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This picture was taken by Amanda Oliver during Community Options Disablitiy Awareness at the Open House in Burlington County.
Thursday, December 20, 2007
Tuesday, December 11, 2007
Flying High
“Above and Beyond all Expectations” Community Options of El Paso, Texas released 150 Green Balloons and 13 Gray Balloons on December 3rd 2007 at 1:pm EST, in honor of International Day of Disabled Persons. The 13 gray balloons representing each intuition operating in Texas where 4,895 individuals with disabilities remain: Abilene State School serving 500 individuals, Austin State School serving 440 individuals, Brenham State School serving 400 individuals, Corpus Christi State School serving 370 individuals, Denton State School serving 650, El Paso State Center serving 150 individuals, Lubbock State School serving 310 individuals, Lufkin State School serving 400 individuals, Mexia State School serving 500 individuals, Richmond State School 500, Rio Grande State Center serving 75 individuals, San Angelo State School serving 300 individuals and San Antonio State School serving 300 individuals.
Tuesday, December 4, 2007
Please take a moment to read this article from the Democrat & Chronicle and watch the attached video.
http://www.democratandchronicle.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060224/SPORTS0102/602240373/1007/SPORTS
I recently had the pleasure of watching my youngest sister Emily compete in the NJCAA Women's Division III National Soccer Championship. For several weekends my family and I drove back and forth from NJ to Upstate NY to different campuses to support what had been a way of life at our house for over a decade - women's soccer. They won the National Championship and Emily, with three goals (two in the final) was voted the tournament MVP. As you can well imagine, the level of pride and admiration we feel for her and for her hard work is immense.
While at the tournament, my other sister told me about a story from Rochester, NY where a young man with ASD named J-Mac scored twenty points in the final basketball game of the season at Greece-Athena HS.
Before I lose you, let me just say that I am not going to write about how J-Mac should be an inspiration to people with disabilities or to care providers. That pretty much goes without saying. Instead, I want to ask a question. How do we provide people - people with disabilities, their families, whoever -with the opportunity to experience even a fraction of what J-Mac and his family felt in those four minutes back in 2006? I know that for most of us (probably all of us reading this) the opportunity to score the game winning goals or drain six 3's in a HS basketball game is long gone. For the people we support, those opportunities are not readily available either. In fact, I would be willing to bet that 99% of the people that we support and their families have not had an experience like J-Mac's or Emily's. Not because of the lack of ability or desire, but perhaps due to the lack of opportunity. Again, I know that we aren't going to be playing in a national championship game, but there are plenty of venues for providing a level of competition or challenge to people that might otherwise never experience the exhilaration of a three point basket or a touchdown.
It can be done. In the last three years I have seen and heard from people with significant physical and cognitive disabilities and/or TBI who have had the opportunity to hunt, fish, swim, surf, climb ropes courses, race, wrestle, and on and on....The benefits of healthy competition on the personal, social, and emotional development of the human mind can't be measured or quantified, but the positive results are as plain as day. Look at J-Mac. That video looks like any one of a thousand grainy high school sports tapes, and if you didn't know that number 52 was on the autism spectrum, you would swear you were looking at the next point guard for the Nets. We can't know, as J-mac's family couldn't have known, what level someone will rise to if they are challenged properly. However, if we provide the venue, who knows? Maybe he or she will take the shot. Or six of them....
http://www.democratandchronicle.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060224/SPORTS0102/602240373/1007/SPORTS
I recently had the pleasure of watching my youngest sister Emily compete in the NJCAA Women's Division III National Soccer Championship. For several weekends my family and I drove back and forth from NJ to Upstate NY to different campuses to support what had been a way of life at our house for over a decade - women's soccer. They won the National Championship and Emily, with three goals (two in the final) was voted the tournament MVP. As you can well imagine, the level of pride and admiration we feel for her and for her hard work is immense.
While at the tournament, my other sister told me about a story from Rochester, NY where a young man with ASD named J-Mac scored twenty points in the final basketball game of the season at Greece-Athena HS.
Before I lose you, let me just say that I am not going to write about how J-Mac should be an inspiration to people with disabilities or to care providers. That pretty much goes without saying. Instead, I want to ask a question. How do we provide people - people with disabilities, their families, whoever -with the opportunity to experience even a fraction of what J-Mac and his family felt in those four minutes back in 2006? I know that for most of us (probably all of us reading this) the opportunity to score the game winning goals or drain six 3's in a HS basketball game is long gone. For the people we support, those opportunities are not readily available either. In fact, I would be willing to bet that 99% of the people that we support and their families have not had an experience like J-Mac's or Emily's. Not because of the lack of ability or desire, but perhaps due to the lack of opportunity. Again, I know that we aren't going to be playing in a national championship game, but there are plenty of venues for providing a level of competition or challenge to people that might otherwise never experience the exhilaration of a three point basket or a touchdown.
It can be done. In the last three years I have seen and heard from people with significant physical and cognitive disabilities and/or TBI who have had the opportunity to hunt, fish, swim, surf, climb ropes courses, race, wrestle, and on and on....The benefits of healthy competition on the personal, social, and emotional development of the human mind can't be measured or quantified, but the positive results are as plain as day. Look at J-Mac. That video looks like any one of a thousand grainy high school sports tapes, and if you didn't know that number 52 was on the autism spectrum, you would swear you were looking at the next point guard for the Nets. We can't know, as J-mac's family couldn't have known, what level someone will rise to if they are challenged properly. However, if we provide the venue, who knows? Maybe he or she will take the shot. Or six of them....
Not even this season's first ice storm could keep us from releasing the balloons at 1:00 on Monday, December 3rd. The weather didn't cooperate, but the members of our day program along with our Employment Specialist did. The balloons dissappeared into the sky while the snow, rain and ice fell on all those who participated.
Up, Up, & Away was the theme at Community Options of Pittsburgh yesterday, December 3. In conjunction with our offices throughout the country, we celebrated International Day of Disabled Persons with an environmentally friendly balloon release named "Above & Beyond All Expectations." At 1:00PM EST, 46 Green balloons were released to represent the individuals Community Options serves each day through both residential and employment support services and 8 Gray balloons were released as a reminder of those individuals still living in institutions.
Monday, December 3, 2007
At 1:00pm EST the Community Options, Inc. of Northern New Jersey held the Above and Beyond All Expectations Environmentally Friendly Balloon Release Ceremony. We released 7 gray balloons which represent state institutions that remain open in NJ. They are Greenbrook Developmental center, Hunterdon Developmental Center, New Lisbon Developmental Center, North Jersey Developmental Center, Vineland Developmental Center, Woodbridge Developmental Center and Woodbridge Developmental Center. These institutions have a total 2,971 individuals still residing there of which 90% are appropriate for community placement. We also released 60 green balloons for the number of individuals we currently serve in our region. It was a great ceremony, despite the cold and wind and what the ceremony signfied meant more than anything.
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