Community Services would like to thank the students from the Borough of Manhattan Community College's Lion Dance Club who provided entertainment for the event. Game prizes and raffle gifts were generously donated by organizations such as UCB bank, Health Plus, Pella Care and Fidelis Care.  Community Resource Day coordinator Rain Zheng would also like to thank East Market restaurant for contributing their location and staff to the cause.  Ms. Zheng would also like to thank her fellow co-workers and volunteers for their dedication and time for making the event a huge success.  

 

While this particular community resource event was geared towards housewives and senior citizens in the Fujianese community, Community Services hopes to host another community resource event centered around young adults, recent college graduates and working people in the near future. 

 

If you are interested in participating in or volunteering for the next community resource event please contact Ms. Rain Zheng at

Many CPC events cannot happen without the indispensable help of our hard working volunteers. 
One of the many hard working volunteers who help put together the East Asian Cultural Festival is Wei Wang.  Wei is a sophomore at the New Exploration into Science Technology & Math high school.  He first heard about CPC through CPC's Walkathon 2008 community outreach efforts and began volunteering with CPC soon after.  Much like the volunteers who worked on the Walkathon, Wei felt that the best part about working with the CPC Volunteer CORE on the East Asian Cultural Festival was the opportunity to meet people from different backgrounds.  One of the valuable experiences he felt he took away from his work on the festival with the CPC Volunteer CORE was the chance to develop his communication skills as he interacted with many people from diverse backgrounds when informing them of the event.  

Carrying the experiences that he has gained from volunteering with CPC, Wei plans to go to Harvard University for his undergraduate degree and then go to Harvard Business or Harvard Medical School for his graduate degree.  Being a diligent young man, Wei hopes to pursue a career in economics or in the medical field.  And like many of his peers in the CPC Volunteer CORE, Wei is busy with school work and his many extra curricular activities.  However, he does go to Seward Park on the weekends to practice his basketball skills and particularly enjoys eating barbecued pork rice around the corner at M.S. 131 when he is in the neighborhood.  
 

CPC provides services to many demographics in the Chinese American community such as the elderly and youth, however, there is one demographic is that is often over looked - people with developmental disabilities and their families.  CPC's Queens and Brooklyn branch of the Services for Families with Special Needs Program proudly serves families who have people with special needs in the community.  

The NY State Mental Hygiene Law defines developmental disabilities as a person who has cerebral palsy, epilepsy, mental retardation, a neurological impairment or autism.  The disabilities has to originate before the person turns 22 years old, has or can be expected to continue indefinitely, and handicaps the person's ability to function in society.  In following the definition of developmental disabilities and including the specific requirement of the presence of a substantial handicap and functional limitations, CPC's Services for Families with Special Needs Program provides services to an average of 150 families annually. 

 

To address the needs of the family with a person who has special needs, CPC's Queens branch offers an array of programs ranging from afterschool programs to Medicaid assistance.  Afterschool program meet three times a day and staff teaches social, language (English and Chinese), money management, and self-care skills to program participants.  One on one or small group computer lessons are also available weekly for enhancing basic computer skills.  To address the specific needs of parents with children who have special needs, there are monthly Parent Educational Workshops.  The workshops feature speakers from different professional fields who come in to help parents become more aware of the resources available to them and their children in their community.  The Services for Families with Special Needs Program also offers the service of case managers to help connect program participants to other services, benefits, and entitlements.   Advanced case management is also available for clients in the Medicaid Service Coordination program.  The Brooklyn branch of the program also provides case management services and educational workshops similar to those found at the Queens branch.  The last service offered by the program, Individual Residential Alternative (IRA), is unique to the Queens branch of the Services for Families with Special Needs Program.  The IRA provides four clients with 24/7 home-like caring in their Elmhurst, Queens program facility. 

 

If you would like more information about the Services for Families with Special Needs Program or services in Queens please call (718) 358-8899.  For services in Brooklyn, please call (718) 492-0409