CSC Honors Leaders in Educational Innovation

CSC Honors Leaders in Educational Innovation
This year, Community Services for Children will present the Inez and Edward Donley Award for Children’s Advocacy to Education 2010! Education 2010, composed of the LV’s leading CEOs/companies, addresses the educational needs facing children of the Lehigh Valley by serving as a stimulus for identification, development, and implementation of new and innovative ideas for educating students.

The Donley Advocacy Award is the highlight of CSC’s 15th Annual Champions for Children Celebration. This year’s event is scheduled for 6-9:30 pm, Friday, September 10, 2010, at The Eastonian (25th St exit off Rt 22). Air Products is the Presenting Sponsor. Amy Burkett of PBS-39 will emcee the event.

This year’s Celebration also marks Head Start’s 45th anniversary, which began modestly in Easton. Since 1965, Head Start of the Lehigh Valley has grown to provide services throughout the Lehigh Valley to more than 1200 Head Start children and their families. Families enrolled in Head Start earn an average $13,000 per year. Through Head Start, parents learn skills necessary to gain greater independence and their children arrive in our public schools ready to achieve.

Auction items will reflect the theme :Back to the Beginning: 1965′ along with the decor. Tickets are $110, which includes an evening of scrumtious casual dining provided by Gala Gourmet plus the beat of Fusion Jazz Trio. For information, call 610-437-6000, ext 2101.

3S33d_admin September 21st, 2010

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Demolition Begins

CSC to Build Nursery for Abused Children
Community Services for Children (CSC) is preparing a new Infant/Toddler & Family Center on its campus in East Allentown. The Center will provide a unique therapeutic nursery for children who have suffered abuse or neglect, generally related to parental drug or alcohol abuse. Operations for the center are provided through Early Head Start and both Lehigh and Northampton County Children & Youth departments. The program began modestly in 2003 with 15 young children. Stimulus funding has expanded funded enrollment to 39. There are no other programs like it in the region.

To make way for the new Center, CSC is demolishing one of three buildings it owns adjacent to the Allentown State Hospital. This was previously known as “The Stepping Stone” building when The Allentown State Hospital owned all the buildings.

Removal of debris and abatement and removal of asbestos is scheduled for early April to mid May. The bags of debris will be removed daily and disposed of as outlined in PA EPA guidelines. Between mid May to early June, the building will be removed brick-by-brick. Site preparation and construction is expected from late summer to September 2011.
Contractors to date include Sargent Enterprises of Jim Thorpe for trash removal, Empire Wrecking Company of Reading, PA for abatement and demolition, Liberty Engineering of Allentown for civil engineering /site development, and Barry Isett & Associates of Trexlertown for Phase 1 environmental study.

3S33d_admin September 21st, 2010

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Margraf joins Board

Paula Margraf, Executive Vice President of CSC and Director of Head Start/Early Head Start of the Lehigh Valley, recently joined the board of directors for the Pennsylvania Head Start Association (PHSA). PHSA represents the interests of all the children and families enrolled or eligible for Head Start, especially providing education to legislators about the importance of early education to prepare children to succeed in school.

3S33d_admin September 21st, 2010

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Dr. Seuss

Cat in the Hat Returns
Dr. Seuss never fails to amuse our youngsters in Head Start! And thanks to more than 40 community volunteers, smiles were wide when we celebrated the ol’ cat’s b-day March 2nd.

“Reading to children is essential to building literacy,” said Jane Ervin, CEO. “And community volunteers coming into the classroom tells the children that lots of adults care about them. But quite frankly, it’s fun to read to the kids!”

Many organizations promoted the event as a community involvement project, allowing staff to take time from their busy days to visit the children. Companies included PNC Bank (21 employees), Air Products (15 employees), Susquehanna Bank (7 employees), Bethlehem Fire and Police Departments (3), Easton Fire Department, Smith/Coleman Realty, Allentown Recycling Dept. Additional community-minded readers included Allentown Mayor Ed Pawlowski, David Ellowitch, Zac Cohen, and Megan Santucci. CSC Board members also participated: Pam Dent, Dr. Jarret Patton, and Melanie Wursta.

3S33d_admin September 21st, 2010

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Autism

Integrated Approaches to Autism Intervention, part 1
Friday, April 9, 2010
8:30 am – noon
CSC Donley Campus Training Institute
1520 Hanover Ave
Allentown
Speakers: Anita Elsberry, OTR/L, Pediatric Occupational Therapist and Carol Walck, MC CCC-SLP, Speech Language Pathologist
$30/person
Act 48 credits available

Integrated Approaches to Autism Intervention, part 2
Friday, May 7, 2010
8:30 am – noon
CSC Donley Campus Training Institute
1520 Hanover Ave
Allentown
Speakers: Anita Elsberry, OTR/L, Pediatric Occupational Therapist and Carol Walck, MC CCC-SLP, Speech Language Pathologist
$30/person
Act 48 credits available

Understanding and Navigating Autism Services
Friday, June 18, 2010
8:30 am – noon
CSC Donley Campus Training Institute
1520 Hanover Ave
Allentown
Speaker: Glenn Koch, MA, CAC Licensed Psychologist
$30/person
Act 48 credits available

3S33d_admin September 21st, 2010

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Daub Exec Joins Board

Thomas Daub recently joined CSC’s Board of Directors. He writes modestly that “the car business has always been a big part of my life. When I was young my father would drop me off on Saturday’s to wash cars. I have spent time in all the different departments of the dealership.” Mr. Daub is currently a partner in four of the seven Board Daub dealerships and general manager of two of them. He holds a B.A. in Economics from St. Lawrence University. In addition to the CSC Board, Tom serves on the boards of the Children’s Home of Easton and Two Rivers Area Chamber of Commerce (TRACC).

3S33d_admin September 21st, 2010

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Crayola Exec Joins Board

CSC recently welcomed Michelle Powers to the Board of Dirvectors. Ms. Powers is VP for Human Resources, Corporate Affairs & Administration at Crayola. She has worldwide responsibility for human resources activities, including staffing, organizational effectiveness, learning and development, employee relations, benefits and compensation, corporate affairs, corporate communication, administrative services, environmental health & safety. The Crayola Factory also reports to her. Previously, Ms. Powers held management positions with American Express and Bank One/JP Morgan Chase. She received a BA from Ohio Wesleyan University in psychology, sociology and anthropology.

3S33d_admin September 21st, 2010

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SafeStart Expands

In a competitive bid for Recovery Funds available through the US Department of Health & Human Services, CSC was awarded $1,028,000 to expand its Early Head Start/SafeStart program by an additional 24 children in Allentown, PA. $500,000 of the grant is earmarked for new construction.

Early Head Start/SafeStart provides early intervention to assist development of infants and toddlers who have suffered abuse or neglect. This is a unique day program provided collaboratively with the Children and Youth Departments of Lehigh and Northampton counties. The additional 24 children will be supported in part by Lehigh County, whose focus is also on prevention.
Like all Head Start programs, staff work with both children and their parents or other care givers (some reside in foster care). County case workers are intensely involved with both parents and children as well, working together with CSC on behalf of child well being, child safety and permanence of living environment.

Extensive research shows that CSC’s Early Head Start/SafeStart program mitigates the worst effects of infant/toddler trauma and prevents further abuse and neglect. As studies show, all children resolve some symptoms and 26% of children resolve all symptoms. At age 3, the children enroll in Head Start until kindergarten. About 60% of them are considered on-age developmentally at this time as compared to 12% who enter Head Start without previous interventions.

Low child-teacher ratios, special therapeutic interventions, year round daily programming including transportation, home visits, and other intense work with parents characterize SafeStart. Only one other center-based collaborative program between County Welfare Departments and Early Head Start exists in the country.

“Our collaboration with Lehigh’s Children and Youth has been especially productive because our goals match so closely,” said Paula Margraf, Executive Vice President of CSC and Director of Head Start/Early Head Start of the Lehigh Valley.

Expanded enrollment will begin March 2010 in the Fowler Building on CSC’s Donley Children’s Campus in East Allentown. Plans are underway to demolish an aging building on the campus to make way for a new, uniquely focused family-infant-toddler center whose aim, like Early Head Start/SafeStart will be to stop the cycle of abuse and neglect, helping parents to be safe and supportive, and their children to develop normally and successfully.

Nationally, 75% of deaths attributed to abuse and neglect occur to children age 3 and under. The earliest possible intervention is best for all at-risk children.
Developmental delays, teacher ratios, infant-toddler mental health services, and special sensory, speech and physical therapy add to the cost of this special program. However, if problems are resolved early, society is spared a life-time of costs as early as kindergarten when the child exhibits academic, emotional, social, and physical challenges promulgated by years of neglect.
In bald economic terms, it’s a matter of “pay now or pay much more later,” said Jane Ervin, CEO/President of CSC.

3S33d_admin September 21st, 2010

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Classrooms Reopen

The Pennsylvania budget finalized passed enables CSC to reopen 12 of the classrooms we delayed, affecting 233 children. Unfortunately, the delay means that the school year will fall far short of its 180 days to merely 160. With fewer days, these children who typically begin the year far behind their middle class peers in all areas of development will have a greater hurdle to master before kindergarten.

The budget delay has additional impact across the entire 13-county area where CSC provides some of its services. The Regional Key, which provides professional development and quality improvement services to 900 child care providers reports continued issues with many who had to curtail their programs while Harrisburg kept child care subsidies for the 100-day ordeal. With fewer hours in some cases and outright closures in others, thousands of parents scrambled to find alternatives. Many had to quit jobs or school. Providers themselves scrambled to find the cash to keep their doors open as long as possible, some taking mortgages and running up credit card debt. Many child care workers took pay cuts or went without pay all together.

It’ll be a long time before the misery caused by the delay dissipates.

3S33d_admin September 21st, 2010

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Autism Conference

Community Services for Children, in conjunction with a half dozen public and private organizations, is planning a full-day conference on autism, February 19, 2010, at the Fogelsville Holiday Inn. Keynote speaker is Dr. Vincent Carbone, a nationally-renowned speaker, author, and developer of approaches to teaching children with autism.
Autism is a complex disorder of the central nervous system of unknown cause and without cure. It is considered one of the major health problems of the current era with estimates running as high as one child in 150 falling within the autism spectrum.

Individuals with autism generally have three defining characteristics: problems with social interactions, impaired verbal and non verbal communication, and a pattern of repetitive behavior with narrow, restricted interests. Autism may appear with mild symptoms in which a child has some difficulty with social nuances, making friends and behaving appropriately to very severely involved children whose verbal skills are slim to none or seem to be living in a world of their own. Sometimes infants seem to be developing normally and suddenly show symptoms of autism. For instance, a child may be walking and talking normally for their age at 18 months and suddenly stop talking all together.

For a conference of this caliber, professionals typically must travel a distance. For parents, such a conference is usually out of the question due to time, travel and cost. Conference fees have been set to accommodate both. The professional fee is $75; parent fee is $20.

A multidisciplinary panel of experts on the topic will also be featured. Continuing education credits will be available for teachers, social workers, and psychologists. A resource fair will be available for parents. The other organizations helping to develop the conference include: ARCH of Lehigh Valley, The Autism Society of America Lehigh Valley Chapter, Glenn Koch & Associates, Lehigh-Carbon Intermediate Unit #21, Lehigh County Early Intervention, and Northampton County Early Intervention.

For more information, contact Gregory Edwards, 610-437-6000, ext 2106; gedwards@cscinc.org.

3S33d_admin September 21st, 2010

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