top of page

Who we are:

Arkay is a well-established, community based non-profit [501(c) (3)] organization, assisting the community in becoming more aware of the needs and potential of individuals with Disabilities and Cognitive Impairment. The organization provides vocational and community based services in Wayne. Monroe, Macomb and Oakland County to the Developmentally Disabled and Cognitively Impaired community since 1983. The agency, under the direction of a volunteer Board of Directors, received initial funding from Community Living Services (CLS) to provide vocational services, in a community setting, to over 80 adults experiencing complex mental, physical, and behavioral disabilities. Arkay provides individualized services ranging from vocational evaluations and basic skill development activities to real work opportunities with community employers. It offers services that support the Disabled, and indirectly, their caregivers. Over the years, the agency has dramatically increased the number of people it serves. Before the COVID pandemic of 2020, we were serving approximately 400 individuals.

 

Arkay receives its funding through the Mental Health Authorities (MHA). Arkay, also, contracts with schools to provide Special Education Services for students who fit into the inclusive supports afforded by the school system. Arkay will face a number of new opportunities and challenges over the next few years. Dramatic changes within the Michigan Department of Health & Human Services and local mental health programs will continue to have an impact on our agency’s service and fiscal operations.

 

Arkay must continually prepare to face new service demands, fiscal challenges, changing technologies, and new consumer populations. The greatest current challenge that Arkay faces is the COVID 19 Pandemic in which we had to close our operations down for four months which significantly reduced the number of consumers served. Because of this, Arkay has come up with the concept of Global Virtual Classroom for the Developmentally Disabled population. Arkay’s goal is to improve the quality of life for individuals with Disabilities and their families through advocacy, skill development and work opportunities.

Our mission: 

To assist the Developmentally Disabled and the Elderly Disabled to achieve community inclusion that enhances potential, employment opportunities, and / or volunteerism.

​

   Our Vision:

To be recognized as a premier provider of services that utilize "best practices" in exercising its commitment to providing a range of programs for individuals with disabilities which enable those served to maximum their individual quality of life potential as contributing of the community.

​

      More About Us:   

Check out the links below for more information about us and what we have been doing to further our mission.

​

​

Promotes:

Standards and expectations for people with disabilities have changed. In the early part of the 20th Century, many believed that people with disabilities were best protected and educated in large institutions. At this time, people with disabilities had little say in their own destinies.

Arkay promotes the view that people with disabilities should not be segregated; are entitled to equal opportunity; and are usually able to hold employment and otherwise participate in community living. People with developmental disabilities, their families, and other advocates have worked to enlarge the opportunities and choices available to them by changing our society’s beliefs and values. They have insisted, for instance, that they are “people with developmental disabilities”- that is, that they are people first, and that they should be defined by whom they are as individuals rather than by the fact that they have disabilities. Everyone should be able to choose how he or she will live, be accepted by others as an individual, and be included in the activities of his or her community.

​

Our individualized services ranging from vocational evaluations and basic skill development activities to real work opportunities with community employers as well as our dedicated direct care staff strive to provide employment and skill building opportunities to our consumers that create success stories!

bottom of page