A Brunswick agency supporting Mainers with developmental disabilities is launching a campaign to bring more public awareness to the understaffed, underfunded nonprofit.

Independence Association will mark Developmental Disabilities Awareness Month this month through a poster campaign featuring its clients.

According to Development and Communications Director Carlene Bryon, the goal is to bring more public awareness to the people it serves and the support staff that works behind the scenes.

“Very simply, people in Brunswick and many surrounding communities know the people that Independence Association serves really well because they are fully included, vital members of our communities,” Bryon said. “What they often don’t realize is that there are supportive people through Independence Association behind those folks who help make it more possible for them to be fully engaged.”

The Independence Association supports about 320 people, which is down from the typical number of about 400, according to the organization’s executive director, Ray Nagel. The shrinking number of clients, Nagel said, is primarily a result of staffing shortages — a problem the organization has faced for some time but has been exacerbated by the pandemic.

About 95% of the organization’s $10 million budget comes from state funding.

In June, The Times Record reported that the organization underwent a first-of-its-scale, $250,000 fundraising effort to help pay wages, since, Nagel said, state funding has not been able to keep up with inflation, competition and the minimum wage.

Today, a similar effort is underway, and about $182,000 towards a $262,000 goal has been raised for the organization through a 55th-anniversary fundraiser.

“By alerting the public and doing kind of a campaign to celebrate developmental disabilities month, it kind of puts into motion the politics that’s behind everything,” Nagel said. “I’m trying to get people to understand that there’s a lot of people like this in their own communities and that they should care enough to advocate on behalf of them when budgets are coming out and when taxes have to go to support our people.”

A full staff at Independence Association would be approximately 230 employees, according to Nagel. As of Monday, the organization employed about 165, and the majority of the difference was a 44-person shortage of direct support professionals.

About 21,000 Mainers have developmental disabilities, according to a 2021 report by the Maine Developmental Disabilities Council.

March was proclaimed Developmental Disabilities Awareness Month in 1987 by Former President Regan, according to Donna Meltzer, the chief executive officer of the National Association of Councils on Developmental Disabilities.

The campaign will feature 12 individuals, and the posters will hang in businesses throughout Topsham, Bath, Brunswick and Freeport. Businesses or other organizations who wish to participate are encouraged to reach out directly to the agency.

Among those featured is Wiscasset resident Anna McDougal, 42, who has down syndrome and works in Brunswick as an artist with Spindleworks — a program of the Independence Association — for almost 20 years.

McDougal said she is proud to represent the Independence Association through the poster campaign since its programs have allowed her to become included in the community and develop friendships in a way that she didn’t feel she was able to growing up.

“We’re totally accepted by the community,” McDougal said, adding “Even though we have people with disabilities, I call it ‘abilities’ because we get out there and have fun just like other people would have.”

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