Important announcement from Massachusetts Chapter DDNA

News from Massachusetts Chapter DDNA:

It is with much sadness that I report the following: Over the last few months, the Current Board had several discussions and voted (with consultation and input from the past Board President and Past Treasurer) to dissolve the Massachusetts Chapter of DDNA with its 501c3 status. Covid 19 pandemic came upon us in March 2020.  This was right after the New Board of Directors started in their positions.  With the inability to do any in person transition, the membership and the board never had a fighting chance to maintain the momentum that had been established at our 20th year Emerald conference in 2019. The 2020 Conference was not allowed due to mandated covid restrictions and MADDNA attempted to provide some educational opportunity via ZOOM with a free four-part series on various nutritional issues for individuals with ID/DD in the months of November and December.  The attendance for these were less than hoped for with a total of thirty nurses attending via zoom. This was a good indicator for what our membership might look like in the future. In 2021, the pandemic restrictions continued and MADDNA could not meet with fellow nurses as restrictions remained for our high-risk population. As 2022 approached, restrictions had lessened but remained in place in our day-to-day nursing careers.  It was with heavy heart and much discussion among us, that dissolution would be the best approach at this point for the Ma Chapter. 

 As we met in April 2022 to discuss the proper procedure to dissolve the 501c3 Massachusetts Chapter DDNA and at the same time meet the educational needs of our Massachusetts Nurses working in the field of developmental disabilities.  We determined and the voting Board members agreed to make a charitable contribution to two 501c3 nonprofits that service individuals with developmental disabilities and have a nursing component.   Each donation comes with a stipulation that the funds be used for educational opportunities in the field of DD/ID nurses and open to all nurses working in that field.

The two nonprofit agencies are:

1. Northeast ARC (covers the Northern part of Massachusetts and some of our NH members)
2. The ARC of South Shore (covering the southern part of Massachusetts and some of our RI and Connecticut members).

These agencies are well known and established providers for ID/DD individuals and have a training component to them for ID/DD nursing education. Our Non-Profit 501c3 will officially dissolved as of July 1, 2022. The Nursing Network Web Page will remain open for a few months so that all our wonderful faithful followers can be updated.

We wish all of you the best in your careers as DD Nurses and hope to see you all in the future.

Sherrie, Kathy, Beth, Karen, and Paula.