Did you see the Freeman's Life section on October 9th?   What a beautiful story and photos about Ulster-Greene ARC's Snoezelen Room and our new Renaissance Program that are helping adults with autism lead more enriching lives.

Janine Prisco, our Snoezelen champion and expert extraordinaire, was featured along with Dr. Sudi Kash.  Dr. Kash has received special training from the University of Michigan in evaluating people with autism.  Janine is devoting her young career in this specialty area as well.

The Renaissance Program  also was featured with Ulster-Greene ARC's psychology clinician Mike Camargo championing the benefits of these highly customized services for adults with autism.  The Renaissance Program is moving toward the establishment of a full mult-media arts center in the near future.   Art work  is already a mainstay under the helpful mentoring of Linda…….a local professional artist.

Visit the Daily Freeman at dailyfreeman.com
 

ULSTER-GREENE ARC OFFERS FREE PARENT TRAINING

Ulster-Greene ARC is offering a free parent training forum for families with special needs on WEDNESDAY, OCT. 28 from 6 to 8 p.m. at the not-for-profit agency's building at 311 West Bridge Street in Catskill.   Family care is available for the evening, but must be pre-arranged by Oct. 16.   RSVP can be made up to a day before the event for people who do not require respite care. A light supper will be provided.

"Listen to Me",  is aimed at providing practical, concrete, and clear advice on how to be an effective parent of an offspring with intellectual and other developmental disabilities, including autism.

The support forum is facilitated by Sudi Kash, PhD who has worked extensively with children and adults with developmental disabilities since 1997.  She has received training from the University of Michigan to conduct diagnostic evaluations.  Kash is Director of Behavioral Health at Ulster-Greene ARC.

Also facilitating is Nancy Dib who holds two Master's Degrees, an MA and MPhil, in psychology with a specialization in developmental disabilities.  She is a Board Certified Behavior Analyst and has extensive experience working with people with developmental disabilities including autism spectrum disorders.  Dib is an Applied Behavioral Science Specialist at Ulster-Greene ARC.

This forum is one in a series expected to be offered by Ulster-Greene ARC which has recently expanded its services to focus on the special needs of children and adults with autism.   UGARC has been serving the Hudson Valley and Catskill Mountain communities since 1956.  It is a recognized leader in providing holistic services from birth through adulthood to people with a wide range of intellectual and other developmental disabilities.

RSVP to Kim Litts, at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it   or to Jamie DeCicco 518.943.9592 x 248

More information:

• Who, What, Where, When and Why?
• Training information
• Trainer information

Ulster-Greene ARC is a United Way Agency, a Chapter of NYSARC, Inc. and a member of the Chambers of Commerce in Ulster and Greene Counties.  Web site is www.ugarc.org

On a lovely summer day in August, The Renaissance Program artists and staff went to a nearby Park to create art in the style of Andrew Goldsworthy. We collected anything beautiful that we could find in nature: flowers, stones, twigs, leaves, berries… in glorious colors to create our artworks. A bit of artful arranging and we had these beautiful sculptures. After photographing, we left our art behind for visitors to discover on their way. As you can see from these pictures, a good time was had by all.

Palmer Center, our longstanding and award winning home for 26 aging individuals is about to get a new lease on life! 

While we are proud of the services and supports provided by our excellent staff at Palmer, we recognized several years ago that after more than 25 years we needed to make significant improvements to the physical environment.
And so we went about  securing funds through the New York State Office of Mental Retardation and Developmental Disabilities so that we can now build three state of the art homes, each of which will serve 10 persons.
Ulster Greene Arc is a creative provider committed to the people we serve, and eager to provide the best services possible.  We continue to be interested in new and innovative approaches to service delivery, and are committed to the process of building services around the needs of the people we serve.  Constructing three-ten person homes to replace a large twenty-six bed site will allow us to provide more individualized services to the people living there. These homes will be fully accessible for the people, many of whom are nonambulatory. It will create greater privacy in that each person will have a single bedroom. Such features as generous natural light, and attention to detail in lighting and other design features will contribute to a more homelike atmosphere while continuing to provide the intensive medical oversight so necessary to achieve nursing home diversion.  In addition, this construction will allow us to meet the needs of four more people.  We anticipate using one home to provide intensive services to individuals who have aging issues such as Alzheimer's disease.  We are grateful for the sensitive and professional approach taken to the project’s design by the architectural firm of Scott Dutton Associates, LLC and the engineering firm of Brinnier and Larios, P.C.

We also have the good fortune to be working with the two firms, serving as primary contractors: Kirchoff Consigli Construction Management, and Arold Construction Company.

As the pace of the project is moving quickly, we hope to achieve occupancy by early 2010!