Central Office Innovation Fair 09/13/2013

 If you'd like to learn more about my adventures, come to the Central Office Innovation Fair today between 10am-1pm in Conference Room H!

Woodlands Middle/HighSchool Visit - September 10th

I enjoyed a visit at Woodlands Middle/High School in Hartsdale, NY.  

 Here I am visiting with the School Counselor.

Here I am posing with my new friends and the Obamas. As you can tell, I had a great time!

See you soon!
Caity :)

Tarrytown Sensory Room

Whenever I need some quiet or relaxation time, I can go visit the Sensory Room created by the Sensory Team at Tarrytown Day Program. I was able to relax on the bean bag and look at the bubble tube, listen to relaxing music and stimulate my senses by feeling the tactile objects.

Tarrytown Senior Team Fruit Party - July 2013

Here I am spending time at the Senior Fruit party.  Each room was responsible for making a fruit dessert to bring to the party! The individuals enjoyed socializing, singing, dancing and eating delicious and healthy fruits!

Senior Sensory Board

I spent some time with the seniors making a sensory board.  It was fun using my senses to participate in this activity!

Bronx Zoo - August 28th, 2013

Hi everyone! I had the opportunity to go to the Bronx Zoo with the Tarrytown Day Program Senior Team! We had a great time!

We saw seals, rhinos, and got SOAKED at the end of the day! A great time was had by all :)

See you soon!

Caity :)

Hi everyone! I got to visit with Jules Feiman and the Human Resources Staff meeting!

Capable Caity seemed very interested in a recruitment discussion conducted at the August Human Resources Staff Meeting. In addition to learning about social media recruitment, Capable Caity got to meet the HR recruitment team and other members of the department. Her participation in the meetings was appreciated and once again reminded the HR team of the wonderful people we support, and the importance of finding quality staff to work with our guys. 

Thanks for having me in HR! :)

 Until next time!
Caity :)

Residential Incident Reporting Committee Meeting

July 25, 2013

Fred F. invited me to participate in the Residential Incident Reporting Committee meeting.  After signing in, I listened to situations that have occurred throughout YAI.  This was a very important meeting and I met a lot of YAI Managers who ensure the health and safety of all those who receive YAI services.

:) Caity

Studio YAI - Innovation Fair Meeting

July 25th, 2013

I participated in an important meeting about the Innovation Fairs at Studio YAI!  The team agreed that the Innovation Fairs have been very successful. I tried to find out who the winners were, but they are still top secret :)

Corporate Compliance

July 25, 2013 @ YAI Central Office

Hi Everyone! Today, I met with Roberta K. and was trained in Corporate Compliance.  I passed the test with flying colors!

Hello from Tarrytown, NY!

Tarrytown-The Program that Almost Wasn’t

Hello from YAI in Tarrytown, NY.  I would like to tell you a little bit about our program. Tarrytown is located 24 miles or 36 minutes from New York City.   YAI has been in our building in Tarrytown since 1990.  How we came to this building is an interesting story.  

Tarrytown was actually made up from two different programs-one in Eastchester and one in Bedford.  These two programs leased space from their respective school districts and in 1990 these leases were running out.  The school districts were expanding and they needed the space.  The search began for a new building and with only weeks to spare before the start of the school year, the building in Tarrytown was found.   

This was no ordinary building though.  You see, this building was owned by none other than the Queen of England.  Her Majesty wanted to sell this property to just one corporation and not have it sub-divided into a building with many different companies.  This was lucky for us, because our competition for the building was Fuji Film, who only wanted part of the building and then rent the rest out. 

The Queen dispatched her commercial real estate administrator from none other than India to mediate the transfer of the property.  As it happens with real estate transactions, there were disagreements and arguments concerning this point or that point.  In one such heated exchange between the lawyers, the Queen’s representative, topped in a bowler hat and all, calmly cleared his throat, took out his chained pocket watch and stated that the lawyers should resolve their difference soon because in five minutes he was going to leave “and never to return!”.   Well, this spurred the lawyers to work out the deal.

With the deal finalized, there was only weeks to go before the school year opened and the building in Tarrytown was not yet ready.   With the likes of Kevin Travers, Paul Smoller and Steve Freeman lending their hands as construction workers, the building was finally ready….for Eastchester anyway.  Only half of the building was ready.   Days before school was set to begin, the Eastchester program went to work on a Friday in Eastchester-(Individuals even came to program), and reported to work in Tarrytown the following Monday.  In true YAI fashion, not a day of program was missed.  Five months later the building was nearly complete and the Bedford program moved in and the rest is history.

Today, the Tarrytown Program remains the only commercially owned YAI property.  It is the largest Day Habilitation providing program in the agency and serves over 285 Individuals.  

Studio YAI - 7/24/2013

Hi everyone! I spent some time at Studio YAI at the Central Office located in NYC.  It was an eventful day spent making signs and sorting out information sheets for other YAI programs.
I'm looking forward to dropping by again!
Here is a picture with me and Richard.
See you soon!
Caity

Rules!

Hi! Nice to meet you! I 'm Capable Caity and I would love to learn about your program.  Show me around your program, share ideas and activities with me and don't forget to take pictures of me participating.
Once you show me all around, don't forget to document my visit by sending activities, ideas and pictures to caity.capable@yai.org so they can be posted on my blog at www.capablecaity.blogspot.com
Also, feel free to see other ideas on my blog too!

My visit does entail some rules though!
1) Take pictures of me participating in any unique activity(ies) and send them to Caity.Capable@yai.org

2) Please, do NOT take any pictures of individuals unless a photo release is provided and sent to caity.capable@yai.org along with the picture.

3) Please share these activities, send caity.capable@yai.org directions, ideas, templates, etc. so I can share them on my blog!

4) Please keep me for only 2 weeks.  Once you are done showing me around, please send me to another YAI program or team within your program or send me back to:
YAI/NIPD
677 White Plains Road
Tarrytown, NY 10591
Attn: Brittany Hitchings

5) Have fun and look for my adventures at www.capablecaity.blogspot.com

Hi there!

Hi Everyone! My name is Capable Caity! This is my first blog post and I'm here to talk about my life and my experiences.  I am starting on a journey that begins in Tarrytown, NY and will lead me to....? I'm looking forward to sharing my experiences and adventures with you all and can't wait to hear from you all!
If you'd like to print me out and spend time with me and do some activities, feel free to do so! See the following post about our rules! :)
http://capablecaity.blogspot.com/2013/07/rules.html

Talk soon!
Caity