WCDC celebrates 50th anniversary

For 50 years, WCDC — formerly known as the Washington County Developmental Center — has been fulfilling its mission to “promote and support individual independence in life choices.”

On Thursday, WCDC held a 50th anniversary celebration at its headquarters with a Washington Area Chamber of Commerce Alive After Five event.

“The clients who have come through here have fit right in with the community,” WCDC President David Hoffman said. “Today, we talk about inclusion. Intellectually disabled students in the schools are included in all of the things they do.

“That’s our goal out here, for intellectually disabled adults to be included in adult life.”

One of the services WCDC offers is day-habilitation.

Hoffman explained that clients come to the center and take part in various activities, like artwork, field trips and games.

They also offer prevocational work.

“That is training to go out into the workforce,” Hoffman said. “We wash windows around town with some of our pre-voc people. We run a can line here, where they’re sorting and learning the different distributors. Once they’re efficient, they move out to our redemption center downtown.”

WCDC offers job coaching for supported community employment, where the organization helps clients find jobs in the community.

“We assist individuals with obtaining and maintaining employment in the community,” WCDC Vice President of Community Services Tammy Burlingame said. “Sometimes they need a little more support maintaining employment, so we do job coaching.”

Hoffman said that clients have worked for area companies like the UP Home, EPC, Riverside Casino & Golf Resort, Washington County Hospital and Clinics and Premier Sheep Supplies.

“A lot of these adults are very talented in various areas,” Hoffman said. “Every day when I come out here, they amaze me with the different things that they can do.”

Burlingame said that WCDC was serving about 25 clients when she started with the organization in 1983.

“When I first started, we only had the in-house facility, which was called work activity,” Burlingame said. “The clients would go to the center to work and participate in activities.”

At the time, WCDC was subcontracting with companies like Procter & Gamble, and production work was done at the WCDC center.

“We did production just like a regular factory,” she said. “It was a very busy time then.”

Over time, the focus changed to having clients work in the community.

“That was a big push of finding employment that they would choose in their community right next to anybody else,” Burlingame said. “Now, everything is more community based.”

WCDC now serves about 125 clients over the scope of its services.

A major factor in the success of WCDC has been community support.

“Washington is a really supportive community when we’ve compared to other agencies like ours,” Burlingame said. “Not a lot of other towns have the employment opportunities or social activities for clients. We’re pretty blessed with that.”

Another factor has been the WCDC employees.

“The support we give the clients is affected by the staff we have,” Burlingame said. “Throughout the years if we didn’t have the staff and the support they supply to the individuals, we wouldn’t be as successful.”

Looking forward, Hoffman said that the WCDC board is considering rebranding at some point to give the community a better idea of what they do.

“I was a school principal for 18 years here in Washington, and I had no clue what was happening in the WCDC building,” Hoffman said. “I didn’t know all the good things that were happening. We want to make the community more aware of the services that we offer, what our clients can do and the great abilities that they have.”

He said he believes that WCDC can continue to grow and expand.

“We are just starting to tap into the skills of these people,” he said. “Our clients are so talented, I just can’t say enough good things about them.”