For St. Patrick’s Day this year, consumers were surprised with a decorated community room and some tasty “green” snacks (cookies). Consumers also participated in a variety of activities in their TRIBE groups, which brought about more peer-to-peer socialization and a cheerful atmosphere!
Harford PRP, under the leadership of Liz Tutino, initiated a Wii Bowling League where consumers are able to socialize and participate in friendly competition and go head-to-head with other peers. Consumers were placed into teams of two persons each and each team had the opportunity to play on a weekly basis. For the first quarter, there were three winners who were each presented with a trophy to honor them and celebrate their achievements.
Congratulations again to the winners for the first quarter!
Keep up the good work!
This Thanksgiving the PRP was treated to a Thanksgiving Feast. A roast turkey dinner, featuring all of the traditional favorites including stuffing, mashed potatoes, and three different pies, was provided by donations from members of Mountain Christian Church in Joppa. Clients and staff gathered and shared the wonderful meal as a community.
Clients designed a Thanksgiving Banner in art class. It was hung in the community room and clients wrote about the things they were thankful for and posted it on the banner.
Clients and staff are looking forward to our annual Holiday Party. The morning will be spent playing Christmas themed games. We are then going to have a delicious baked ziti and meatball lunch prepared by Fortunato Brothers in Abingdon. Afterwards clients will play a gift exchange game where they can “steal” presents from one another. This is the third year we will be having the gift exchange and everyone always enjoys it. Donations for the lunch and gifts have been provided by members of Mountain Christian Church.
The Aberdeen PRP teamed up with our Residential services to provide an Oktoberfest party. Clients at the parties enjoyed apple cider, pies, pork, potato salad, and other German favorites. There was modern and traditional music and dancing. Festive decor brightened the scene.
Later today the PRP is hosting its annual Halloween party. There is a raffle with tickets provided for winning games, wearing of costumes, and general participation. Games will include “Candy Count”, “Who Am I?” (sign on your back and you have to guess name it says), a mummy game, and “Spooky Bingo”.
Tomorrow the exciting action continues as we build towards the championship round of our ongoing ping pong tournament. 16 members entered the tournament and the seating was packed to watch today’s events. Our newest client surprised us by competing right away and doing quite well (he’ll be a new power to watch out for). We look forward to seeing who is crowned champion of the event!
In addition to the Optimism mood charting application (we are hosting a training session for interested clients this Friday during Goal Time) there are also two other programs our counselors are encouraging clients to take a look at. Both are FREE:
http://www.moodgym.anu.edu.au/welcome
MoodGYM is a cognitive-behavioral system for coping with depression. Users read psycho-educational material, take short tests to determine symptoms, and complete CBT exercises to help them deal with depression.
http://www.ecouch.anu.edu.au/welcome
The E-couch system has 3 modules: A depression module, an anxiety/worry module, and a social phobia module. It works a lot like Mood Gym above.
We are looking to see how popular and useful these are. They will require some persistence and personal will power. They are a great adjunct to PRP and therapy and a way for clients to grow both in knowledge and sense of control over their destiny.
– Michael
Our client advisory board vice-president Robbie has been busy lately finding deals for clients short on cash.
Last week she made announcements during the morning meeting and helped clients individually during goal time to sign up for free cell phone service for those on public assistance.
Assurance Wireless (part of Virgin Mobile) gives a free cell phone and 200 minutes per month to persons in Maryland able to demonstrate participation in Medical Assistance, Food Stamps, and several other programs.
Two weeks ago, she shuttled applications back and forth from the PRP to Rite Aid for our members to receive 20% discounts. More About Rite Aid Wellness+ Rewards cards available at http://www5.riteaid.com/wellness.
Several of our members say “thank you” for the help Robbie!
– Michael
You are invited to:
The Key Point PRP Client Art Show
June 10th 2010
12:00pm -1:30pm
135 N. Parke St. Aberdeen, MD 21001
(Back side of building)
Refreshment will be served
The show will feature original artwork by Key Point Clients from Aberdeen, Dundalk, and Catonsville.
Please RSVP for more information and directions to Liz Tutino or Michael Reeder. Email preferred, phone RSVPs also to 443-625-1524.
One of our chief resident artists, Billy, is making quick work of a large mural in the client lounge that the Client Advisory Board has been planning for some time.
The board spent quite a while pouring over photographs looking for scenes that they thought would be appropriate and atractive. Billy is now executing on a wall-size reproduction of the photo along with his own artistic touches.
We look forward to posting a photo of the completed masterpiece once the detail work is accomplished.
Our Aberdeen PRP client advisory board decided that they wanted to help out with the events in Haiti.
Over the past several weeks they put together an attractive donation container and raised $60.16!
The money was donated to the Red Cross.
