A Note from Allison: February 2023

28 Feb A Note from Allison: February 2023

Greetings all!

I hope that you all are enjoying these spring-like temperatures we have been having!

Throughout this month, New Hope has been celebrating Black History Month. To kick off our celebration, we had a Traditional African Dress Parade in Day Services to honor the many different cultures of our associates. We absolutely loved seeing all the beautiful vibrant clothing, music and dance of this parade. It was such a great time, we have now decided to make this an annual event!

We also celebrated by having African American associates share their stories through our social media platforms. We asked associates to answer questions such as ‘What does Black History Month mean to you?’ and ‘Why are you proud to be black?’. I have enjoyed getting to watch and read their answers to these questions.  If you missed any of these associate features, you can still view them on our Facebook page.

Inclusivity is one of the core values of New Hope of Indiana, and we advocate and demonstrate this throughout the organization.  In February, we celebrate Black History Month and in March, we celebrate Disability Awareness month-all are people that need to be included at the table!

In March, New Hope will also be celebrating its 45^th anniversary on March 13^th at 1:00 pm. We will be honoring the 8 individuals, 1 physician and 1 staff member who have been a part of New Hope since 1978. We are very excited to celebrate them as well as all of New Hope’s accomplishments in the past 45 years.  You can watch the celebration on Zoom at this link.  We also will be announcing how, in this new year, we are showing a ‘New Hope’.

While New Hope has  come a long way, there is still much work to be done to ensure individuals with disabilities are fully welcomed and fully included in our communities. As we recognize Disability Awareness Month this March, we will continue to advocate for inclusivity and positive attitudes toward individuals with disabilities!

I hope you have a great month and will join us in celebrating New Hope’s 45^th anniversary and  Disability Awareness Month!

Allison