The mission of SBCC is to Empower those living with spina bifida to achieve their maximum potential. Starting as a grassroots organization in 1972, SBCC has been providing education, connection, support, and advocacy for nearly 50 years for people with spina bifida and their families in seventeen counties of southern Ohio, northern Kentucky, and southeastern Indiana. For the past 2 decades, we have significantly increased revenue, as a direct result of your participation in the Walk & Roll, which has allowed us to hire staff, expand services, qualify for grant funding, and participate in research.
However, we knew that despite this growth, there were people in underserved areas, particularly in rural communities, that did not have access to much needed support. The SBCC Board of Directors identified Eastern Ohio and the state of West Virginia as areas of opportunity for expansion of our services.
In early 2021, we discovered data to support this objective. We learned from the Center for Spina Bifida at Cincinnati Children’s that 21% of their patients are from West Virginia which made the expansion into these areas even more crucial, due to the close alignment of our two organizations in caring for people with spina bifida.
The SBCC Board of Directors authorized a task force comprised of SBCC Board members, staff, affiliated healthcare professionals, as well as residents of our current service area and Eastern Ohio/West Virginia to explore adding these regions to our organization. The task force began working in March to draft a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) outlining the responsibilities for SBCC staff and key individuals in West Virginia and Eastern Ohio. The MOU was presented to and approved by the SBCC Board of Directors on June 24th and approved by the task force on Wednesday, July 28th. The MOU will be in effect for a two-year evaluation period; during this time an oversight committee comprised of Eastern Ohio/West Virginia stakeholders, SBCC Board members and staff will ensure that the conditions of the MOU are being met and that the relationship remains advantageous to both parties. If you are interested in joining the oversight committee, please email Rhonda Horick.
We are excited to begin meeting and working with Eastern Ohio/West Virginia families and including them in our mission. New constituents in Eastern Ohio/West Virginia will receive the same resources, programming, education, scholarships, and services that our current families have benefitted from over the years. If you see new faces in our Facebook groups or at our events, please take a moment and welcome them to our SBCC community.
Without the hard work of the following individuals this development would not have come to fruition: Marta Getz, MSW-LISW-S, Michael Daugherty, MD, Katie Thoman, MSN, APRN, CNP, Trista Kittle, Linda Streets, Greg Savilla, Nancy Dunst, Amy Wix, OTR, Katie Arbaugh, Sarah Ball, DPT, Anna Conn, Crystal Fershee, Suzie Humphries, Jesse Jenike-Godshalk, ESQ., SBCC Board chair, Diane Burns, and Rhonda Horick, MSW, ….thank you all for your contribution to this undertaking!