Message From The Superintendent - April 2025

Greetings! 

We hope everyone is doing well!! 

We wanted to start out by thanking the individuals, family, providers, and community for all their support.  It was great seeing everyone show up for all the events we had in March to celebrate Awareness month.  We believe every day is DD awareness.   

I wanted to also shout out the Community and Provider Relations Department that do such an amazing job setting up these events and making them look seamless.  We also want to shout the DD Awareness committee members and all the Portage DD staff that volunteered their time.  There was a lot of late evenings and working on the weekends to make this all possible.  Thank you everyone!!       

Tim Torch Communications / HR Manager expressed a desire to touch upon some of the recent headlines.  Thanks for the suggestion, Tim! There are concerns about Medicaid cuts, the Department of Education is being phased out, people are losing their jobs etc.  We know all the uncertainty causes anxiety.  We have decided that we are going to focus on the things that we can control.  We know the best way to get through troubled times is to rely on each other, communicate more, and always give our best effort. We work with people as early as a newborn all the way until they are in their 90’s or however long their journey goes.  We are honored to serve, and we are certain that the staff at Portage DD and the mission that we have will not change.  We will continue supporting everyone throughout their lifetime.   

We have been told that although there will be Medicaid cuts that they are trying to minimize fraud and theft.  They don’t plan on cutting services to people with developmental disabilities.  We can’t believe everything you hear or read, but you can believe in the people you work with. You can believe in the people we serve and our mission. You can also believe that we are going to be here doing everything we can to improve the lives of the people we serve. 

Believe in People! 

WE ARE HERE FOR YOU.

Sincerely,

John Vennetti