Merry Christmas! For the month of December, The Arc of the St. Johns has focused on giving back to our community.

The Therapeutic Learning For Center designed, decorated, and donated a tree to World Golf Village’s Festival of Trees, which benefits The Empty Stocking Fund and United Way. Our tree was donated to a needy family.

The student at Community Campus spent all month making decorations, treats, and gifts. Late in December they turned the school into a gift shop. All students helped by showing shoppers their wares, helping guests check out, and sharing cocoa and cooking. It was a fun learning experience!

Our adult day program had fun making stocking for The Arc of the St. Johns staff members, who give them so much throughout the year! The stocking were a beautiful and heartfelt thank you.

Our residential programs are working on various projects with the Salvation Army including Red Kettles, Feed the Hungry, and Angel Tree. We have also completed outreach projects for the Betty Griffin House and Council on Aging.

Feed the Hungry is a service that is provided to citizens of Saint Augustine that are in need of food. Our individuals volunteer their time the second Tuesday of each month setting up tables, serving food, and cleaning up.

The Angel Tree reaches out to the children of incarcerated parents.  More than 1.7 million children will spend the holidays away from parents, and our individuals will assist in wrapping and passing out gifts and candy to these children.

More than 3 million children experience domestic violence in the US each year, and according to a study done by Makers of Memories, these statistics increase around holiday seasons. Our individuals made over 250 cookies, and bagged them up to donate to The Betty Griffin House. 50 families in our area that are victims of domestic violence will receive these small packages of sweet treats.

We held a Christmas Card Workshop, where our individuals created over 100 handmade cards for elderly citizens who receive Meals on Wheels services. With the council on aging, all 100 cards will be hand delivered Christmas Day with a hot meal.

Amber, a young women in our Traumatic Injury Community Housing Option (TICHO) program, is now a volunteer at the Pet Center of St. Johns County Animal Control. With her volunteer work, she is focusing on proper socialization of animals, along with play and exercise.

Charles is scheduled to be inducted in The Fraternal Order of the Eagles in January. The Fraternal Order of the Eagles is a group that supports police, firefighters, and others who protect and serve. They fund medical research in areas such as spinal cord injuries, kidney disease, diabetes, and Alzheimer’s.

Check back with us in January, we are working on develop ties to other community organizations. Our New Years resolution is to encourage our clients to give back to the community that gives so much to them!

We hope you have a safe and happy holiday season!

October/November Blog

The fall brings exciting times for The Arc.

In October we began construction on our Adult Day Center. We are updating and renovating and making our space more efficient! Hopefully by this spring we will be ready to unveil all of our changes to the community!

October brought our annual meeting and the celebration of another outstanding here at The Arc. We were able to celebrate our “Arc of The Year” Award, presented to us by Deborah Linton, Executive Director of The Arc of Florida. We also honored The St. Augustine Record for their outstanding coverage and attention to help people with I/DD.

On Halloween we had quite the party out here! Corey, a Community Campus student, graciously agreed to DJ the event and he was marvelous! Many of our clients and staff dressed up for the day and got funky on the dance floor.

November 6^th we opened up our new playground at The TLC. The playground has been long awaited after the completion of the TLC in 2009. Thanks to the Williams Trust, The Bergstrom Family, The TPC Redcoats, The Hull Family and many many more the sketches for a playground where children with special needs could continue to play, learn, and grown through therapy was realized.

People in the Psychosocial Rehabilitation Program enjoyed a great learning experience in the employment process!  They had the opportunity to “interview” candidates for the open instructor’s position and provide feedback about their preferences to the Program Director, Melanie Scott.  The participants felt involved in choosing Aneka Stewart as their new instructor.  Melanie later conducted an informal satisfaction survey with them about the quality of the sessions being presented.  All agreed that Aneka is doing a great job!

Thanksgiving was celebrated with turkey dinners for all and a little break for our staff! Prior to Thanksgiving Christine Fetter, Health and Nutrition Director, hosted a luncheon here at our main facility. We enjoyed roasted turkey, gravy, cornbread dressing, cranberry sauce, green beans, sweet potatoes, mashed potatoes and pumpkin toffee cupcakes!

We are looking forward to the joy and cheer that the Christmas Spirit brings!

September brings the promise of fall and a break from the heat. It is typically a month in which we settle into the routines (and budgets) that will carry us through to next year. However, this September at The Arc is full of change and new projects.

Pieces of the TLC’s new playground equipment are arriving daily. We are in the early stages of construction on the playground, but it is exciting to see how it is all done! The students and teachers are enjoying watching the progress and looking forward to it’s completion.

An event celebrating the new playground is planned for the afternoon of Sunday November 6^th. We will have a fall festival atmosphere complete with apple bobbing, face painting, and apple cider. We hope you and your family will be able to come out and play with us!

We are excited to announce that we received a grant from The Community Foundation’s Dr. Joann Crisp-Ellert Fund. This grant makes it possible for us to begin a new photography class. 12 clients who showed an interest in photography have been selected for the class and are being paired with a mentor from Flagler College’s Photography Club. Our goal is to let these very special people show us the world from their perspective. We hope to be exhibiting their artwork at local galleries as well as in Tallahassee at the rotunda during developmental disabilities awareness month.

The Psychosocial Rehabilitation Program regretfully bids goodbye to Lindsay Anton, our program instructor.  During her nearly 3 years with us, Lindsay has been totally committed to the people served, finding innovative ways to teach essentials such as social skills, emotional control methods and problem solving.  Her positive attitude and interactions with participants has been unwavering, despite the daily challenges presented when serving individuals with I/DD and mental illness.  Lindsay has our gratitude for her work at our agency and our best wishes for success in her new position in Jacksonville.

In Home Supports and Supported Living will be throwing a Karaoke Birthday Party for all the individuals with birthdays in September! Get our your hairbrush and begin practicing your singing!

This weekend group of adults from In Home Supports and Supported Living attended SportAbility in Ocala. They had a chance to participate in a variety of games and outdoors activity including archery and bocce – looks like everyone had a great time.

Our Adult Day Training is undergoing some renovations. Many of our classrooms have not been updated since the early 1990’s, when they were used for sheltered workshops. We will be creating a new space for a computer and media learning center, the health and wellness class, and the supported living coaches. Keep watching our Facebook page for updates on the renovations!

Each year the St. Augustine Young Professionals Organization (YPO) hosts a Womanless Beauty Pageant, where brave men from the community dress up in drag to raise money for their charity of choice. We are proud to announce the Bob Bergstrom, Vice President of The Arc Board of Directors, will be representing The Arc in the 6^th Annual Womanless Beauty Pageant on November 17^th.  For “Miss-ter Arc” to be crowned Miss YPO 2011 he needs to receive the most votes, $1=1 vote and those funds are donated to The Arc. We hope you will consider making a donation to us and helping Bob will the pageant!

St. Johns Rotary Club is holding a golf tournament that will benefit The Arc of the St. Johns this Friday, September 30^th. If you are interested in participating, please visit http://www.clubrunner.ca/cprg/home/homeS.asp?cid=3550

Coming up in October:

One of our new Community Campus Students, Corey, is a DJ and he will be spinning his tunes at our annual Halloween bash!

The completion of the TLC Playground!

The Arc of Florida annual meeting and convention, October 5-7^th

Cap’s Golf Tournament to benefit the TLC,  October 10^th

The Arc of the St. Johns annual meeting, October 12^th

Ancient City Kids Day – October 15^th

August has been an exciting month here at The Arc!

Our two charter schools are back in session.

Our Community Campus teacher, Miss Kendra, has taken a job at St. Augustine High School.  We’re sad to lose her, but we know she will enjoy her new job. Our new teacher, Tracy Harrison, comes to us with years of experience as an ESE teacher and helping to manage behavioral issues. She has a great attitude, and brings a fresh perspective and innovative ideas to the job. We are also proud to announce that one of our own, Josh Stayton has transferred from our Residential Services to take on the roll as Assistant Director of the Community Campus and Companion Services. A special thanks to Josh for stepping up to the plate at a very critical time.

Several Community Campus students have internships out in the community this year. Thank you to Papa Johns, Flagler College, and Pop N Off Gourmet Popcorn for providing our students with the opportunity to learn from you! If you see our students out in the community, please take the time to say “hello”.

We would especially like to welcome our two new students, Corey and Marcus. Corey is an aspiring DJ and will be helping to provide music to some of our annual events! Marcus is an extremely talented artist, with a special aptitude for drawing and creating maps of communities! We hope you quickly become part of The Arc “family” and enjoy your time in school.

The Therapeutic Learning Center welcomes new students Iliana, Gavin, and Chloe. We are excited to watch you learn and grow!

We owe huge thanks to The Williams Trust, Bob and Deb Bergstrom, the Red Coats of The Players Championship, The Family and Friends of Erin Hull, and many more for helping us to complete the funding for the new playground for the TLC. We officially placed the order on Monday, August 29, and the state-of-the-art playground will be installed and ready for play in October. Watch your mailbox for an invitation to the ribbon cutting!

The Marketing and Development Department is proud to welcome new team member Rob Stone to fill a special position as Community Outreach Coordinator. Ron’s main roll will be to strengthen our ties to the community and help grow the enrollment of the TLC and Community Campus. Welcome aboard!

The Transportation Department is reporting a 95% reduction in company related vehicle accidents from June 2010 – June 2011. Our wonderful director, Joe Roberts, made this possible by implementing defensive driving training, altering driver eligibility criteria, and adding GPS monitoring to all vehicles. Thanks to Joe and his staff for always getting us where we need to go…safely!

Supported Employment welcomes Victor Williams as the new Assistant Director for Vocational Rehabilitation Program and daily oversight of Employment Services. Victor transferred from Residential Services. He has hit the ground running, already a strong leader and a valuable asset to the team!

Residential Director, Dave Vinson, is working very hard to help two of our clients avoid forced institutionalization. Stephanie and Ricky have both applied to the Agency for Persons with Disabilities for funding via the Crisis Waiver to remain in our community based residential and adult day programs. If the APD denies funding, Stephanie and Ricky they will be forced into Intensive Care Facilities. These ICFs could be in a community a long way from family, friends, and would not provide the same quality of life. Both of their families are committed to fighting this forced institutionalization. Dave has been instrumental in connecting both families with Arc friend and Legal Aid attorney Megan Wall, and The Advocacy Center in Tallahassee.  You will undoubtedly be hearing more on this subject as we ask our friends to make some noise and bring some attention to this issue.

On a happier note, several of our employees celebrated employment anniversaries this month. Happy Anniversary to: Mark Jacoby, Michelle Daniels, Emogene Hunt, Kerry Quarterman, Belinda Blackwood, and Vanessa Dumas. We are proud to have such wonderful employees and look forward to working with you all in the months and years to come.

We wanted to check in with our 2011 Community Campus graduates to see what they are up to now. We are proud to report that Brandon is currently enrolled in companion services and working part time doing lawn maintenance. He is in the process of clearing some legal obligations and looking forward to becoming employed full time. Marissa is doing really well in her residential placement and is awaiting job placement through Vocational Rehabilitation. Marissa has so many areas of interest, and she is looking forward to getting experience and exposure through exploration of various jobs. Through his Intensive Behavior Program, Brien has made significant strides toward achieving personal goals that will make it possible for him to interact more fully with the community. Jacquie continues to reside happily with The Arc. Jacquie’s services allow for a little extra supervision throughout the day, but due to the State’s financial cut backs, she cannot receive all the appropriate services. Hopefully, someday soon, she can receive the funding to participate in a meaningful day program.

Our Arc brethren from Volusia County paid a visit in August. Jim King and his staff used our facilities for an in-service day, took a tour, and chatted with our staff. We hope it was beneficial and fun for all involved.

The Arc’s staff and clients are looking forward to September and hoping for a break in the heat! If anything exciting happens in September, you can check back here next month to read about it!

Welcome to The Arc of the St. Johns’ first monthly blog! From now on you can check in toward the end of each month and read a little bit about what has been happening with our departments, clients, and staff.

To begin with we would like to wish Nadine, Sally, and Loretta a Happy Birthday! We hope your upcoming year is full of exciting endeavors, new friends, and lots of laughter!

The TLC has finished summer school and we want to wish our graduates the best of luck in Kindergarten. Congratulations Savannah, A.J., Chris, Khalil and Kaitlynn– we are so very proud of all you have accomplished and the wonderful little people that you are becoming! It has been a joy to watch you grow.

Carolyn Hamm is taking a very big step and moving into her own home with her boyfriend, Will.  She will be moving out of In Home Supports and into Supported Living. This is an exciting step toward independence – Carolyn is very excited and we are so proud of her!

In Home Supports “Corn Hole Saturdays” have been put on hold due to hot weather.

Todd Fraim will be having his home weatherized by St. Johns Housing Partnerships – we thank them for their support!

The Arc of the St. Johns re-branding efforts were recognized by The Arc of the United States as being one of the top ten re-branding initiatives in the nation!

We opened up a new behavioral group home, and have taken in some new residents who were in crisis.

It is so exciting to see people take responsibility for their own actions!  Participants in the Psychosocial Rehabilitation Program (serving those with I/DD and mental illnesses) have been self-monitoring daily goals and assessing their personal progress. Each day participants mark whether or not their goals, such as social interaction, anger management and problem solving, have been met. After being reviewed by Lindsey Anton (PSR Counselor), praise is given for successes or constructive discussion about how to better meet goals ensues. Once a week participants who have met goals are rewarded with healthy snack. Self monitoring has proven to be effective in helping participants successfully cope with the symptoms of mental illness.

July has been a great month and we are looking forward to all of the exciting things that August will bring!

We will post activities, events and happenings with The Arc of the St. Johns. Please check back often.