By Andy Furman
The Point/Arc
Regina Watts, a 14-year member of The Point/Arc – she doubles as IT Manager and Activities Director – has been named to the Commonwealth Council on Developmental Disabilities (CCDD).
The announcement was made by the CCDD under the direction of Kellie McCain, their Executive Director.
The mission of the CCDD is to create systemic change in the Commonwealth of Kentucky empowering people with developmental disabilities to achieve full citizenship and inclusion in the community through advocacy, capacity building and systemic change.
They envision communities that fully engage, support. and provide equal opportunity for every person to be a valued and contributing member in their community.
The recently-turned 61-year-old Watts is no stranger when it comes to working with children and adults with disabilities.
“I was a 12-year-old volunteer working with kids,” she said. “I volunteered at Riverside Good-Counsel – now New Perceptions – until I was 16, when I was hired. I worked there until I graduated high school.”
In 1990 she was an instructional aide at Covington Holmes High School. She helped found the school’s Functional Mental Disability classroom in her 10 years at the school.
As Activities Director for The Point/Arc, Watts helps clients learn social skills – while having fun.
“We have movie nights, bingo, Karaoke and game nights,” she said. “Also, there are bi-monthly dances.”
From May through early August there’s softball to be played; bowling from September through the end of April; and basketball from mid-October to the first of-the-year, she said.
“John G. Carlisle Elementary School in Covington is our home court,” she said, “and we scrimmage Covington Latin and Blessed Sacrament School.”
There’s even more on Regina Watts’s plate – vacations.
“We have three-to-four a year,” she said, “and they’re a week-long. Some camping, and we’ve had a three-day trip with our clients to the Bahamas.”
Typically, Watts says about six clients and one volunteer make the trip with her.
“When we have a group trip – like Canada, Myrtle Beach or Virginia Beach – with 10 clients, we’ll go with three volunteers and myself,” she said.
Watts says she works with individuals from 20-25 years of age and up. “Our oldest is 82,” she said.
“I send out a weekly meeting request,” she said, “and we can hold close to 300 in a room. I love the first few minutes of our on-line meetings – that’s when we can really see one another.”
The COVID pandemic created such on-line virtual meetings, which are soon coming to an end.
Watts says she’s known about the CCDD for years through her colleague Margaret Reed Sauser, who previously served on the CCDD Council.
Watts is on the policy committee with a goal of passing more bills in the legislature and support for Community Living Waivers.
“I’m ecstatic about being on the Council,” she said. “I’ve admired the CCDD because they are doing great things and I’d like to be part of that.”
The Point/Arc began in 1972 as a support group for parents of individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities (I/DD).
“We’ve grown to a holistic agency with a wide-range of around-the-clock programs for more than 1,400 individuals with a variety of disabilities, from autism to down syndrome to many one-of-a-kind diagnoses,” Watts said.