UCCDM Update Fall & Winter Update 2016
Grace and peace to those who may be interested in the work of the UCC Disability Ministries Board–Friends, UCC Members, UCC Clergy, UCC persons with disability and our ecumenical partners.

This is to provide you with an update of the work of the UCC Disability Ministry (UCCDM) Board of Directors since our last update published for June 2015.

In September 2015 we welcomed four new Board Members and one new ex-offico Board Member to UCCDM Board of Directors they are Mr. Paul Fogle from Penn Central Conference; Dr. Nadyne Guzman the Rocky Mountain Conference; Ms. Terry Martinez from South Central Conference; Mr. David Ridings from the Nebraska Conference; and Rev. Dr. Sarah Griffith Lund from Indiana/Kentucky Conference. Their bios can be viewed on our board of directors’ page. During the summer of 2015 we also elected new officers of the UCCDM as follows: Rev. Kelli Parrish Lucas, Chair; Rev. Susan Burns, Vice Chair; Mr. Paul Fogle, Treasurer; and Ms. Danielle Rochford, Secretary.

Excited as we are about our new board members we also said goodbye to three board members, all who served as officers, and an ex-officio member. We thank Rev. Lynda Bigler former Chair, Rev. Jeanne Tyler former Vice Chair, Rev. Craig Modahl former Treasurer, and Rev. Alan Johnson Ex-Officio for their time and service on UCCDM.

2015 Annual Meeting Hartford, CT
At our annual meeting in Hartford, CT, in September 2015 UCCDM Board of Directors recognized that 2016 will be a transitional year towards future works of UCCDM. As part of our transitional year UCCDM has developed a vision which will guide is during the 2016

Our vision is to develop and implement a campaign to create awareness of UCCDM and strengthen relationships and increase the value of an accessible to all community. Accessible to all is recognized and honored through the life our church.

In 2016 The UCCDM Board will be busy spreading the word about accessibility and inclusion with the goal of increasing the number of A2A churches in the denomination. The UCCDM Board is clarifying the A2A process–a new church program audit for accessibility and A2A checklist were approved at our January 2016 meeting. We have agreed to partner with the UCC Mental Health Network to maintain a constant contact account to send announcements out. We continue to seek ways to improve the website and we have a Board member devoted to this task. We also have Board members committed to doing outreach to and partnering with churches who wish to become A2A. We also have members of the board who are developing a budget and creating fundraising goals to further the goal of inclusion of people with disabilities in the life of the church. The UCCDM also continues to maintain ecumenical partnerships related to disability on behalf of the UCC.

Since our meeting in Hartford we have recognized two new A2A congregations:
#3 Congregational Church of North Barnstead, United Church of Christ, Center Barnstead, New Hampshire
#4 UCC Parker Hilltop, Parker, Colorado

Looking to join in the work of disabilities ministries? Much of the work of disabilities ministries is done at local church level, you can get involved by sharing the UCCDM mission with your church and start working towards becoming the fifth A2A church! In the coming months another need will be fundraising. Our funding structure has changed, since we reached our fundraising goal for the Kreyer Scholarship we will now be turning our attention to the fundraising to support the on-going work of the UCCDM.

In Grace,
Ms. Danielle Rochford
UCCDM Secretary