Welcome to Cristina Connections
Honoring our Partners in the Cristina Network
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The National Children’s Center
(NCC) in Silver Springs, Maryland holds the belief that every individual they serve should have the ability to live, grow, work and thrive. The people they support through
day and residential services
are persons with intellectual and developmental disabilities. They are people with differing abilities as NCC describes them.
Clients range in age from young children to adults in their 60’s. In years past this population might have been institutionalized. Now they have an opportunity through training and support to live at home or in supportive residential settings. They have a chance to acquire skills and knowledge based on their individual service plans as to what they are capable of achieving. Young children are educated in inclusive settings to help them reach their greatest possible potential.
At NCC, regular training is provided that prepares individuals for
employment.
Job coaches guide individuals to work effectively in a job setting. Employment goals are outlined for clients based on individual disability and needs. Computer technology donations, staff are learning, can support low income family members of clients who live at home or provide new options for them for educational development and life skills learning.
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What can one’s perception of what is possible for a person with differing abilities to achieve? What comes to mind is a definition that seems to reflect the work of the National Children’s Center. “People with differing abilities use their range of abilities to develop fully in their own way.” (The National Cristina Foundation word contest many years ago crafted this definition to highlight the abilities of people with disabilities). Tiffany Sanders, Director of Community Living Services, described some of the outcomes of their philosophy and their work. She shared with enthusiasm how some clients responded to opportunities provided for them.
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Tiffany recalls a young man who was very silent, barely speaking, who seemed very disconnected to people. Despite some skepticis
m
, they decided to introduce him to the theater and he was
given an opportunity to visit with a theater group, AR
T Stream, that NCC partners with. From an individual that barely spoke, he became an enthusiastic participant, revealing verbal and performance skills that were not previously evident.
For another individual the group residence that they found for him turned out not to be a good fit. A transfer to a different location where he shared an apartment with three individuals where each had their own space, a chance to try out a job that he was excited about, even finding a girlfriend as well as new friends, all created new opportunities for independence and joy.
The National Children’s Center
has been doing its work for 60 years. To experience the joy of participating in an individual’s growth and achievement is true fulfillment for staff. Their work over the years has made it possible for thousands of people with intellectual and developmental disabilities to find empowerment, employment and independent living.
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You are a young person below the age of 18, a minor. You have gotten in trouble with the law. You have committed one of these crimes- a misdemeanor, robbery, assault, a weapons charge. Serious charges. Because you are younger than 18 years of age your case is dealt with in the family court system. So what happens next? Judges consider their options.
One option a judge has is to sentence teenagers to stay in a detention center as punishment for their crime. In the Bronx, New York City, a judge can consider whether a teenager might be given an alternative placement for committing a crime. Here is what happens when the decision to follow a plan that would let a teenager go back into the community takes place.
BronxConnect
, an initiative of Urban Youth Alliance, is a community based organization that was launched in 1998 as an official alternative to incarceration.
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So what happens at BronxConnect? A maximum of 15 people at a time are treated in this
program
. It provides court advocacy, group and individual mentoring, case management, educational assistance, and job placement. Youth (generally in middle school or high school) are given opportunities to attend anger management classes, get counseling therapy, and job readiness training. They participate in an online literacy program that assesses their literacy level and provides support in helping them with their reading skills. Further, they are given assistance with dealing with the many issues they are confronted with as they deal with the challenges of poverty in their home lives. Staying with BronxConnect for a few months they then, as appropriate, go on to other support programs that are part of the Urban Youth Alliance’s work.
I asked Edgard Torres, the IT specialist at BronxConnect who works with the online literacy program at the organization, what he would say about the impact of the program on the young people who are remanded to them by the court system? He commented about the importance of the fact that through all their work, they follow a faith based system that teaches the value of the individual. “You are valuable as you are. You are not just a case, or a number. You are more than that. We value you and what we seek to do is to help you.”
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BronxConnect
has achieved a remarkable 85% success rate in keeping youth from being re-arrested or violating probation.
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What value can you place on nonprofit organizations who help people acquire skills to help them learn to believe in themselves as people with abilities and capable of being productive workers and providers to their families? Their work is not just a helping hand. Its social impact is far greater than that.
We at National Cristina Foundation think their value is beyond measure. Indeed incalculable! It is work that preserves the fabric of our society.
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