THE ARC OF LOUDOUN

In 1967, parents of children with disabilities founded The Arc of Loudoun because they had a vision to help their family members live “a life like yours”. In December 2009, The Arc leased the Paxton Campus and, on this property, created a 7-acre safe haven for people of all ages with disabilities—behavioral/emotional, developmental, intellectual, learning, physical, and/or sensory—and their families.

Today, The Arc of Loudoun, a full-service 501c3, and local chapter of The Arc of the United States, is home to multiple direct-service programs that serve the most vulnerable and underserved in Loudoun and the Greater DC Region—children and adults with disabilities, their families and caretakers, and the professionals who work to help them achieve their greatest potential.

The Arc of Loudoun defines disability as any condition that prevents, delays, or interferes with a person’s typical development or optimal achievement. A disability may be classified as behavioral/emotional, developmental, intellectual, learning, physical, and/or sensory. Disabilities may be temporary–as when a person is healing from a broken bone, and disabilities may be invisible–as when someone is experiencing mental illness.

The Arc of Loudoun is the Washington, DC Region's premier resource for individuals with disabilities and their families, bringing together a full complement of professionally innovative and comprehensive approaches and services in support of this most deserving customer community. The Arc of Loudoun's programs strive to serve as distinguished role models that continually develop, test, and deploy methods and techniques to educational and rehabilitative organizations across the globe, while maintaining their primary focuses on the Region we supports and call home.

The Arc of Loudoun is a high-quality, compassionate, innovative place where individuals with disabilities and their families come to thrive. We support these people from infancy to adulthood, ensuring we assist them in navigating the system of services provided for them in Loudoun and surrounding areas.

The Arc of Loudoun, headquartered in Leesburg, VA, is comprised of the Claude Moore Center for Early Intervention (which includes the Aurora Behavior Clinic and Open Door Learning Center Preschool); the Ability Fitness Center, a leader in advancing treatment modalities to retain abilities and restore function in people with neuro-physical deficits; A Life Like Yours ("ALLY") Advocacy Center, the acclaimed catalyst-for-change organization, renowned for advancing disability rights within criminal justice and education systems throughout the region; the Aurora School, a private, year-round day school licensed and accredited by the VA Department of Education that provides 1:1+ education and related services to students throughout the region who have IDD, particularly those with autism; and Project Horse, a leader in non-riding equine assisted psychotherapy and wellness for people of all ages who need emotional, behavioral and mental health and wellness support, and a trusted provider of the highest level of trauma-informed care.

Together these programs challenge students and clients to achieve personal excellence and independence; deliver therapies that reset neural circuits; improve the foundations for learning, behavior, mental health and overall wellness; and assure fair and equitable treatment of people with disabilities and/or mental health challenges, their families and the community at large.

Key accomplishments include being named a top day care by Northern Virginia Magazine's readers in 2020 and 2021; regionally recognized by several Northern Virginia public school systems for our exceptional pivot to distance learning for students with disabilities during the COVID pandemic; and Open Door Learning Center being recently named a subsidy partner for the state of Virginia.

With an estimated 24,416 people with disabilities and 9,183 students with IEPs in Loudoun alone, there is still much work to be done.

Where there's help, there's hope - and at The Arc of Loudoun, there's always hope!