The FREEtimes - Newsletters

2009

2009 Fourth Quarter - DIRECT SUPPORT PROFESSIONALS STAND TALL

The Direct Support Professional (DSP) is the "back-bone" of widespread and diverse services provided to people who face health challenges, both mental and physical.  A great deal more needs to be done to ensure that the Public-at-large becomes aware of the im-measurable difference DSPs make to people with disabilities.

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2009 Third Quarter - EASTENDHOUSES CELEBRATE 30 YEAR ANNIVERSARY
In 1977, the year that FREE began, the original Board of Directors envisioned residential alternatives to hospitalization and immediately started to plan for this. Although FREE was originally founded to support persons with mental illness, within the founding year, the agency expanded its vision to embrace persons with developmental disabilities.
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2009 Second Quarter - FREE’s Family Wellness Center Receives Article 16 Certification
FREE’s Family Wellness Center (FWC), a multi-specialty outpatient medical center, certified by the NYS Department of Health (DOH) under Article 28 of the mental hygiene law, recently received joint certification by the NYS Office of Mental Retardation and Developmental Disabilities (OMRDD) to provide specialty therapy outpatient clinical services to individuals with developmental disabilities. The FWC received a deficiencyfree survey in April 2009, a testament to its high standards of service delivery. The FWC’s Article 16 Clinic began providing Occupational Therapy, Physical Therapy, Speech Therapy and Psychotherapy services on May 1, 2009.
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2009 First Quarter - Government Cutbacks and Receding Economy
The Nation’s budget deficit has dramatically impacted funding for all not-for-profit agencies that provide residential and day services for consumers with disabilities. FREE began to plan for fallout from the State’s budget crisis last year. But the economic slowdown that has affected so many families has created additional challenges in fundraising and planning.
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2008

2008 30th Anniversary - FREE Honors Barbara L. Townsend with a Lifetime Achievement Award
Family Residences and Essential Enterprises, Inc. (FREE) celebrated the long and distinguished career of Barbara L. Townsend, our former Chief Executive Officer, at the Thirtieth Anniversary Celebration of Life Gala. Hundreds of attendees honored Barbara and remembered her multitude of accomplishments. Barbara’s leadership, role-modeling, compassion, and determination were among the most important factors in the agency’s ability to flourish over the past twenty-two years, even during periods of diminished funding and times of hardship and trauma.
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2008 Third Quarter - FREE Employees Take Living Wage Issue To Congress
The week beginning September 8th was designated National Direct Support Professionals Recognition Week by the U.S. Senate. Under the leadership of The American Network of Community Options and Resources (ANCOR), hundreds of direct support professionals, individuals with disabilities and their families from across the country assembled to visit their elected representatives in Washington, DC on September 9th.
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2008 Second Quarter - Going for the Gold
Thirty-six Special Olympic athletes from Saddle Rock Ranch outshone the sun on June 1st when they participated in the annual horse show held at Thomas’ School of Horsemanship in Melville. This was Saddle Rock’s finest hour and was the culmination of three months of training, hard work, and dedicated attention to detail. Well over 100 people associated with Saddle Rock – instructors, volunteers, parents, staff (and, of course, horses) had eagerly awaited this event and knew something was in the air that day.
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2008 First Quarter - Our Mission...Our Vision...Our Future...
The recent Thirtieth Anniversary Celebration of Family Residences and Essential Enterprises, Inc. (FREE) was a time of reflection on our past accomplishments and an expression of belief in our future.
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