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Woody Connette, incoming Chair of the Board of Trustees

Greetings. I’m Woody Connette. I’m the newly elected board chair for the Board of Trustees for United Cerebral Palsy, and I’m really excited to be in that position because with UCP we have just an incredible future as we look ahead to 2013 and beyond.

Our mission

I’m from North Carolina and I was involved with the affiliate there in North Carolina and Virginia for over ten years and as a result of that I feel like I have a good feel for what its like to be involved with an affiliate and what our clients and the people we serve need on a day in and day out basis.

Indeed, with United Cerebral Palsy, we are all proud of the almost 100 affiliates we have. Every day they collectively are serving 176,000 children and adults. That builds on a 60-year history with UCP that we all can be proud of, serving people in their communities and giving folks a life with independence and dignity and worth, so that we have full citizenship for people with disabilities. And that is at the heart of our mission with United Cerebral Palsy.

Looking Ahead

UCP works to make a difference, one day at a time, one person at a time, one family at a time. We work to enact real change, to revolutionize care, to raise the standard of living and to create opportunities for millions of people living with disabilities. Indeed, our affiliates, with their extraordinary staff, and our families, our parents, our caregivers, our siblings and friends, all of us work together to continue to push for the social changes, legal changes, and technological changes that we need to increase accessibility and independence for people with disabilities so that we can ensure a life without limits for generations to come—and so that 60 years from now, people will look back on the incredible legacy that we have created for them.

2012 was a year that we focused on transitions for UCP, and indeed, our 2012 conference had as its theme, transitions. We learned a lot in 2012: we organized policy roundtables about critical issues such as education and employment; we have strengthened our public education efforts; and have elected new members to our Board of Trustees to carry that work on.

2013 and beyond

With what we have learned, we want to continue our focus with UCP in how we can make a difference in areas of transition, not just for the people that we serve with our organization, but for the millions of other people with disabilities here in the United States and indeed, worldwide.

As we look forward to 2013 and beyond, we will examine how the caregiver community is changing, how support systems are enabling people with disabilities to live longer and more fulfilling lives, and how the role of families is changing and the way that families support their loved ones who are living with disabilities.

UCP will focus on these issues and more and we will continue to work to identify how we can best support not only the individual who might have a disability but indeed, the entire family. It’s an exciting time to be a part of UCP and I’m thrilled to be a part of it. I hope that you enjoy our annual report and learn more about the vital work that we do with UCP everyday. Thank you.

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Download a PDF of the report here

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Copyright © 2013

United Cerebral Palsy
1825 K Street NW Suite 600
Washington, DC 20006

Phone: 800.872.5827 / 202.776.0406