Dear MACer,
The MAC started as an idea to explore a way of assisting individuals with special needs with all the complex challenges they face, especially navigating a complicated system of medical, therapeutic, and social services options. There is no single organization that can successfully meet all the needs this population has. We quickly found out that by bringing together different organizations already serving this community to build a seamless, efficient, innovative model, service delivery and outcomes will be better, and most importantly, the lives of those served will improve significantly. The MAC Care Model we have built working together with a diverse coalition of like-minded organizations is a testament to the great work communities can achieve when tackling common goals and working as a team. Our expectations have been greatly exceeded in this regard. However, we are just getting started and we have a lot of work to do before we open our doors next year. This project is complicated, complex, ambitious, yet very much attainable. There is no benchmark for what we are trying to do so we are starting from scratch, much in the same way we created the award-winning Morgan’s Wonderland and Morgan’s Inspiration Island. These are the kinds of challenges that motivate us, and we are sure we, as a community working together, will rise to the occasion.
Thank you very much for your support and participation in this great project designed to improve the lives of our friends with special needs.
Sincerely,
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Dear Fellow MACer,
Welcome to MACer Matters! Our aim with this newsletter is to build community, share information and provide updates as to the progress of The MAC. As you may imagine, there is a lot of activity going on with The MAC ranging from the continuous development of the MAC Care Model and Navigation System (MAC Nav), the ongoing work with the different workgroups in terms of service delivery and construction of the facility as well. The MAC has become a big undertaking since 2018 when we began this project and we are very proud and grateful to count on the direct support of so many people involved with our different committees and workgroups. We would not be where we are at without all the committed and dedicated MACers. There are nearly 100 individuals from across the community actively participating in the development of The MAC through the different committees and workgroups we have in place and we have accomplished a lot of great things working together. There are also nearly 500 people that we have met with to discuss The MAC and we are also lucky to count on their support. This support continues to grow daily and we can’t wait for The MAC to open next summer so we can start serving our community through our innovative MAC Care Model we are building together.
I’ve often said that the story of The MAC is a beautiful example of how our community is coming together to better serve our friends with special needs. By doing so we are building an innovative, effective and efficient model where we all communicate, coordinate and maximize each other’s strengths with the ultimate outcome of improving the lives of those we serve. Our dream has become a collective dream and the best is yet to come! As we say at Morgan’s Wonderland: “Together, we ARE making a difference!”.
We plan to release MACer Matters on a monthly basis so please send us content you want us to include. There are many great things happening with all MACers and we want to highlight you! We would like to request you also send us a list of people in your organization whom you feel would like to receive this newsletter in the future. The more the merrier!
I look forward to our continued work together and for what we will accomplish in the months and years ahead. I am very proud to be partnering with you.
Ad Astra!
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Allan Castro,
Chief Executive Officer
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Allan Castro serves as Chief Executive Officer at The Multi-Assistance Center at Morgan's Wonderland. Allan has been leading the planning and development of The Multi-Assistance Center at Morgan’s Wonderland since its inception in 2018. Allan is a healthcare industry executive with 20 years of experience building, managing, and growing health care centers, programs, products, and teams that deliver results and provide value. Allan has worked at hospital systems, outpatient health centers, non-profit organizations, and a national hospital association. This broad experience has allowed Allan to develop wide-ranging health care and non-profit industry knowledge allowing him to assist healthcare and social services entities to improve clinical and operational performance. Allan possesses strong strategic, coalition-building, operational, analytical, and interpersonal communication skills.
Allan married to Danell and they have four children; twins, Storm and Eva – 17, Alicia – 9, and Valentina – 7.
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Jana Grohman,
Director of Navigation and Operations
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Jana Grohman serves as Director of Navigation and Operations for The Multi-Assistance Center at Morgan’s Wonderland. In her role, she is focused on ensuring healthcare, therapeutic services as well as social and community services are made available to all individuals with special needs in our community. Jana is a graduate of Texas State University with a Bachelor and Master of Social Work and a Licensed Master Social Worker. Jana has been a part of the non-profit community for the past 12 years. Before joining The MAC team, Jana was the Chief Operating Officer at Any Baby Can of San Antonio, Inc., where she provided executive leadership and strategic direction to shape and implement programming to improve the quality of life for families with children and youth with special health care needs.
Jana is married to Luke, a Firefighter with the City of San Antonio and has two rambunctious boys, Dalton – 7 and Lane – 3 who keep them on their toes.
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CommuniCare Health Centers (CCHC) has been serving the San Antonio community since 1972 and is a full-service primary healthcare system offering Family Medicine, Pediatric Care, Women's Health, Dental, Behavioral Health, and specialty care services. Over the years, we have seen a need to address the fragmented care in the special needs population. So, when we first heard about the MAC, we eagerly wanted to become a part of the collaborative effort. CommuniCare targets disparities within our communities and helps to empower patients and families to reach healthy outcomes. “We do this by providing a holistic approach to preventative care and a patient-centered home environment,” said Dr. Robert P. Sanders, Director of Complex Care for the MAC. “CommuniCare takes pride in putting patients and families first as we strive to meet the needs of the population that we serve. We are honored to be a part of the MAC project.”
When Jennifer Windham, Director of Operations for the MAC, first heard about the concept of the MAC, she immediately asked to be part of the team and expressed her thoughts. “As a mother of a special needs child, I know there are resources ‘out there’ to provide assistance, but I struggled to figure out where they were and did not know how to begin my search (the proverbial ‘needle in a haystack’). From a mother’s perspective, sometimes you just need a compassionate person to take your hand and say, ‘let me guide you,’ so you know it is not just you and your child against the whole world,” said Windham. “From a medical perspective, I often had clinicians give me conflicting advice or wanting to change meds for one reason without discussing the reason for the changes with the specialist,” Windham stated.
From a clinical perspective, communication between providers is often difficult to manage due to scheduling and complex needs. At CommuniCare, we want to alleviate the frustrating and conflicting barriers to care by providing hassle-free and focused, integrative health care. A facility designed to assist the special needs population (and their families, who are often overwhelmed and hopeless) is something we clearly knew was an undertaking we were called to do. Patients, parents, and caregivers are often handed generic information, but not exactly the most useful information they need. We plan to provide a great patient experience, where a parent and caregiver comes in and asks how to get help for a specific service, then our Health and Wellness Coaches assist them to coordinate their medical and social needs. Together, they can coordinate with other healthcare providers and community-based organizations to ensure the next steps are met and/or their next appointment is scheduled. In other words, a clinic where the patient, family, and clinical staff (including specialists) truly are part of a team working together to improve the lives of an often-over-looked population, THAT is living up to the mission of CommuniCare Health Centers, to improve the health of those we serve with a commitment to excellence in all we do.
Jennifer C. Windham
Director of Operations
Robert P. Sanders, MD
Director of Complex Care
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The MAC is underway!
Site prep has been completed and the foundation is next.
Stay tuned as we continue to share our construction photos with you as we make progress.
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MAcer t-shirts are available, we will have them ready to pick up at the next Quarterly MACer Meeting. Contact Jana (jgrohman@morganswonderland.com) if you would like to schedule a time to pick them before. |
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The two different designs are available in each color above. |
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Two of our MACers were honored last month in the San Antonio Business Journal, for the 40 under 40 Award. These awards celebrate young rising business and community leaders. Erica Sosa, Associate Dean for Research and Associate Professor of Public Health at UTSA, who is a part of The MAC Research & Data Center & Jeff Wurzburg, Senior Counsel, Norton Rose Fulbright, who is Chair of The MAC Advisory Committee and Legal Home Committee.
Congratulations you two!
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Another MACer is out making changes in our community. Any Baby Can is proud to partner with State Representative Diego Bernal on House Bill 2134, Childhood Cranial Remolding Legislation. HB 2134 would increase access to cranial helmets for babies and children by expanding coverage of Medicaid and state-regulated healthcare plans. Follow ABC on social media (@anybabycansa) to stay up to date. |
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Did you know that a fellow MACer has a podcast! Take a listen to BlueSprig’s Podcast – ABA Unfiltered. ABA Unfiltered's goal is to provide the greater ABA community insights and education to make the science, policy, and culture behind ABA more digestible and accessible.
Did you know that being a part of our MACer Email Group we can start conversations, share and collaborate on content in SharePoint. Be sure to take a look, we have saved MAC Elevator Speech, Partnership Branding and Public Communication Guidelines. Click here to view!
Did you know there is a simple way for you to support The MAC at Morgan's Wonderland every time you shop! Visit AmazonSmile (smile.amazon.com) and choose Multi-Assistance Center at Morgan's Wonderland and Amazon will donate 0.5% of your eligible purchases. So start shopping!
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May 14th, 2021
MAC Navigation Committee Work Session
1 p.m. - 4 p.m. at Kronkosky Charitable Foundation
May 19th, 2021
Medical Home Committee Meeting
4 p.m. - 5 p.m. via Zoom
May 25th, 2021
Client/Caregiver Committee
1 p.m. - 3 p.m. at Morgan's Wonderland Camp
May 26th, 2021
MAC Navigation Committee Meeting
1 p.m. - 3 p.m. at Morgan's Wonderland Event Center
May 29th, 2021
Re-opening of Morgan's Inspiration Island
SAVE THE DATES!
June 7th, 2021
MAC Advisory Committee Meeting
4 p.m. - 6 p.m. via Zoom
June 23rd, 2021
Quarterly MACer Meeting
1 p.m. - 3 p.m.
Location TBD
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Due May 14th, 2021
Be sure your team has completed:
- IT Survey
- Meeting Space Survey
- Point of Contact Spreadsheet
- Sent 3 high resolution, PNG photos that best represents your agency
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What is MWIF?
MWIF (mwah-if) is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that oversees not only The MAC but several entities created to encourage inclusion. MWIF didn't imagine IF there could be a world where people of all ages and abilities could play and enjoy life side by side, MWIF makes IF happen by creating places for people of all abilities to enjoy together. To find out more about our journey of inclusion visit MWIF.com.
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Click below to watch the MWIF video. |
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Submit Your Content!
We would love for all the MACers to submit content for the monthly newsletter. Let us know about updates, events for the calendar, a Tell Me Something Good, or a one-minute video for the MACnificent Minute. Please submit all content by the 20th of the month.
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