About Us
Patricia Hall-Porter, whose daughter has a hearing impairment, knows how difficult it can be for parents of children with special needs to access health-care services.
With a desire to help others like herself, Hall-Porter started In God’s Loving Hands, which provides educational, health-care, occupational and housing advocacy services to families of children and adults with special needs.
At first, the Frederick native started out with no office and was working out of her Oxon Hill house as a personal care provider and special-needs advocate. She helped her first handful of clients, who had intellectual or physical disabilities, develop socialization skills and learn everyday tasks such as solving basic math problems and taking dishes out of the dishwasher.
Hall-Porter has come a long way with her nonprofit group. Th handful of clients grew to about 200. Although she faces funding and staff challenges, Hall-Porter said, she is determined to start a new program that would provide after-school care for children and young adults, ages 14 to 25, with special needs.
“We started the organization, because we didn’t want the kids to suffer like we suffered,” said Hall-Porter, the group’s executive director.
Hall-Porter started In God’s Loving Hands in 2005, and the organization became a registered nonprofit in 2006.
She refers to her clients as “God’s angels” to remind others that people with disabilities should not be treated differently than others.
“I dance with them, I play with them,” she said. “We do so much together.”
Hall-Porter provided transitional housing for some of the children and took in three whose parents were either physically or mentally unable to care for them. With the parents’ permission, she gained legal guardianship of two of the children so that she would be able to advocate for their benefits and they would not have to return to foster homes. Her biological daughter, who was born with a hearing impairment, lives about 20 minutes from Hall-Porter but often visits to help with the children.
Article from 2016 washingtonpost.com
About IGLH
IGLH is a leading not-for-profit agency on Long USA that proudly serves the needs of individuals with developmental disabilities and their families. The IGLH mission is to provide the opportunity for children, teens and adults with disabilities to pursue enviable lives, to increase their independence and to improve their quality of life.
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