The latest news!

• 2010 Community Recognition Dinner is March 7- click here to download an invitation to the dinner. The community is invited to attend this special night of celebration and recognition. Reservations for the dinner must be turned in by February 26.
  
  
• We're designing our site! Our web site is receiving a major face lift this new year. Look for an exciting new layout later this month which reflects our name change and our new logo.
  
  
• Transportation Survey - click here to take a survey about your transportation needs.
  
  
• Staff email address list - Because of the name change, all staff emails have changed to a new format. Click here to access an excel file that includes all of the new addresses.
  
  
• Funds available for recreational activities - Whatever someone likes to do, it probably takes some money to be able to do it. Sometimes finding the money is a problem for people with developmental disabilities. The Arc of Butler County wants to help! “Even-the-Score” is a yearly golf outing sponsored by The Arc. Even-the-Score raises money that The Arc awards to people with disabilities to help pay for recreation, leisure activity, fun things to do, and activities that are personally enriching to the applicant. Click here to see the guidelines about how this works and to fill out an application.
  
  
• The Cincinnati Center for Autism is now accepting nominations for the 2010 Night of the Stars Honoree. Click here for the nomination form.
  
  
• It is official! Our name has changed! We are now the Butler County Board of Developmental Disabilities. We changed our name to take out the hurtful, labeling language of "mental retardation" and to show respect to the thousands of Butler County residents who utilize our services. We'll be updating this web site soon with a new address - www.butlerdd.org - stay tuned!
  
  
• See our new logo! Click here!
  
  
• Notification of Privacy Notice - The Butler County Board of Developmental Disabilities is required to notifiy consumers, parents and guardians that they may aquire another privacy notice by clicking here. For more information, call Laurel Lovely Records Coordinator at (513) 867-7560 or
  email at laurell@butlermrdd.org.
  

• The process to change the name of all of Ohio’s 88 County Boards of MRDD began more than two years ago when a group of people with developmental disabilities approached the Athens County Board of MRDD and said they didn’t like being called “retarded.” That action sparked the interest of an Athens Senator and he started working on the name change bill. Click here to read a Hamilton Journal-News story about the name change. If you haven’t already seen it, please view the video (below) by the members of our local advocacy group, EPRO. They made the video last year as a plea to lawmakers to change the name. Hearing them say in their own words why the name should be changed is quite powerful.

For more information about the "Remove the 'R' word" campaign nation-wide, visit this web site. There is a campaign in Canada called "Start with Hi" - it is an information campaign about how to make someone's day just with one word. Click here for the web site.

• We'll be on TV! We have shortened our three, 60-second public service announcements down to two, 30-second commercials which will begin airing on local TV in June and running until the end of the year.
  
  
  
  
  

• Watch the 2009 Awareness Video! The video is comprised of three, 60-second public service announcements highlighting our theme, Just Like You. For more information about our Awareness Activities, click here.