cidny

Youth Transitions Program: Preparing for the Future

CIDNY’s youth transition program for youth with disabilities helps high school or college students plan their transition into adult life. We use the Next Step program, a six to nine week curriculum to teach students the soft skills needed for success. These include effective communication, managing a budget, and how to advocate for themselves as they continue on to college and the working world.

For students who want to work right after high school, we help them prepare their resumes, learn how to interview, and give them an opportunity to interact in a work environment. We treat the classroom like a workplace, with teachers as bosses or supervisors and classmates as fellow co-workers. Students are taught how to speak and act with different people.

M.D., a high school student in Queens, was very quiet and tended to mumble when answering questions at the start of the program. As the Next Step program progressed, he started sounding more confident when answering questions. At the mock interview workshop towards the end of the program, he came dressed for an interview, spoke clearly, and was prepared to answer questions about himself. M.D. said he’s interested “in rapping” but also “in mechanics or painting (like contractor work.)” He’s now enrolled in a vocational program at Co-op Tech.

For youth with disabilities who see college as an option, we provide information on how to prepare for it. Activities create an awareness of the laws that exist to protect people with disabilities. This is critical for successful independent living.

The Next Step program’s workshops and presentations are tailored to the needs of the youth with disabilities we serve. We provide support so they can start their life after high school or college with confidence and awareness of the laws that protect people with disabilities.

In the 2016-2017 school year, we delivered the Next Step program workshops to 126 youth with disabilities in nine different high schools, including a residential school in Queens. We also helped 18 college students at two Queens area colleges. With the help of ASL interpreters, the Next Step program was also delivered to a group of six Deaf students during the summer.

CIDNY’s youth transition program is gearing up to deliver workplace readiness and/or college preparation workshops for the new school year.

For more information, please contact Shireen Khan at skhan@cidny.org or 646-442-1521.

You might also enjoy this video featuring the Director of CIDNY Queens, Don Rickenbaugh, sharing his advice for youth with disabilities.

New Program at CIDNY: NY Connects

NY Connects helps people with disabilities and seniors understand their long-term care options.

CIDNY recently hired 23 new staff members to complete our NY Connects team. The NY Connects team includes: a program director, an education and training coordinator, one program support, four borough managers, an outreach coordinator, two outreach workers, and 13 benefits counselors.

Our NY Connects team members speak 12 languages other than English. These include: Spanish, Greek, Arabic, ASL, Vietnamese, Haitian Creole, Portuguese, Urdu, Hindi, Punjabi, Bengali, and Romanian.

The staff identify with several disabilities, including but not limited to: learning disabilities, visual, hearing, and physical disabilities. Their backgrounds include: law, social work, human services, outreach, counseling, education, and emergency management.

CIDNY’s NY Connects Program’s goal is to link disabled New Yorkers with the resources to help meet their long term care needs. Benefits counselors will offer peer-centered counseling and connect disabled New Yorkers in each borough to local services and programs.

Through a comprehensive screening process, NY Connects benefits counselors provide personalized counseling. They help participants make informed decisions. They can assist in accessing available services and support options that meet existing or future long term needs.

CIDNY’s NY Connects partners with several ILCs throughout the city so we can have a physical presence in every borough. We also partner to get the word out about what NY Connects can do to serve the disabled population in our city.

CIDNY’s NY Connects is a trusted service to get free information about the range of supports that can help a person with disabilities (PWD) remain independent. This is available whether they want to live in their home, a nursing home, or other residential setting.

Who We Serve

NY Connects serves individuals of all ages and income levels who want to learn more about long term services and supports in New York City. We serve:

Adults of all ages living with a long term disability
Adults with a disability regardless of income source(s)
Younger adults living with a long term disability
Caregivers of adults and parents of children with a disability
Professional service providers who work with someone in need of long term services and supports.

How to Contact Us for Help with Long Term Care Goals

Launching on September 1st 2017, the NY Connects benefits counselors can be reached at 844-862-7930.

Locations

Benefits counselors are available to help at our offices in Queens (80-02 Kew Gardens Rd, #400, Queens, NY 11415) and Manhattan (841 Broadway, Suite 301, New York, NY 10003).

We are partnering with other organizations to have convenient locations throughout the city:

In the Bronx at 4419 3rd Ave, Suite 2C, Bronx, NY 10457

In Brooklyn at 27 Smith Street, Suite 200, Brooklyn, NY 11201

In Staten Island at 56 Bay Street, Staten Island, NY 10301

CIDNY Writers Workshop – A Great Outlet for Creativity

Since 2009, CIDNY and the New York Writers Coalition (NYWC) have teamed to produce a Writers’ Workshop for people with disabilities at CIDNY’s Manhattan offices. The workshop provides a safe space for people with disabilities to express their thoughts and stretch their creativity through writing.

Avra Wing, the facilitator for CIDNY’s workshop, said she was, “amazed and astounded and fascinated by the directions people’s creativity takes them.” Avra is a poet, essayist, and novelist and is also a person with a disability.

In 2011 selections from CIDNY’s group were published in a book produced by the New York Writers’ Coalition, Insight Out. The book is available on Amazon. The group has also performed public readings at the Jefferson Market Library on 6th Avenue.

CIDNY’s popular and highly successful writers’ group welcomes new members at any time. The group meets every Thursday from 3:30-5:30. Watch CIDNY’s calendar for information. Call 212-674-2300 to find out more and how to join.

From time-to-time, we will publish people’s selections on this blog or on our storytelling page. We encourage you to respect the rules of the group – no hostile or negative comments about someone’s writing, but feel free to react to what in the story resonated with you or what you enjoyed about it.

Starting us off is Samaris Ayala, a long time CIDNY participant and volunteer, who sent us this poem:

the community

may help

people with

benefits

the community

heals itself

by helping

the most

unfortunate

nothing

wrong

with helping

those who

receive

benefits

Report on City Curb Cuts Agrees with Disability Community Concerns

People with disabilities who have trouble using New York City sidewalks and curb cuts have a reason for hope.

A Special Master, someone appointed by a judge to make recommendations, looked at a proposed settlement on curb cuts. He is a national expert on the Americans with Disabilities Act and disability rights. It is now up to Judge Daniels to accept all or some of the Special Master’s twelve recommendations.

The Special Master agrees with our arguments and concerns. We are pleased that our advocacy and statements made by people with disabilities made a difference.

In 2014, CIDNY staff and volunteers surveyed 1066 curbs in lower Manhattan. We showed the horrible conditions of the City’s curb cuts. At the same time, a settlement negotiated with the City by United Spinal was being reviewed. Judge Daniels agreed that other groups representing people with disabilities could weigh in on the new proposal.

CIDNY, with other coalition partners and individuals with disabilities represented by Disability Rights Advocates and Cravath Swaine & Moore LLP, told the court that the new proposal didn’t work for all people with disabilities. We told the Judge that the proposal did not require the City to follow the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). It did not include the needs of people who are blind. It did not give the City deadlines, a monitoring process, or ensure that curb cuts would be fixed to meet requirements of the ADA in the next 20 years.

Advocates from CIDNY and our coalition partners shared their experiences trying to use City streets. People who use wheelchairs or who are blind told the Judge about having to get off the sidewalks and into traffic because of missing or bad curb cuts. They told the Judge about ending up in the middle of an intersection when curb cuts didn’t have raised bumps that let them know they are leaving the sidewalk. People also told of tripping or having their wheelchairs tip over because of bad curb cuts.

Testimony by New Yorkers with disabilities helped the court and the Special Master understand the need for a better settlement on curb cuts.

You can help us continue to make a difference. We work on a lot of issues that affect people with disabilities. These include health coverage, transportation, housing, education, and employment. To find out more or to get involved, contact Monica Bartley (mbartley@cidny.org). Monica can connect you with our CIDNY Action Network. She can help you get involved in specific advocacy activities or learn more about what we’re doing. Your voice can be heard.