Dear Staff,
As this year comes to a close, we wanted to take this opportunity to thank you for all your dedication during this difficult year. As we look forward to the end of the year, the holidays have taken on new meaning for us all. We wish all of you a season filled with hope, peace and health.
As we turn our attention to next year, we want to thank all the staff who have attended the Town Hall meetings Rob Ciatto has been hosting in the past week. In these meetings Rob has spoken with the staff regarding some of the changes that were announced last month in an email sent to all staff.
The New York State Office for People with Developmental Disabilities (OPWDD) has recently implemented significant cuts to all voluntary provider agencies, including ACLD. In short, we are faced with a budget deficit of over $7 million dollars due to rate reductions paired with the general impact of the pandemic. In order to maintain financial stability and avoid reduction in workforce, ACLD identified specific areas to achieve cost savings.
The two main areas where you will see changes next year are with health insurance and agency 401K pension contributions. Human Resource Department will be explaining the changes to the health insurance plan. In regards to changes to the agency pension contributions, the agency 401K match will be suspended for the upcoming 2021 year. We absolutely understand the importance of these benefits and have done our best to minimize the impact these changes have on you and your family. With just some of these changes, and other restructuring throughout the agency, we have successfully brought down that $7 million dollar deficit, and persevered jobs.
We will continue to communicate with our workforce on any updates, so we encourage you to check your agency emails, the ADP website and this employee newsletter for updated information.
We wish you a healthy, happy and peaceful holiday season and look forward to the start of a brand new year.
Sincerely,
Bob, Rob and Kim
Robert C. Goldsmith, Executive Director
Robert Ciatto, Chief Operating Officer
Kim Leonard, Chief Financial Officer
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Exemplary Service Awards! |
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Congratulations to Felicia Cantres, Gina Purser and Amy Schmeling for each receiving the ACLD Exemplary Service Award for 2020! In this unprecedented year, these three employees demonstrated their unwavering commitment to our mission and made a huge impact on the lives of the people we support.
Felicia, Seaford House Manager, stepped up and started working in the Roslyn home at the beginning of the pandemic, while also still running her Seaford home at the same time!
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Gina, Community Habilitation Manager, hosted a beautiful wedding in her backyard for a man supported in her program who had to cancel his original dream wedding due to COVID-19.
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Amy, Chichester House Manager, had the first house with COVID-19 positive residents, and worked around the clock to care for each person supported, while also working shifts at the Respite Center in Bethpage.
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From everyone at ACLD, thank you for all you do to
embody and further our mission every day!
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Gail White-Rison Scholarship! |
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Congratulations to Artesha Tyler-Granville, Coordinator of Regulatory Affairs, for winning the Gail White-Rison Scholarship for 2020! Artesha, who spent her first 11 years at ACLD in Residential Services and the last 4 in Regulatory Affairs, is known for her dedication to safe guarding the men and women we support and her passion for our mission.
She is currently enrolled in the Stony Brook Master's Cohort program, a decision she was inspired to make by Gail White-Rison herself. This scholarship is well deserved and she will be graduating this coming spring with her Master's in Liberal Studies, with a concentration in Human Services.
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Decade Milestone at ACLD! |
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Congratulations to Melissa Montanez, ACLD's Residents Benefits Bookkeeper, for celebrating 20 years at ACLD!
Melissa actually began her career with ACLD as a Bi-lingual Aid at The Kramer Learning Center, and then as the Records Clerk for the school. After leaving ACLD for a short time, Melissa returned to the agency in 2000 as the Senior Biller, a position she held for 19 years. Last year she was then promoted to her current position of Residents Benefits Bookkeep.
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Last month she was presented with her 20 Year Certificate and recognized for her years of service at a small gathering with her department. As a testament to her excellent work and commitment to our mission, she was named "Employee of the Quarter" for the Administration Staff in the Fall of last year (bottom right). |
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Yudith Escobar-SINCHI, an ACLD Direct Support Professional in the Ronkonkoma house, will be leaving ACLD at the end of this year because she was accepted into the American University of Antigua College of Medicine!
Over the past 5 years, Yudith has not only excelled at caring for the men and women we support, but is known as a great trainer for new staff and was always willing to help out by working extra shifts in the home when needed. Yudith especially stepped up to the plate this year during the pandemic and was at the house day and night to cover any shifts and to safeguard our residents.
Yudith's Manager, Jennifer Stegemann, said "Yudith will truly be missed and we are all extremely proud of her accomplishments. We are lucky to have had her for the past 5 years and we wish her the best in her new journey."
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December Employee Spotlight |
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As we close out this year, we want to highlight one more amazing employee here at ACLD, Sabine Maynard, Associate Director of Regulatory Affairs.
Sabine is known for being a role model, for her exceptional service to the people we support and for always willing to help any fellow staff member.
In addition to her work in Regulatory Affairs, she has been instrumental in the creation and growth of the RewearAble program. Her passion for the program's mission has been demonstrated countless times over the years; including when the program visited Saks on 5th Avenue and she took the women we support to get their makeup done in the store, and when she traveled to Poland to work with our overseas partner and learn about their clothing sorting process.
Rosmaliz Valdes-Romero, Operations Manager of RewearAble, said of Sabine, "She will do whatever is necessary to ensure that her staff feel supported and happy. Sabine is extremely reliable, self sufficient and is an excellent leader."
Thank you Sabine for all you have done for ACLD and to help the people we support to live enviable lives!
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ACLD's Chief Operating Officer Rob Ciatto has held four virtual Town Hall meetings over the past two weeks that are open to all staff across the agency. These Town Halls are held to discuss the state of ACLD, updates on State budget cuts and our continued work in responding to this pandemic and ensuring the safety of our workforce and people supported.
The last Town Halls are tomorrow 10/10/20 at 10:00 am and then again at 3:00 pm. See below for the links to join. All staff are welcome to join and are encouraged to ask Rob any questions they have.
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Liz Symons, ACLD Hiring Manager, organized "Cranksgiving in the Station", a scavenger hunt and food drop for a food pantry in Huntington Station last weekend.
"Cranksgiving" is a national movement in which groups of people in different parts of the country get together to bike around their neighborhoods and collect food and other goods for people in need.
Liz took it upon herself to start the first Cranksgiving in Huntington Station, along with her family, friends, ACLD Staff and some men and women from the Chichester community residence. Source the Station, a Huntington revitalization group, provided Liz with a $450 grant to create pamphlets and flyers with the Scavenger Hunt information and map, and the awesome jars you see below with the "Cranksgiving" Turkey to give to all participants.
Awesome job Liz for getting the community together for this great cause!
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The food and goods were collected here before being dropped off at the Food Panty |
Scavenger hunt began at the Walt Whitman Mall, thanks to the Mall Security and the Suffolk County Police. |
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Food and goods collected
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Men and women from the Chichester residence joining the scavenger hunt |
"Cranksgiving" Jar designed by Joe Cipriano, ACLD Benefits Manager
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Orientation Manual Art Contest |
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The Art Contest to decide the new cover of the ACLD Orientation Manual is over, and last week the voting began! Today our Program Without Walls picked up the Art Contest ballots from our community residences and delivered them to the Day Habilitation program in the 837 Building on the Bethpage campus to be tallied up.
All people supported who attend a Day Program, and those in community residences who have not returned to program yet were able to participate and submit a design for the contest. The winner will be announced on December 14th.
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ACLD employee Genine Wightman of "Music by Genine" will be playing Holiday Music for the ACLD Family on December 18th at 12:30 pm.
She will be streamed LIVE on YouTube at the link below. Tune in with your programs for this fun holiday concert!
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ACLD Children’s Services hosted a “Cruise to Nowhere” for their staff during their Conference Day last month.
There were Team Building activities during the day that included a “What’s in Your Phone” game and a “Cruise/Ocean” Door Decorating Contest. The staff voted and the top three choices won a prize! A Photo “Booth” area was also set up with Cruise photo props for staff to take pictures together. At the end of the day, the winners of the games and door prizes gathered to spin the Prize Wheel!
Each department including Speech, Motor, Mental Health, and ABA, participated in Professional Development through Zoom Webinars either as a group (socially distanced of course) or individually.
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At The Kramer Learning Center, a motley group of professionals have stepped up to become the “Bus Crew” to take temperatures, aka “the numbers”, of our students every day.
This challenging but necessary task is especially difficult during inclement weather when everyone wants to rush inside right away. Thanks to their creative tent constructions in front of the school, and the teamwork at Kramer, staff and families are able to get inside quickly and stay dry and comfortable while waiting. Great job everyone!
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The ACLD Giving Tree has graced the Bethpage campus again this year, and the presents that it helps get for families in ACLD's Children's Services and adults in our community residences who don't have family, will bring holiday cheer in a year when it's needed most.
The gift requests from the families and people supported were all written down on individual tags and hung up on the tree located in the 807 building on the Bethpage campus. Amazingly, the over 200 tags were taken by generous members of our ACLD Family almost right away.
A huge thanks goes to everyone who supported this project, including ACLD Staff, Margolin, Winer and Evans, LLP and Megan McCormack of ACLD's Sibling Network.
A special appreciation also goes to Susan Legge, Physical Education Teacher of Harborfields High School and two of the school's groups "Athletes Helping Athletes" and "Best Buddies" for getting their communities involved with buying presents for the Giving Tree as well.
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Employee Engagement Days are BACK! The Organizational Care Committee thought it would be the perfect time to bring back our Engagement Days next week on Wednesday December 16th with our Holiday Sweater theme – but this year – with a twist!
Make sure you wear your Holiday Mask or Sweater and send pictures of you and your team to wysockis@acld.org.
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January
ACLD's presentation to the Council on Quality and Leadership (CQL)
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February
Employee Engagement Day: Wear Red
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March
Employee of the Quarter Luncheon
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April
The Respite Center on our Bethpage campus
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May
Residential staff staying #ACLDStrong
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June
Art projects at community residences
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July
Getting some exercise outside on a beautiful day
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August
Day Habilitation re-opens with music classes
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September
Direct Support Professionals Week 2020
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October
Girl Scout Cookie donations to community residences
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November
"Cranksgiving in the Station" scavenger hunt and food drop
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December
Award presentations for Exemplary Service & Gail White-Rison Scholarship
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Direct Care Professional Learning Academy |
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In an effort to provide professional development opportunities for our essential direct care workforce, ACLD will be introducing a new training initiative in January 2021.
While it is no secret that the work of our direct care professionals is critically important to the lives of people with intellectual and developmental disabilities, the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic has highlighted just how essential our workforce truly is. ACLD understands that our direct care staff are our most valuable asset.
This ten-module training framework represents professional development skills training specifically designed for ACLD’s Essential Direct Care staff. The Professional Learning Academy is in alignment with the NADSP Code of Ethics and its core themes are customized to reflect ACLD’s culture, core values, mission and best practices.
To minimize time away from your program, each module is only 2 ½ - 3 hours in length. As our logo shows, the main focus of the training is in four key areas: knowledge, ethics, tools and opening your heart.
The Professional Learning Academy will begin in January with a pilot of 10 direct care staff from across all programs. These 10 direct care staff will evaluate the current training and provide necessary feedback on changes. We are committed to building a stronger future for our direct care professionals and it starts now! For more information, please call Sharon Geiselmann at 516-822-0028 ext. 240
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Do we have your updated contact information? ACLD communicates with our staff in times of emergencies via our notification system.
Please let Mary Candela know if you have changed your phone numbers or if you aren't sure that ACLD has your updated contact information at candelam@acld.org
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Don't forget to give a SHOUT OUT to recognize someone at your location for something special they did for you, your department or a person we support. |
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The Organizational Care Committee is always looking for new ideas and suggestions from all of YOU to continue to make ACLD one of the best places to work, and for children and adults to receive supports and services.
Please share your ideas and suggestions anytime at brightideabox@acld.org or by using the "Bright Idea Box" at one of the following ACLD locations.
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807 Building
837 Building
857 Building
Program Without Walls
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Kramer Learning Center
Spiegel Children's Center
Hauppauge Day Program
Levittown Day Program
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Glen Cove Day Program
Westbury Day Program
Farmingdale Day Program
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See the training status of your employees by going to the Center For Learning (CFL) home page on ACLD Today and clicking on the STAFF TRAININGS link (see the blue arrow on the image below).
The newest report there covers employee certification in AMAP, SCIP, CPR-First Aid and AED (New Version highlights when staff are close to or already expired)
NOTE: This report includes extensions made to staff certification expiration dates.
Click on a report to view this information and stay on top of the training and recertification needs of your employees.
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Human Resources is conducting virtual interviews |
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ACLD's Human Resources Department is giving applicants the option of either in-person or virtual interviews. Job offers and New hire Orientation are being offered in person. |
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REMINDER that Open Enrollment ends this Friday, December 11th. All changes to your benefits must be completed, and the changes will take effect on January 1st 2021. |
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You can login to the ADP Self-Service Portal above, and go to Myself > Benefits > Enrollments to make changes.
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Temporary Employee Procedures |
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Please review the “Temporary Employee Procedures for COVID-19 Period”. The following areas have been either significantly revised or new information has been added to the document:
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- COVID-19 Symptoms
- When to Quarantine due to COVID-19
- How long to quarantine
- Medical documentation needed for an employee who is required to quarantine due to COVID-19
- Testing for COVID-19
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CLICK HERE for New York’s most current list of travel restricted states.
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Carrie Savino of ACLD's Transportation Department, is proud to announce her son-in-law, Thomas Shea, has been promoted to Lieutenant Colonel, United States Air Force. He is currently assigned to the 1st Helicopter Squadron at Joint Base Andrews, Maryland as the Director of Operations.
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Chelsea Sweeney, Kramer Learning Center Occupational Therapist, is expecting a boy on February 4, 2021!
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Development congratulates our own Jonathan Dolan on his nuptials to Angela Puma on October 16th.
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Welcome ACLD New Hires - November |
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Ariana M. Bowes - Direct Support Professional - Lynbrook
Cherae T. Moore-Drew - Teacher Aide - Kramer Learning Center
Damari Z. Blades - Direct Support Professional - Northport
Daphney Sylvain - Direct Support Professional - East Meadow
Ecaterina S. Callender - Direct Support Professional - Magnolia Manor
Franck B. Payen - Direct Support Professional - Lynbrook
Ingrid Leon - Direct Support Professional - Ontario
Jacqueline Boucher - Direct Support Professional - Ontario
James P. Stallone - Direct Support Professional - Ronkonkoma
Jean W. Destra - Day Habilitation Specialist - Levittown
Jessica L. Bel-Summer - Registered Nurse - Bethpage 857
Joshua D. Woods - Direct Support Professional - Rainbow 921
Luna Raymond - Direct Support Professional - Bethpage 857
Marie D. Fils-Aime - Direct Support Professional - Plainview
Melissa A. Alfaro - Teacher Aide - Kramer Learning Center
Michelle L. Maxwell - Behavior Support Specialist - Kramer Learning Center
Nashera T. Mulby - Direct Support Professional - Dix Hills
Noondgee Augustin - Registered Nurse - Bethpage 857
Oluronke O. Fagbuyi - Registered Nurse - Bethpage 857
Rafaella M. Dorcin - Registered Nurse - Bethpage 857
Remy Jean - Direct Support Professional - Lynbrook
Thamar St. Cyr - Direct Support Professional - Dix Hills
Veronica J. Booker - Direct Support Professional - Great Neck
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Live Love Laugh with ACLD |
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Thank you to all those who supported the ACLD Foundation's "Live Love Laugh with ACLD" this past Friday night. The evening included highlights of our staff during this trying year. For those who could not join us LIVE, you can view it on our website here.
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Shop for the holidays while supporting ACLD! |
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The holiday season is here! Make a purchase on Amazon and ACLD receives a percentage of your purchase as a donation.
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You must use the Amazon Smile link in the button above for ACLD to receive the donation. Thank you for your continued support of the ACLD Foundation. |
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"the limelight" is an initiative of the
Communications Committee
and is produced by the
Development and Community Relations Department.
Jonathan Dolan, Editor. For questions, comments or suggestions, please email dolanj2@acld.org
Thank you to all who have submitted information
and photos. Keep them coming!
We welcome your comments and suggestions.
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