January News & Updates

January 13, 2026

A Message from the CEO

Dear Price Center Community,

As we welcome the start of 2026, I want to take a moment to reflect with gratitude and to look ahead with hope.

The past year reminded us—again and again—of the strength that lives within our community. Our individuals, families, staff, and supporters continue to show resilience, kindness, and an unwavering belief in what is possible when people are truly seen, valued, and supported. It is an honor to walk alongside you in this shared mission.

At The Price Center, our work has always been about more than programs or services. It is about dignity. It is about opportunity. It is about creating spaces where individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities can live meaningful lives, build skills, form relationships, and feel a true sense of belonging.

As we step into this new year, we do so with renewed commitment—to listen deeply, to lead with compassion, and to continue strengthening the quality, safety, and creativity of the supports we provide. We are excited about the opportunities ahead and remain focused on growth that is thoughtful, inclusive, and rooted in our values.

To our families: thank you for your trust, partnership, and advocacy. To our staff: thank you for your dedication, heart, and daily acts of care that so often go unseen but never go unfelt. To our broader community: thank you for believing in the mission of The Price Center and for standing with us.

May 2026 be a year filled with hope, progress, and moments of joy—both big and small. We look forward to continuing this journey together.

With gratitude and warm wishes for the New Year,

Abby

This Month

Remembering Dan Frank
Last Call: Tell Us How We're Doing!
Another Brick in the Kindness Café Wall
What's Cooking at The Price Center
Staff Milestones and Additions
Artist of the Month: Justine
Did you know?
January Calendar
Happening in the Community

Remembering Dan Frank

It is with a heavy heart that The Price Center annouces that Dan Frank, a beloved member of our community and long-time supporter of The Price Center, has passed away. Dan had been a pivotal member of the Price community for almost all of our 50 years, and was the true embodiment of what it means to live our mission. Dan was a powerful ally to our individuals and had nothing but love and passion for our programs.

The Frank family has asked that any remembrances be sent to The Price Center in Dan's honor.

Make a Gift in Dan's Memory

Last Call: Tell Us How We're Doing!

Take our 2025 Family Satisfaction Survey

How is The Price Center doing? What are we doing well? What could we improve on? We want to hear from you!

Every year, our Family Satisfaction Survey helps us better understand where you see room for improvement in our programs, services, and offerings to you and your loved ones. Your feedback helps us learn what we're doing well, ways we can improve, and how we can continue to best serve our individuals and our families.

Please take 10 minutes to answer our 2025 Family Satisfaction Survey. All responses are confidential; names will not be shared in the published report, and you can remain anonymous, if you wish.

Your feedback is invaluable in helping us improve our programs and services. Thank you for partnering with us to support your loved ones and strengthen The Price Center community.

Take the Family Satisfaction Survey

Another Brick in the Wall at The Price Center Kindness Café

Highlighting our legacy of Inclusion, Opportunity, and Empowerment

The Kindness Café at The Price Center makes every cup of coffee much more than a beverage. It represents possibility.

The Kindness Café is a hands-on barista training and employment-readiness program that we've designed to empower adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities, including autism, with real-world skills, confidence, and pathways to meaningful employment in the community.

Through our Another Brick in the Wall sponsorship opportunity, we're inviting supporters to leave a lasting legacy while directly investing in inclusive workforce development.

Your Brick. Their Future.

With a contribution starting at $1,000, donors may sponsor a personalized brick that will be permanently installed at the Kindness Café. Each brick symbolizes a commitment to dignity, independence, and opportunity for individuals with intellectual and developmental differences, including autism.

Brick sponsorships directly support:

Hands-on barista training and job coaching
Skill development in customer service, teamwork, and workplace readiness
Pathways to competitive, integrated employment beyond The Price Center
A culture of inclusion where individuals are seen for their abilities, not their limitations

Naming & Recognition

Each sponsored brick may include the donor name, family name, business name, or dedication message, and recognition as a Founding Supporter of the Kindness Café of up to XXX letters.

Brick sponsorships start at $1,000 per brick and we have custom and corporate sponsorships available, too.

With Gratitude,

Abby

Place Your Brick Today

What's Cooking at The Price Center (and at my house)

Brewing Success in the New Year

by Mike Markowitz, Dad of Sarah and member of The Price Center Board of Directors

Happy New Year! As we step into 2026, the air at The Price Center is thick with anticipation. While the physical construction of the Kindness Café is nearing its finish line, we are now entering what I consider the most critical phase: building the human infrastructure.

The "bricks and mortar" are almost set, but a café is more than just industrial décor and espresso machines. It is about the people. Over the next few weeks, our focus shifts to intensive staff training. Our team will be mastering the equipment and fine-tuning our operations to ensure that when we do open our doors, we provide a seamless, professional experience for everyone. Once our staff is fully prepared, we will begin the heart of this project—onboarding our first cohort of trainees from the Chuck Flynn Employment Program. This "train-the-trainer" approach ensures our participants receive the highest quality mentorship in a supportive, well-organized environment.

While the physical walls are up, our "Another Brick in the Wall" campaign is still very much in progress. To be candid, we still have many "bricks" available for sponsorship. This is a unique opportunity to quite literally leave your mark on The Price Center. By sponsoring a brick, you aren't just helping us finish a room; you are funding the initial training hours for our participants and ensuring the Café has the resources to thrive in its first year. I invite you to join the families and businesses who have already stepped up to lay this foundation.

Our 2026 Priorities

While the Café is a major milestone, it is just one piece of our vision for 2026. This year, we are committed to three additional strategic pillars:

Expanding Residential Horizons: We are looking to enhance our residential supports, ensuring that "home" at The Price Center continues to be a place of growth, safety, and deep community belonging.
Community Integration 2.0: Beyond employment, we are revitalizing our social and recreational calendars to ensure our individuals are active, visible, and engaged participants in local community life and beyond.
Advocacy & Education: We will be increasing our efforts to provide families with the tools they need to navigate complex state systems, ensuring no one has to advocate for their loved one alone.

No doubt, the Café will be the "front porch" of our agency, but these priorities are the heart of our home. Thank you for walking this path with us.

What's Cooking at My House

Stanley Tucci's Timpano
Serves 12

Prep/Cook Time: 3 hours

By sharing What's Cooking at My House, I'm aiming to show that cooking good food can be quick and easy. We're also planning to demonstrate that cooking can be fun by introducing programming for The Price Center later in the year.

For now, I'm breaking the "good food, quick-and-easy promise" (just for this month) to share the dinner we made for New Year's Eve. It was neither quick nor easy, but it was yummy.

I'd been thinking about this recipe for several years and, with Sarah and my sister-in-law as sous chefs, we made this delicious monument to gluttony.

Ingredients:

For the dough:

* 3 cups all-purpose flour

* 3 large eggs

* 3/4 teaspoon kosher salt

* 2-1/4 tablespoons olive oil

* butter

For the filling

* 3 cups 3/16-in by 1/2-in Genoa salami, cut 1/2-in thick

* 3 cups sharp provolone cheese chunks, cut into 1/2-in cubes

* 3 cups small meatballs

* 5-1/2 cups marinara sauce

* 2 lbs ziti, cooked about 1/2 the time recommended on the package.

* 1-1/2 tablespoons olive oil

* 3/4 cup finely grated pecorino Romano

* 4 eggs, beaten.

Directions appear below

January Milestones

Ray Matthews 26 years

John Odugbesan 16 years

Andrew Rosenblum 8 years

Marybeth Labb 6 years

Bella Shapiro 6 years

Phoebe Ashaba 3 years

Kate Tushemereirwe 3 years

Kike Omodiale 2 years

Armetra Simmons 2 years

Judy Petit Homme Bazile 1 year

Tanya Duncan 1 year

Ketteline Hercules 1 year

Tamaris Wade 1 year

Welcome to The Team!

Ann Kyanja - Direct Care Professional, Auburn St

Snieguole Mielaikaite - Board Certified Behavioral Analyst

Fabiola Privat - Direct Care Professional, Auburn St

Brenda Shopnick - Direct Support Specialist, Specialized Supports

Artist of The Month: Justine

Untitled (2025) by Justine

Paint on wood canvas

Justine's love of unique colors inspired her to combine multiple paints to achieve this beautiful deep grey color. She shared that her favorite part of making this piece was including the swirls of white to showcase some of the ways she created this color.

Did You Know?

The ABLE Act (Achieving a Better Life Experience) allows individuals with disabilities and their families to save for disability-related expenses in tax-advantaged accounts without losing eligibility for vital public benefits like SSI and Medicaid.

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the employment population ratio for people with a disability is typically about one-third of the rate of those without a disability, highlighting why programs like our Kindness Café are so critical for closing the opportunity gap.

Neurodiversity is a concept that views neurological differences—such as Autism or ADHD—as natural variations in the human genome rather than "deficits." Embracing neurodiversity in the workplace has been shown to increase innovation and overall team morale.

Discover the Price Center: Join One of our Monthly Tours

The Price Center is offering regular tours of our programs and facilities. These tours give friends, parents, caregivers, and prospective families an in-depth look at our programs and the incredible impact they have on our community.

Our next tour is on February 10, 2026.

What to Expect:

Meet the Team: See our dedicated staff in action. Learn about our mission to empower individuals with developmental disabilities, including autism.
Explore the Programs: Discover our Community-Based Day Programs, the Charles Flynn Employment Program, our day habilitation, and community living support.
Get Inspired: Hear firsthand stories from the individuals we serve and see why we are #PriceCenterProud.

RSVP Today!

Whether you're a long-time supporter and friend of The Price Center or are checking us out for the first time, we invite you to join us!

To schedule a tour, please fill out the form below or at this link.

Don't miss an opportunity to learn more about The Price Center, the incredible work we do, the amazing people who do that work, and the even more amazing individuals we do it for. We're looking forward to welcoming you!

Happening In the Community

Pathways to Music

The Center at The Heights

300 Hillside Ave

Needham Heights

3rd Thursdays @ 6 p.m.

More Information

Have an upcoming event that our staff, individuals, or community should know about?

We want to hear about it.

Please send details to: Communications@thepricecenter.org

What's Cooking (at my house) (continued)

Directions:

Step 1: Prepare the dough: Place flour, eggs, salt and olive oil in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a dough hook. (A large-capacity food processor may also be used.) Add 3 tablespoons water and process. Add more water, 1 tablespoon at a time, until mixture comes together and forms a ball. Turn dough out onto a lightly floured work surface and knead to make sure it is well mixed, about 10 minutes. Set aside to rest for 5 minutes. (The dough may be made in advance and refrigerated overnight; return to room temperature before rolling out.) Or even easier: Use packaged pizza dough.

Step 2: Flatten dough on a lightly floured work surface. Dust top with flour and roll it out, dusting with flour and flipping the dough over from time to time, until it is about 1/16-inch thick and is the desired diameter. (To calculate the diameter for the dough round, add the diameter of the bottom of a heavy 6-quart baking pan, the diameter of the top of the pan and twice the height of the pan.) Grease the baking pan generously with butter and olive oil. Fold dough in half and then in half again, to form a triangle, and place in pan. Open dough and arrange it in the pan, gently pressing it against the bottom and the sides, draping extra dough over the sides. Set aside.

Step 3: Prepare the filling: Heat oven to 350 degrees. Have salami, provolone, meatballs and ragù sauce at room temperature. Stir ½ cup water into sauce to thin it. Toss pasta with olive oil and allow to cool slightly before tossing with 2 cups sauce. Distribute 4 generous cups of pasta on bottom of timpano. Top with 1 cup salami, 1 cup provolone, 3 eggs, 1 cup meatballs and ⅓ cup Romano cheese. Pour 2 cups sauce over ingredients. Repeat process to create additional layers until filling comes within 1 inch of the top of the pan, ending with 2 cups sauce. Pour beaten eggs over the filling. Fold pasta dough over filling to seal completely. Trim away and discard any double layers of dough. Use a small amount of water to moisten dough to ensure that a tight seal has been made and cut pieces of trimmed dough to fit over any openings.

Step 4: Bake until lightly browned, about 1 hour. Cover with aluminum foil and continue baking until the timpano is cooked through and the dough is golden brown (and reaches an internal temperature of 120 degrees), about 30 minutes. Remove from oven and allow to rest for 30 or more minutes to allow timpano to cool and contract before attempting to remove from pan. The baked timpano should not adhere to the pan. To test, gently shake pan to the left and then to the right. It should slightly spin in the pan. If any part is still attached, carefully detach with a knife.

Step 5: To remove timpano from pan, place a baking sheet or thin cutting board that covers the entire diameter on the pan on top of the timpano. Grasp the baking sheet or cutting board and the rim of the pan firmly and invert timpano. Remove pan and allow timpano to cool for 30 minutes. Using a long, sharp knife, cut a circle about 3 inches in diameter in the center of the timpano, making sure to cut all the way through to the bottom. Then slice timpano as you would a pie into individual portions, leaving the center circle as a support for the remaining pieces. The cut pieces should hold together, revealing built-up layers of great stuff.

The Price Center empowers individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities including autism to thrive in their living, social, and work communities. Every gift, whether monetary or in-kind, goes directly towards our programs and supports our individuals in achieving their goals.

Donate Today!

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