness, separation from services and economic loss, our hearts are with you.
We strive for ways to support our community now in the amidst of the pandemic and looking ahead to the time when we can be in each other's presence and continue to create support and opportunities for people with disabilities, families, and those who work on their behalf.
With warm good wishes,
Deborah M. Spitalnik,
PhD Professor of Pediatrics and Family Medicine and Community Health
Executive Director, The Boggs Center and NJLEND