October is “National Disability Employment Awareness Month.” Our ECHO community celebrates this month of education on disability employment issues and the role they play in fostering a disability-friendly work culture as ECHO helps those into employment. The theme for 2021 is “America’s Recovery: Powered by Inclusion.” As employers struggle to fill the job gaps created by...
The effects of the global health pandemic continue to have new and broad reaching ripples we discover almost every day. However, it is important to remember that for our community of adults with disabilities, these ripples are felt in an entirely different way. While we all have things we’d like to do that are temporarily restricted by...
Give Choose is a 24-hour day of giving organized by the Community Foundation for Loudoun and Northern Fauquier Counties to benefit local charities serving our community. ...
ECHO has been selected as one of the beneficiaries of the first ever “Run the Greenway” event, to be held on May 1, 2021, and we couldn’t be any more excited about the prospect of being part of a huge community building event....
There are many qualities which contribute to someone’s sense of well-being and overall peace of mind. Yet one, which may very well be the most significant, is often the one least recognized; and that is the act of giving someone your attention. Paying your attention to another bestows them Being-ness. A sense of being seen. Attention reminds...
We’d like you to get to know ECHO’s hero of the month because, like most true heroes, the hero of the month probably doesn’t recognize that in themselves. We spend a great deal of time in our country talking about “front-line” heroes, and heroes who run “into” dangerous places instead of “away from” dangerous places. ...
As you read this it may seem as if you and ECHO are in some state of Communication. ECHO is sending out something and you are reacting to it. But is that actually communication? And, if not, why isn’t it, and what would turn it into communication? It seems to us that communication is the exchange...
A great deal of thought and planning goes into the activities of Life day support. While sometimes the activities seem random they are designed with a purpose as demonstrated by the brief description that follows… A participant holds two oversized yellow foam dice. With a staff member by her side coaching, she rolls them. The staff...
For so many of us, it’s a new concept, staying six feet from everyone around us. But for many of our ECHO participants, being kept at a distance by others is what they have always experienced. Whether living in institutions isolated from the community at large, or permanently at home once school is over due...
This morning a small box turtle was on the side of the road in Sterling. He (or she) was facing the curb, and as most turtles are not climbers, a clear path to a safe place off the road was not evident at that moment. A five or six inch curb might not seem like an...
Our mission is to empower individuals with disabilities to achieve their optimal level of personal, social, and economic success.
