NEXT MEETING: TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 8th, 2015,10 to Noon,
at YAI, 460 West 34th Street, NY, NY
Mpre Information: Amy Bittinger @ 718-859-5420 ext. 234/ abittinger@ucpnyc.org
Announcements:
- Michelle Lang, YAI, announced:
- Community Habilitation Openings ( Manhattan, Bronx, Brooklyn, Queens)
For more information, call YAI Link at 212-273-6182.
- Urszula Kowalclyk- UCP of NYC- Family Connect announced:
- Workshops for July 2015 will be circulated soon.
For more information, call 718-436-7979 ext 704 or familyconnect@ucpnyc.org.
- General Human Outreach
- Family Support and Case Management
- Medicaid not required
- Bilingual staff speaking in Mandarin and Korean.
For more information, call Pat Lin Chang at 718-307-6563
- Jay Kleinman, Life Spire announced:
- In-Home Behavior Management available.
For more information, call 718-454-6940.
- Yesenia Estrella, Sinergia announced:
- Overnight Respite available in all boroughs.
For more information, call Cladia Vidal at 212-643-2840 ext. 351
Discussion- Manhattan Family Support Conference 2015
Amy Bittinger discussed the venues that she and Margaret Puddington visited and/or called in the past several weeks. These venues include Hotel Penn (too expensive) , The New Yorker (too expensive), PACE University ( Not big enough for a vendor fair), FIT (Margaret submitted a request to secure space at FIT- We were contacted by email that our space needs cannot be met), John Jay College (Margaret is following up with them), BMCC (Amy has called and emailed but has not received a response), The Church of St. Paul the Apostle (The space is not available until next March), CUNY Graduate Center and NYU- Kimmel Center (The conference would have to be held on three separate floors which would make the logistics too complicated).
Amy visited CUNY Graduate Center on June 15th and met with the sales manager. If the auditorium was eliminated the total cost for the space only, would be $9,500. Yesenia from Sinergia mentioned that she has been to several events at the CUNY Graduated Center and considers the space be ideal. Amy will report back to Marco Damiani and other Manhattan DD Council members to determine next step.
Other feedback from the MFSC Members included:
- No gift bags
- Raffles to be done during the fair only
- Eliminate the plenary session (Too expensive, committee members felt there was not enough value with the session to continue. This will allow more time to be spent at the vendor fair).
We reviewed workshop topics and the following recommendations were suggested:
- Front Door Session
- Managing behaviors
- Top 10 resources in Manhattan (There are 10 categories or resources offered in this workshop- YAI Link has agreed to conduct this session).
- Education Rights (It was suggested that we ask Kim Madden from Advocates for Children to conduct this workshop. If we were to offer another education work shop, the committee recommended that we meet with AHRC and Sinergia’s Parent Center).
- Transition: Life after School (Include NYC).
- Guardianship (the committee recommended Paola Boone Martinez)
- Resources for Parents (Needs to develop further at as a workshop).
We briefly discussed the need for translation services and we need to further discuss this topic. If we able to offer food at CUNY Graduate Center, we must use their food service provider. We will ask Janet Davis to handle registration area for the conference, Trish Chapman will be asked to coordinate greeters, we will ask Rachel Wolff to compile the packages and YAI has agreed to compile the 2015 Family Support Directory.
P.S. It was determined that we will use the CUNY Graduate Center and secure the date of 12/14/2015.