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ASCEND’s Meetup Group

ASCEND Professional Member News

ASCEND's Professional Member: JCHAI Transitions receives the Breaking Barriers Award!
JCHAI Transitions received a Breaking Barriers Award from the Genesis Foundation worth $50,000. The goal of this initiative is to promote inclusion of people with disabilities for young adults 18-30 and to teach them the skills they need to live and work independently in the community. This grant will help continue to grow the programs far into the community beyond the traditional residential supports work that they have been doing for 30 years.

 The next JCHAI Open House is on Thursday, August at 6pm where people can meet program directors and then visit JCHAI self-advocates living in their own apartments in their Supported Apartment Program at the Radwyn. RSVP required: Dr. Beth Rosenwasser or 215.498.1270
You can view a  four-minute video about JCHAI as well as learn more about JCHAI Transitions: (formerly JCHAI Café) offering young adults classes three nights a week & weekend Trips.

Local ASD News & Events

Autism Society Greater Philadelphia and AMC: Sensory Friendly Movies
AMC is proud to partner with the Autism Society to bring you unique movie showings where you can feel free to be you! We turn the lights up, and turn the sound down, so you can get up, dance, walk, shout or sing!

We are now expanding our Sensory Friendly Film program into four showings per month. Monthly showings are every 2nd and 4th Tuesday and Saturday of the month.

Saturday showings will still be family-friendly movies starting anytime from 10:00am on. Please check your local theater:

AMC Neshaminy 24, Bensalem, Pa 19020 215-396-8050

AMC Franklin Mills 14, Phila, Pa 19154 215-612-2740

AMC Marple 10, Springfield, Pa 19064 610-328-5439

 
July 22 Spider Man: Homecoming
 
July 25 War for the Planet of the Apes
 
Aug 8 The Emoji Movie

In the Media

Calculating the Costs of Curbing Medicaid" (which benefits many persons with disabilities, and their schools)
From: The Wall Street Journal, by Jo Craven McGinty
In his first full budget proposal, President Donald Trump advocates changing the way the federal government funds Medicaid. The fiscal 2018 budget was short on details but endorses a bill passed last month by the U.S. House of Representatives that would restrict Medicaid spending for the first time since the program started in 1965.

Things We Like

Free Expert Incentive Charts Can Boost Behavioral Change - From: Autism Parenting Magazine
Most of us are familiar with reward or incentive charts. Maybe we first came across them as a child, hoping to receive a star for our chart on the kitchen fridge. Or perhaps we learned about them when studying to be a teacher. Whether you call them sticker charts, star charts, or behavior modification or goal charts, the idea is the same: to nudge behavior in a desirable direction.

2017 A- List
Submitted by Karen Krivit
Elwyn's Philadelphia Special Needs Resource Guide (the A-List)

 
New additions of short films to our Sproutflix catalogue: the largest and most diverse assortment of films featuring people with I/DD on the marketplace:
Brooklyn Love Tales   12 min. / documentary / USA
A personal look into the lives of three couples with intellectual and developmental disabilities. This is the latest film made by Anthony Di Salvo, Sprout's ED.

Navigation  4 min. / dance / Spain
A modern dance performance - Navigating through life makes every human face different situations; some are in favor of and others are against the tide - cutting through the waves of time and always moving forward.

Someone Like Me  9 min.  / documentary / USA
Two young adults with Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder spend a day exploring Seattle together, and discuss the difficult realities of living with a preventable disability.