ARCH Mission:

The mission of the ARCH National Respite Network and Resource Center is to assist and promote the development of quality respite and crisis care programs in the United States; to help families locate respite and crisis care services in their communities; and to serve as a strong voice for respite in all forums.

The ARCH National Respite Network includes the National Respite Locator, a service to help caregivers and professionals locate respite services in their community, the National Respite Coalition, a service that advocates for preserving and promoting respite in policy and programs at the national, state, and local levels, and the Lifespan Respite Technical Assistance and Resource Center which is funded by the Administration for Community Living in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

Brief History:

In 1990, the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services asked the Chapel Hill Training-Outreach Project, Inc. (now Families and Communities Rising) to help implement a $90,000 grant from the Children's Bureau in the US Department of Health and Human Services. The purpose of the grant was to support a group of approximately 40 demonstration projects which were developing systems and methods for providing respite and crisis nursery services in communities across the US with a newsletter, a national conference and to help establish an identity for the group.

ARCH is an anagram for Access to Respite Care and Help. The first ARCH conference was held in the fall of 1991 in Washington DC.  

The National Respite Coalition, founded by Jill Kagan and state partners as the policy division of ARCH, was established in 1994. The NRC's principle objective was to help raise awareness of the value of respite and crisis care to policy makers in Washington DC. This work culminated with the passage of the Lifespan Respite Care Act which was signed into law in December of 2006. When funds were finally appropriated to implement the Act, a grant was awarded to ARCH in partnership with the Family Caregiver Alliance to administer the Technical Assistance Centers for Caregiver Programs and Lifespan Respite. This joint effort ended in August 2012.  In September 2012, ARCH entered into a new cooperative agreement with the US Administration for Community Living to form a new Lifespan Respite Technical Assistance and Resource Center to provide training and technical assistance to Lifespan Respite grantees and their partners to implement coordinated respite care programs in their respective states. Continuation funding was awarded by ACL in 2015 and 2020.  Jill Kagan became ARCH director in 2009. ARCH continues as a program of Families and Communities Rising based in Durham, NC. 

ARCH's Twentieth Anniversary Slide Show.

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