MSSCA celebrates 40 years

Mat-Su Services for Children and Adults (MSSCA) celebrated 40 years of service, providing a wide range of home- and community-based services for adult residents with intellectual or developmental disabilities, families with children experiencing developmental delays or disabilities and parents with questions about child safety and child development.

“We’ve been servicing children and adults in the Mat-Su Valley with disabilities, and we are just wanting to recognize that we have come this far as an agency,” said Kaleb Johnson, the Executive Director for MSSCA during the event, saying it was an opportunity to give back to the staff, clients, and community stakeholders. “We’re here to celebrate.”

The celebration, held at the Menard Sports Center, included family and friends coming together, food from the Headless Horseman catering and cake, ice skating, and a screening of “ILP”, a compelling 26-minute short documentary funded by the Mat-Su Health Foundation and set in the Mat-Su Valley.

The documentary shines a light on the fight for the healthy development of Alaska’s most vulnerable children and is told through the voices of local families and early childhood professionals.

Johnson says that MSSCA is focusing on what they can do to bolster programming, maintain their involvement with supportive employment, ensuring that they remain the face and forefront of supportive employment, helping their clients find employment get out and contribute to the community.

Another focus Johnson wants to continue to focus on is supported employment, which includes job placement, job development, and job site support.

“Our consumers, should they have a need to get out and work but don’t know how to go about doing that, we can help them find placement at various companies. We also employ them.”

Johnson, who came on board with MSSCA in August, says that currently, MSSCA has 60 consumers in and around the Mat-Su Valley, and the agency remains committed to supporting every one of them and their families.

“We’re really working on making sure doing the best work possible for our clients.”

One area Johnson says needs to be addressed is providing services for individuals with disabilities between the ages of 4-18. “How the state is set up right now is there is a lot of funding for the ILP (Infant Learning Program), but once they reach age five, the mindset seems to be ‘let the schools take care of it.’” Johnson explains that MSSCA provides services dependent upon an Intellectual or Developmental Disabilities (IDD) waiver to receive support and services in their homes and communities, and while children can get pulled from the waiver, it does not happen very often. “Right now, there’s a really big gap of services in that community.”

Some of the services offered at MSSCA range from offering an infant learning program for children ages birth to three years, residential services including apartment living, assisted living homes, and family habilitation homes; supported employment, day habilitation, family support, and respite services.

Most services MSSCA offers come at no cost to families and individuals. However, some program participants must meet eligibility requirements for services. Costs vary and may be covered by a variety of funding sources such as Medicaid Home and Community Based Waivers, United Way, private insurance, sliding fee schedule, State of Alaska and Mat-Su Borough grants.

Up next for MSSCA is a screening of the ILP Film at Valley Cinemas this Wednesday, September, 24 5:30-7:30. Dinner will be provided. For more information, please visit the MSSCA Facebook page.