From the Director . . . Kenneth W. Singer
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| Spring at Berkshire
County Arc begins with the exciting news of two individuals who just moved
into their own home. With the assistance of his
family, Matt Quallen, who lived on Onota Street in a community residence
for many, many years, was able to purchase a beautiful home on a residential
street in Pittsfield. With beautiful decorations and furnishings supplied
by his family, he and his friend of many years, Joe, now have a place to
call their own (see article on page 2 ). We are fortunate that this
opportunity worked out so successfully and the many months of planning
with Matt’s family have now become an exciting reality. We enjoyed their
open house on April 23, 1998. This will be the first of what we hope will
be other opportunities for individuals that we serve to find creative ways
to reach their dreams. While we have seen many successes in our employment
program, with over 70 individuals now working in community jobs, finding
living individualized arrangements is a more difficult task.
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Recently BCARC was one of three agencies in Region I selected by the Department of Mental Retardation to take part in a special “Next Step” training. The selection was based on BCARC’s commitment to move towards person-centeredness and brings together Agency staff, families and other professionals to develop strategies about person-centered planning. We hope that the training will lead to working together with the Department of Mental Retardation on a pilot project to focus in on new ways to provide services. We are also very pleased to announce the establishment of the BCARC scholarship which will be awarded to a high school senior pursuing undergraduate education in the field of Human Services (see article on page 9 ). Degree programs including psychology, social work, special education and related courses of study will be given consideration. Deadline for submission is May 7th and the scholarship award will be presented at our Annual Meeting on May 29th! We believe it is important to encourage local students in their pursuit of
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higher education in human services to insure continued excellence and quality in the services we provide. In this same vein, BCARC developed a new partnership in the past year with the State University of New York at Albany to improve the services offered by our Clinical Department. Since September, the Agency has had two doctoral candidates working under the supervision of Dr. Gerald Porter from the Educational Psychology Department of the University. This team provides training to our staff, as well as intensive assistance in developing Behavioral Plans and help staff find new strategies in dealing with serious issues. This has been an exciting collaboration and one that we hope to continue in the future. We hope as the spring progresses, we will hear from most of you with ideas and suggestions. We are now working on our float for the Pittsfield 4th of July Parade. Hope to see you there. |
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