Greetings from the AASC National Conference in Indianapolis, IN! There are over 1,000 SCs attending the conference this week.
Matt and I gave our presentation on Self-Care Strategies this morning to 80+ participants. It went really well, and we were quite pleased.
Here are a few photos that we would like to share with you! (See if you can spot Diane Crawford!)
-Alexa and Matt
Name – Diane Crawford
Hired date – April 23, 2012
Name and Location of Building: Labelle Towers Co-op
Diane Crawford is a lifelong eastside Detroiter, who grew up in her beloved Brewster Projects, graduating from Northeastern High School and today lives in the Lafayette Towers area. She considers trips to the Eastern Market as one of her rituals and Belle Isle as her playground.
Diane is a proud Spartan, having attended Michigan State University as an undergrad, majoring in History and English. She continued her education and attained her MSW from Wayne State University. Diane earned her PhD in Human Services from Walden University.
Diane grew up with 2 older sisters. Her father worked at the Ford Motor Company and her mother worked for the Aladdin Coverall Company in Highland Park, Michigan. She developed a fondness for working with seniors while running errands for her grandmother and other seniors in her youth. She sees this as a form of community service and has always given back.
After 32 years with the Detroit Public Schools (DPS), Diane retired as a teacher and school social worker. Diane loves to dance and listen to Motown, Contemporary, and Jazz music. She has been to 9 countries in Africa, Paris, and Brazil. When relaxing, she enjoys watching movies. Her favorite movie to watch is the Godfather.
While she has been a mentor to many young people throughout the years, Diane has two great nieces that are the loves of her life, Saniya 9 and Zariya.6. She tries to spend as much time with them as possible, teaching them the same lessons she learned when she was their age.
Kari Wilson has a heart that beats to the social work drum.
Kari joined the Hannan Family in April of 2012. Currently, Kari has two homes: one at the Royal Oak Manor Cooperative and the other at the Madison Heights Cooperative. Kari’s undergrad was at the University of Missouri, where she earned a bachelor’s degree in journalism. Kari’s path drove her to acquire a MSW degree from Wayne State University and she is currently a LLMSW.
Kari worked as a copy editor for the Free Press for 10 years. During that time, she edited many special projects, including some about child abuse and neglect. Kari felt helpless but at the same time she felt a need to do something. During her MSW program, she had two great internships: one as a service coordinator at Bethany Villa senior apartments in Troy, and one with Citizens for Better Care as a volunteer long-term care ombudsman. Kari worked to resolve problems of individual residents and to improve residents’ care and quality of life. This is when she met Ann Kraemer, also part member of the Hannan family. During this time, she worked at Ambassador nursing center on Jefferson Ave in Detroit and Sorrento Care Center on West Chicago (now closed), and also worked on a research project about adult guardianship.
Kari spends her free time reading mysteries and historical fiction, especially medieval, regency and Victorian. Kari has too many favorite authors to list but she did name a couple: Dorothy Dunnett was a Scottish historical novelist who started her career as a press officer in the civil service, and she was also professional portrait painter. Iain Pears is an English art historian, novelist and journalist. Deanna Raybourn is an American author of mystery novels set in Victorian era England. If she wasn’t a social worker, Kari would love to be a professor of medieval European history.
Kari loves Monty Python, classical and New Wave music, the Stratford Shakespeare festival and “The Princess Bride.” One of Kari’s favorite quotes is by “Great Gatsby” author F. Scott Fitzgerald, “I am a cynical idealist.”
Kari has passed on her love for reading and the arts to her children, Tristan, 11, and Annabel, 8. She has traveled to London and Ireland with her husband, Jeff, and to Ireland with Tristan as part of a Suzuki Royal Oak music tour. This summer, Kari and Tristan will be traveling to Estonia and Russia, also on a music tour. History, music, art, what a grand adventure for this history- and music-loving mother.
Written By: Monika George
Attached are the meeting minutes from the July 25th Conference Call. So sorry for the delay.
Here is what the Case Management strategic team came up with for goals. We will have print outs at the August 8th meeting as well.
Andrea in front of the Dearborn Heights Co-op sign.
Joie de vivre: Joy/happiness is derived from life.
Andrea joined the Hannan family on April 23, 2012 and has settled into working the Dearborn Heights Corporative. Andrea is no stranger to social work. After receiving her Bachelors in Communications and Theater Arts at Eastern Michigan University in Communications/Theatre Arts in 1991, she pressed on as a VISTA worker for two years. As a VISTA, Andrea was an advocate for adult literacy at Washtenaw Literacy, an adult literacy program. She worked in the community promoting the services of Washtenaw Literacy and taught ESL classes. A geriatric scholar with a focus in community organizing and social policy, she received her MUP and a MSW from the University of Michigan. Her passion in “housing” is clearly represented in her past employments such as Realtor and Insurance Agent. Yet the driving force behind her interest in Housing Development was in large part due to her positions as a “Housing Coordinator” while working for the Senior Alliance, DAAA, AOA and the Washtenaw Homebuyers (non profit) organization. While working with low income housing, Andrea came to know the many barriers residents face in getting affordable housing. Andrea’s interest as a housing agent for HUD properties took on a new direction in the welfare of seniors and this placed her with PVM during her MSW internship. It was then when she came to know Rachel.
Although housing development and one day writing a HUD Grant is on the top of Andreas interest list, she, herself has many interesting and creative layers.
Andrea’s interest in people stems into her hobby of reading. She favors and brings a light to the debut novel, The God of Small Things (1997). The book is written by an Indian writer Suzanna Arundhati Roy and describes how the small things in life affect people’s behavior and their lives. At a very young age, Andrea was exposed to British television. This is something her mother shared with her. CBC, PBS Master Piece Theater shows one of Andrea’s favorite TV dramas, “Coronation Street”. Having exposure to European entertainment, it is no wonder one of Andrea’s favorite quotes “I’d rather be strongly wrong, than weakly right” comes from the most popular actress, Tallulah Bankhead, of London’s famed West End, the British equivalent of Broadway. Andrea’s was also exposed to other cultures through her traveling. She has ventured to Paris France, Mexico and Canada, with Montreal Canada being her favorite to visit. Andrea’s favorite eat-out foods are Indian and Mexican at Taqueria Mi-Pueblo’s in Southeast Detroit.
Andrea was grounded an inspired by Dina Harris, founder of the Washtenaw Home Buyers Program, in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Dina has been an inspiration to Andrea. The Home Buyers program is designed to help people who want to buy a home but needed help in accomplishing this. Andrea used words like ambitious, compassionate and committed to describe Dina. Interestingly, the very same words I would used to describe Andrea. Thank you Andrea.
Written by: Monika George
CSI SCs are invited to use the Scudder fund, with the exception of using it for member’s rent. CSI has requested that we not use this fund for member rent, because (1) we cannot do it for all members and (2) it may be perceived by members of Hannan and CSI being related.
However, if a member is at risk of eviction due to a precipitating event that caused them to fall behind on rent, you may be able to consider other items in their budget that Scudder can assist with.
We had a very suscinct and informative conference call yesterday. Thank you for all who attended and participated in the discussions. Of cource it was optional but in attendance were Brenda, Cheryl, Rachel, Adrienne, Alexa, Andrea, Crystal, Diane Crawford, Emily, Karen, Kari, Jackie, Judy, Lindsay, Yours Truly, Maryanette, Puffer, Trudy, and Victoria.
CSI update provided by Rachel was that Microsoft Office 2010 will be installed this weekend (7/20/2013) on all Hannan systems. Users must be logged out of ALL software prior to the installation. There will be an optional training following the conference call next week on Thursday 7/25/2013. The call will run as normal from 12:30 – 1:30 and the training will follow immediately from 1:30 – 2:30 with NpServ staying on after to assist with any questions.
PVM uptdate provided by Brenda was that HUD has approved budget grants at two new PVM buildings. Sage Grove in Kalamazoo and Hillside in Harbor Springs. It’s no secret that Brenda is looking forward to direct supervision visits up north 🙂
Crystal asked about dental resources for low income/Medicaid eligible residents. Several call participants offered suggestions. Among the suggestions are the Tri-County Dental Health Council, contacting the AAA in your area for assistance, Victoria has a list of resources for Wayne Co. that she will post to the SCoop, or exploring options at the area dental schools.
Finally, Cheryl was on hand to give an overview of the Scudder and the American House funds. A big thanks goes out to Monika, who offered to assist Cheryl in getting all information posted to SCoop. Basic information relayed on the programs are that they are funds of last resort and are both available to all PVM or CSI SCs. Both programs are only available to residents living in the tri-county region of Wayne, Oakland, and Macomb counties. Scudder funds are available to individuals 60 and up and American House funds are available to those 65 and up. To obtain funds, SC and individual must demonstrate that the funds will be used for special/emergency needs and that the fix will be sustainable. Scudder funds can be up to $300/individual/calendar year and American House funds can be up to $2000/individual/calendar year, however where there can be 6 – 8 grants of Scudder available per month, there is only about $5,500 American House funds available per year. Some examples of different funding opportunities for Scudder are a bed, fresh food box, or in conjuction with other sources, helping to paydown a utility bill in shutoff status. American House fund examples include durable medical equipment i.e. a hospital bed, a utility bill not in shutoff status, or car repairs. American House also requires that grant recipients provide a current photo for American House to use in their program marketing. Hannan is the gatekeeper on both programs and any questions can be directed to Cheryl Bukoff in the Zena Baum Service Center at extension 20. The Scudder application form is available on the shared drive and doubles as the application for American House funds.
Thanks again to those that participated in the call yesterday and hope everyone is able to get out and practice a little self care this weekend.
Cheers!
Camille is the service coordinator at the Village of Peace Manor, located in ClintonTownship, where she has been employed since September 2004. She obtained her Bachelors degree in Sociology from WayneStateUniversity, then attended CentralMichiganUniversity, where she achieved a Masters in Business Management. She worked for the Social Security Administration for ten years as a Disability Examiner. Working as a Disability Examiner, she gained invaluable experience in the medical field with intensive medical training. While working at the Social Security office she enjoyed problem solving and working with the aging population. From this job she grew to love working with seniors, which sparked an interest to learn more about the population. Camille decided to leave the Social Security office and return to school.
Camille decided to attend MadonnaUniversity, in Livonia, Michigan, to study gerontology, where she received her Associates Degree. Madonna was a great place for Camille’s career. The school has a great gerontology department with a wonderful faculty. The faculty and Staff at Madonna influenced Camille’s career choice to become a service coordinator. The individuals most influential to Camille’s career were Dr. Anita Herman, the head of the gerontology program, and Marilyn Goering, a counselor and adjunct professor. These professors challenged and help cultivate the talents Camille currently possessed before entering the program. While at Madonna, Camille received a Nursing Home Administrator license from the State of Michigan.
After Madonna, Camille gained experience 
as a service coordinator at the National Church Residences senior housing in Harper Woods, for four years, before working at PVM. Camille’s belief in the saying, “There but for the Grace of God, Go I,” has guided her life thus far. She is very passionate about the senior community, and has devoted herself to helping the community. She loves to advocate for seniors to organizations and private companies to promote affordable assisted living in the community.
When Camille is not working at her PVM village or advocating for affordable senior housing, she loves volunteering with animals, reading, walking, and loves to travel. She really enjoys traveling overseas, her favorite places to visit are Europe, England, and Hawaii.
