Meeting January 22, 2020

January 22 Rotary Meeting

 

Volunteer for next weeks Greeter: Kevin??

 

This week scribe – Katja

Next weeks scribe  – Lisa Fitzgerald

This week Speaker – Justin Thompson

Next week Speaker – Tristan Toleno

 

Surrender to what is. Say “yes" to life – and see how life suddenly starts working for you rather than against you.
Rose-Marie Sorokin, The Miracle of Yes

 

 

 

Guests
Anna Griffith, Employment coordinator Families First
Guest speaker by Justin

Stan Nowaski from Noon Club

Student
Conrad and Elijah from Windham Career Center

Anniversaries & Birthdays

None

 

 

 

Announcement:
Less than two months to go for 3 on 3!! Letters have gone out to sponsors. Deadline is coming up for all the big sponsors ($500 plus $1000) to get them printed on T-Shirts and advertising. Check with KJ and Diane to see if we missed anybody to send a letter to.
Do you know of any teams in the area that we should send letters to? We need players!!!

Mona: International Student Exchange. We still looking for host families and people who will assist with different tasks (host counselors, see email…)If anybody is thinking to do hosting, we would ideally like to have 4-6 families. Rather than 2 half years…

Sadie: Thursday, tomorrow we have overflow shelter dinner. Who can do a main course?? We got volunteers for main course. Thank you!!
For the next overflow dinners you can actually sign up for the remaining 3 overflow shelter meals. Just remember which one you signed up for. Go to calendar on our website or upcoming events, there is a link, you can sign up there.

Tristam: received a note from Maria in Honduras. Academic year starts in February: Carla Johanna is starting her 11^th grade in Feb 2020 at the agricultural school. She is very excited to start the new year and appreciates all the support we are giving her. She is thanking us for the past year’s supports. She wrote a letter to us where she explains all the new tasks she had gained this past year. Spanish is her favorite subject.

Thank you notes from Brattleboro Winter Carnival and Clean Water for the World.

Next Trivia Monday, Feb 10

Brags: Stan $5 don’t overthink the SOS, try to think outside the box, noon club has done pulled pork sandwiches, spaghetti meatballs, xmas dinner. He is passing around a sign up sheet for bowling on Jan 31. The noon club is inviting us!! Very kind of them. He also mentioned again the Food Bank every other Sat.

Student Rotarians: Conrad has been a while since the last time they were here. They accomplished: complete feed the 1000, Santa Letter Project (FBL put out forms to letter to send to Santa, they sent out over 120 letters) Sales of each letter will help students to go to spring conference for leadership students.
Personal finance class was cut couple years ago but it’s back!! Yeah

Cards: queen of Diamond – in the deck ☹

Brags:
Rich Hoppe who joined last year and reminded us of the story of his grandson Copper. Cooper turned 5 and tomorrow is the 2-year anniversary of his heart transplant. He has an amazing medical story!! A miracle boy.

Damon: Last eve Aiden sent text that he was named 2nd team for all indoor state decade all state in 1000 meter. I hope I got this correctly.

John: public service announcement: Learn from the moon. Moon changing, moon cycles: if your right-hand matches moon it is waxing, left arm matching it is waning. This will change your life!!!

Tristam: yesterday was chaos for VT farm bureau, somebody tried to scam them by somebody who looked like “intuit”. If you have QuickBooks and you get a notice, it’s a scam!!

Erin: more public service announcement… usually gets to warmer places in winter. Last week she went to Jay Peak where there was grass on mountain, they actually had a water park and you could do indoor surfing!! There is plenty of snow now. Pres Jim was just there.

Guest Speaker

Justin to introduce Anna Griffith, workplace coordinator of employment for Families First.
A non-profit organization committed to helping special needs children and their families in Windham County in south eastern Vermont.

We serve children & adults who are medically fragile, developmentally delayed and those who have mental health issues. Eighteen years ago, Families First began with just three families who wanted to create an agency that would be creative, nurturing and responsive to the day to day needs of families with special needs children. Today we serve over ninety families, with several referrals coming in each month. 

The mission of Families First is to provide family-friendly service for children, youth, and adults living with disabilities. Our services promote independent living, enhance self-esteem, and cultivate community membership through caring and respectful relationships.

We are a Specialized Service Agency that provides Case Management, Personal Care, Shared Living, Respite, Employment Support, and many community activities. We based the services on each individual’s needs and build on identified goals created by each individuals’ team. As children approach adulthood, we help families plan for a smooth transition from graduation to work by networking with local businesses adult service agencies. Through our intake process, we assist you in determining eligibly for developmental services in Vermont.

The Brattleboro office was established April 2019
Programs offered: Job development, interview support, job coaching and training of staff,
68% of clients are enrolled in work programs, a few are enrolled in 40 hour weeks. They serve 25 individuals who are already employed and have 10-11 in the program looking for work and several are waiting list.

Practicing interview skills and have guest speakers as well to give further help with employment.
Community involvement is becoming more important this year. To let our community know that they have clients who can work. Over 20 companies locally have hired clients over the years.
Clients worked at Winston Prouty, Dotties, Co-op, Against the Grain.
Clients have graduated from career center and now actually working in auto industry
State of VT has now over 700 apprenticeship programs and some clients are interested in participating in those programs.

Clients have Autims, down syndrome, any intellectual disabilities before age of 18 that they work with
It’s not about what the clients cannot do, it’s what they CAN do. There is an untapped market of individuals that can work and with dire market of finding good employment, might be good to consider.
Justin has an employee that works for him and he works closely with support staff of Families First. He would be notified right away if there would be a problem that he might not see. Justin was highlighting his growth over the time of being there. He has been a tremendous help for Justin and the legion and he really enjoys working for him.
Wants you to think about giving a young individuals a chance.
The clients have a 75% unemployment rate… no real identity. If people ask you “who you are” 90% say what they do for a living. But with 75% unemployment rate, you don’t have a job, you don’t have an identity!!
Against the grain is a mayor supporter in our area and supporting “disabled” employees that make the best use and actually make use of their abilities and use them to the best of their abilities.

Easiest way to get an employee is to contact Anna or Alex
Anna Griffith
anna@familyfirstvt.com
1-802-275-4949 x204

Thank you for reading!!