Circle Up

Earlier in April I was in San Diego for the ANCOR Conference—a national provider association that has worked to shape policy and share solutions to strengthen the ability of community-based providers to support people with intellectual and developmental disabilities. San Diego is a beautiful place to visit, but I have not wanted to live there. Aside from traffic and living costs, I always worry about earthquakes. My husband said not to worry, they don’t have earthquakes in San Diego. Good news for me!

But they did have an earthquake. I watched a news clip of the elephants at the San Diego Zoo start to actively wander around as if they were alarmed, looking for something. Then they organized themselves into a group, a rough circle facing out. Then the earthquake hit. The commentator said that elephants are social and when a threat is identified they organize to protect the herd with the most vulnerable among them in the middle.

This hit me hard because while we were in San Diego I squeezed in a visit to their zoo, which has one of the oldest programs for endangered species. We saw the animals and the elephants before the earthquake happened.

As I think about the challenges we have, all of them, I think forming a circle is a good idea. How much better off would we be if we joined up to face the danger or potential problems ahead?

This year, in addition to the substantial challenges attracting and retaining staff, we added concerns over the future of our work and the way it is funded. Will Medicaid be cut? How can we afford cost increases from inflation? Will Head Start be discontinued? I expect that we need to take a lesson from the elephants and circle up, to face what we will need to do to protect what we have created and face head on whatever the next challenges will be.

If you have ideas about our workforce challenges, let us know. If you are ready to advocate and want some support such as training, a buddy to go with you, or materials to help you, let us know. We are listening and working to bring the knowledge we can find to you so that you can make choices for yourself. We ask that all of you participate in the circle in some way.