Jul 13, 2009 7 min read

After graduating from California University in 1972 with a degree in special education, Tom Ninos took a job with ARC of Fayette County. It became a placed he would work for 37 years – 35 of them as executive director of the agency. “I can say that 99 percent of the time, I enjoyed my work – not many people can say that,” said Ninos, of Uniontown, who retired June 30 from ARC (Advocacy and Resources for Citizens with intellectual and developmental disabilities and their families) of Fayette County.

Nancy Davis, who has almost 30 years of service with the agency, including 20 as assistant director, is replacing Ninos.

“I’m going to miss Tom,” said Davis. “He is a good friend of mine. I learned a lot from him. The whole agency will miss Tom. He was always a fair person and very knowledgeable.”

In the nearly four decades that Ninos was with ARC, he saw many changes as the agency became larger in scope but also in the way it served clients with disabilities as society changed its attitude.

For example, Ninos began working as a teacher for ARC, then known as the Association for Retarded Children, Fayette County Chapter, Child Development Center, because there was no free public education for people with disabilities. That year, the Right to Education Act was passed and all the children in the program were now eligible for free public education, going on to the Intermediate Unit.

“The agency is 59 years old,” said Ninos. “It was started in 1950 by a group of parents concerned because their children couldn’t go to school. There were no services until 1966 with the Mental Health/Mental Retardation Act. They made money available to begin services, free up Medicaid dollars – chapters like ours got a little bit of money. But it took from 1966 to 1972 to get education.”

After public schooling became available, ARC changed its focus to working with children from birth until age five when they were eligible for school. Ninos remained a teacher until 1974 when he was made director of the agency.

More change occurred in 1977 when the state enacted an early intervention program and ARC of Fayette County became one of the first programs in the state to receive a grant.

“It gave us money to hire physical therapists, speech therapists and occupational therapists and teachers,” Ninos said.

At that time, ARC also operated a separate program for adults. It began in Connellsville where Davis was hired as a teacher in 1977 and then moved to a number of different locations.

Meanwhile, Ninos also saw ARC’s children’s program change locations a number of times from the old Continental School on Lebanon Avenue in South Union Township to the former South Union Township High School on Hookton Avenue to the former Gallatin School in Uniontown where the adult and child programs would merge in the early 1980s. Ninos, who also earned a second bachelor’s degree in business administration from Cal U and did graduate work in special education at West Virginia University, then became director of both programs and Davis was named program director.

One more move was in store for ARC as it moved in 1988 into a new building at its present location at 80 Old New Salem Road, cattycorner to the Fayette Health Center.

“We were in all old buildings,” explained Ninos. “The board said the individuals we serve need to be in a nice facility with bright lights and modern conveniences.”

Working through the Farmers Home Administration, United States Department of Agriculture, ARC was able to design a new building with lots of exits, a courtyard, a playground and a snack shop. Here, ARC would also become known for its integrated daycare and after-school programs, mixing children with disabilities and those without. Ninos believes it to be the first program of its kind in the state.

With the new building, the agency took another step in growth from 1972 when it served 20 children to 1988 when it served 80 adults and 60 children with another 20 to 30 people in homebound care.

In comparison, today the agency serves about 380 families. That growth continued as a result of the ARC board’s decision in the 1990s to change its mission statement from serving people with mental retardation only to serving people with mental, physical and emotional disabilities. They also work with medically fragile children, who are premature, at risk or abused, from any socio-economic family.

In addition, ARC operates a program for older adults to provide services so they are able to stay in their homes.

ARC of Fayette also works as an independent assessment team to determine eligibility for early intervention for residents of Greene, Bedford and Somerset counties. It is also licensed for programs in Greene, Bedford, Somerset, Allegheny, Westmoreland and Washington counties. Davis said part of the agency’s strategic plan is to make people in other counties more aware of their services.

“In a nutshell,” said Ninos, “the goal of all the programs is to keep people out of an institution or nursing program. And it’s very cost effective.”

He referred to studies that show that early intervention helps youths become self-sufficient much quicker.

Ninos also noted that Davis’ father became a client of the aging program.

“I am forever grateful,” said Davis. “My Dad became ill and we did a needs assessment. I am very proud of those types of programs. Our workers are well trained and become a part of the family.”

Ninos is also proud of the fact that families and clients in the home-based and community programs have much more say regarding their care.

“Before everything was highly regulated and structured. In the last 10 years, it has opened up,” said Ninos. “People have choice. They can advocate for themselves, choose their employees.”

Davis said, “Before when they would sit down to decide care, the individual might not even be there and now individuals – if they are able – are right there at the meeting, saying, ‘This is important to me. This is what I want to do.’ I think the choice is wonderful. In our home-based waiver program, we take people to homes for interviews. The staff calls back and asks who did you like? If they like no one, we bring more.”

Ninos said, “Every family for in-home and community-based services has its own separate budget – in most cases $26,000. And we, as an agency, help them manage it. It thrills me to see people being able to use this program. I look back at ’72 and who would have thought we would have come this far in 2009? But we still have a long way to go.”

That includes the continued existence of five institutions with 12,000 residents in Pennsylvania. Ninos again advocates community facilities, which are smaller and give the clients more choices, including picking their roommate.

Now that he’s retiring, Ninos will be spending more time with his wife, Nanette, who retired in December from Albert Gallatin Home Care and Hospice. Their children, Chris, who practices real estate law in Pittsburgh, and Erika, who works in environmental sciences at Chatham University in Pittsburgh, have given Ninos a kayak, fishing gear and a bike to keep him busy.

His decision to retire came with major changes now taking place in the state system regarding billing for services. But he’s confident that Davis and the other staff members will be able to handle the changes.

Ninos thinks highly of the ARC staff and noted that a state survey of agency staffs about five years ago showed that ARC of Fayette County had the lowest turnover and highest longevity of any agency surveyed in the state.

When the state called to ask him why, Ninos responded, “We hire good people who love what they do.”

The same can be said for Ninos.