Special needs board serves more than 500 families in Darlington County

HARTSVILLE - Executive Director Ruth Thomas gave the Hartsville Kiwanis Club an overview of the Darlington County Disabilities & Special Needs Board’s history and services on Thursday at the Hartsville Country Club in preparation for Disability Advocacy Day at the Statehouse grounds in Columbia, which is today.

HARTSVILLE - Executive Director Ruth Thomas gave the Hartsville Kiwanis Club an overview of the Darlington County Disabilities & Special Needs Board’s history and services on Thursday at the Hartsville Country Club in preparation for Disability Advocacy Day at the Statehouse grounds in Columbia, which is today.

Thomas, herself a parent of a child with special needs, said, “It’s not a job for me. It’s a mission.”

Her youngest son was diagnosed with autism, and she quickly learned to educate herself about her son’s condition and not to put limits on herself or her family. Her son was mainstreamed by the fourth grade, made honor roll and now is 18 years old.

“I didn’t accept that he’d never speak,” she said. “Being in denial was not such a bad thing … You don’t put limits on yourself.”

Thomas, once a Sonoco employee, started down the path of helping families with disabilities when she opened Family Connections in Florence out of her laundry room. The program matched parents of children with disabilities to other parents whose children had the same disabilities to act as mentors and a support system.

When the executive director position opened in Darlington County, she grabbed the opportunity.

“We all have special needs,” Thomas said. “We all do things differently.”

The Darlington County Disabilities & Special Needs Board serves more than 500 families in Darlington County, serving people with the intellectual/development disabilities and related special needs.

While many people know the organization as the Scott Center, “We’re so much more than just the Scott Center,” Thomas said.

The board’s mission is “to enhance the lives, develop the abilities and promote the independence of people with disabilities.”

To that end, the board offers residential services, early intervention services for families, service coordination, senior programs, community training homes, an adult day program called Bridging the Gap and job development.

“We offer person-centered services – centered around their lives and abilities and where they want to go,” Thomas said. She added that the board keeps track of each individual’s objectives and help create plans tailored to what they can accomplish.

The board, originally called the Hartsville Area Developmental Center, began with an annual budget of $2,700 and served two children out of West Hartsville Baptist Church.

Today the annual budget is $4.7 million, raised through the Darlington County Disabilities Foundation, private donations and contract awards from the state.

In 1973, the organization signed a contract with the state Disabilities and Special Needs, which increased its budget to $16,000. That same year, the group had 15 children, and in five years grew to serve 35, outgrowing its church home.

The group broke ground on the Scott Center building, its current main office on North Damascus Church Road in Hartsville, July 8, 1985, and the 8,100-square-foot building opened February 1986.

In 1987, the organization opened two group homes, the Bowen and Reagan Houses, which house eight men and eight women.

In 1989, the supervised living program was formed, but it no longer functions in Darlington County due to state budget cuts.

“We have had to reduce to barebones, which is why we had to close the child development centers,” Thomas said.

After several name changes throughout the years, the center became the Darlington County Disabilities & Special Needs Board in 1993.

Info: (843) 332-7252 or www.dcdsnb.org