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Dear Imagine friends and family,
We want to start by welcoming the newest members of our family. Beto will be joining our SLS program and plans to be at the gathering mid month and have his birthday party with us at the end of the month. There's gonna be cheesecake, y'all. Joining our family too is Beto's sister, Maria Elena. She is a service coordinator at the regional center, specializing in care for young children. When you meet them, you let them know how welcome they are. You can read more about Beto below.
In addition to Beto, another family joins ours this month. We'll introduce them more fully in September, but A.J. (if you're local, different A.J.) is moving from San Francisco to Santa Cruz. A.J. is starting a new life in his own home through self-determination. His parents, Sigrid and Stephen, his sister and Aunt will all participate and we welcome them all to our community. We are excited to be trying a new model where A.J.'s caregivers will not be part of Imagine, but the leadership team provides consultation and support. More about A.J. and family in an upcoming newsletter but for now, welcome.
And boy howdy do we have some good things ahead for Beto, A.J. and you.
The Gathering of Extraordinary People is coming August 18, as usual in Harvey West Park. Imagine has had a lot of support from partner agencies and other friends in making the Gathering happen. If you would like to help out that day or during the preparation, please email Norma. This is another banner event for our community, focused on people with developmental disabilities enjoying one another and ourselves as a community. This year there will be a tacquero providing food, including vegetarian and gluten free options. (Actually, I'm not sure gluten is an option.) The usual talent show will take place as well as sports, arts & crafts and face-painting for those of us not old enough to know better.
The Imagine Film Festival now has a date you can save. Wednesday, October 25th will be our 11th Film Festival. For the people new to Imagine, this is something we do to help the community become more inclusive, in a way that centers around individuals with disabilities. The film festival features music, food and short films by, about and/or featuring people with special needs. Typically it has been on a weekend, but there were none available at our venue so we're trying out the Wednesday date. We'd love to see you there. The call for films is below.
The 2023 Day On The Beach was an awfully good time and we want to thank Shared Adventures
for making this happen year after year. It provides a lot of joy and opportunity to people some of whom travel a long way to experience it. A lot of organizations, including Imagine, contribute time, money and other resources to help Shared Adventures put the event on. The breadth of collaboration and the inclusiveness of the event make it something the Monterey Bay Area should feel proud to have happen here.
This month marks a bit of a pause in the restructuring and reform while we work on some of the administrative aspects of the changes already made while we prepare for a board meeting mid-month which will discuss the next steps.
One thing that has recently come up is that many of our caregiving staff weren't aware that Imagine has expectations for the training included in house meetings. To improve transparency and communication and to give caregivers another reason to side-eyes their Facilitator, I promised to include the list of trainings we expect here. So I did.
Further down, this month's newsletter includes the following:.
The Redwood Chroncles column continues. We're renaming it a little so that, in addition to Jake's Favorite Animals, other talented residents can also contribute.
Meet Beto. He doesn't seem to mind attention so we're giving him some.
Patty Lopez, Imagine's Assistant Director of Human Resources reviews the All-staff meeting for the majority of staff who weren't there.
In The Service Sector, Heather decompresses about our upcoming regional center "Quality" Assurance Audit.
In Community Connections, Susan invites you and me to another State of Imagine meetup. It's recommended for you.
Our usual stuff in the columns around advocacy, self-determination, the Imagine Endowment and Transparency.
The Person-Centered Evolution this month talks about Important To/Important For as a gift to Imagine parents who I really do like.
This month we have spotlights on birthday twins Ian and Ryan and on Silvia.
As ever, if you have any questions, feedback or concerns, please don't hesitate to get in touch. You can write me here. I look forward to hearing from you.
Gratefully yours,
Doug
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