"ARCH just keeps doing what it does well ~ day after day, week after week, year after year!"

We opened our doors on September 23rd 1975 to 25 teens and adults in an old cafetorium at the abandoned Alhambra Elementary School on Grand Avenue. The ARCH organization evolved from the realization by community leaders and representatives of a number of Valley charities (Easter Seals, Arthritis Foundation, Muscular Dystrophy Association, Multiple Sclerosis Society, United Cerebral Palsy and the Association for Retarded Citizens) that no local agency offered therapeutic recreation, socialization and rehabilitation programs for individuals with disabilities.

A founding premise of ARCH was that individuals with disabilities should be given every opportunity to develop, both physically and mentally, to the full extent of his or her potential. People with disabilities should be given opportunities to learn about basic living skills, the functions of self-care, medical care, parenting skills, sex education, child care, home safety, money management, home management, consumer education, community resources and many more.

In 1987 we moved to our present site on Colter St, after a two-year building project. You can read more about our move and the history of our site on our blog. Our Before and After picture shows just how different the site looks today and how far we have come.

Through the years, ARCH has become the preeminent provider of recreation and socialization programs and services for adults and children with disabilities from throughout the Phoenix metro area. Through fires, budget cuts and the Great Recession, we have pragmatically steered ARCH through turbulent times.

Click below to see our History Gallery

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