Harford County Council

District A Happenings

April 15, 2015 Volume 1, Issue 7

Council Office Contact

Information

Office Phone: 410-638-3521

Cell Phone: 443-752-2598

Email: DistrictA@HarfordCountyCouncil.com

Come talk to me the Second Sunday of each

month at the Joppatowne Flea Market from

2 pm to 4 pm.

Legislative Aide

Donna Blasdell

Office Phone: 410-638-4109 x1813

A Vessel of Support Imagine it is 1950 and the doctor has just told you your child has a developmental delay or is “mentally re-

tarded” (the old fashioned phrase for intellectual disability.) The standard recommendation at the time was

to place the child into an institution, so the family would not be “burdened” with taking care of the child.

In 1950, a small group of parents and other concerned individuals came together to act as voices for change.

At the time, little was known about the condition of intellectual disabilities. There were virtually no pro-

grams and activities in communities to assist in the development and care of children and adults with intel-

lectual disabilities or to support their families. Emboldened by their collective desire to raise their children

in the home and their stubborn refusal to accept institutionalization was the only option, The Arc’s founders

fought even harder.

Like every parent of any child, they wanted more for their children. They wanted their children to lead ful-

filling lives out in the community and not shuttered away in dark institutions. It was in this spirit The Arc

was born.

At the outset, the organization was committed to altering perceptions of children with intellectual and de-

velopmental disabilities and to educate parents and others regarding the potential of people with these dis-

abilities.

(Continued on page 2)

Internet Café

Tuesday through Friday 10 am - 2 pm

Free Wi-Fi Access Loaner Computers Available Faxing & Copying On-Site

Surf the internet, research, job search, and

connect with others

2

A Vessel of Support (Con’t.) The Arc also worked to procure services for children

and adults who were denied an education, the oppor-

tunity to attend day care and preschools, and the op-

portunity to work. The Arc currently promotes and

protects the human rights of people with intellectual

and developmental disabilities and actively supports

their full inclusion and participation in the communi-

ty throughout their lifetimes.

From this background, Harford County has The Arc

Northern Chesapeake Region (Arc NCR) in our com-

munity. The Arc NCR supports people with intellec-

tual and developmental disabilities to live lives that

mirror yours and mine: students attending neighbor-

hood schools, adults going to work and living in their

own homes, and individuals enjoying the social and

recreational opportunities in their communities. They

are a private, non-profit local chapter of The Arc

Maryland and The Arc of the United States.

The Arc NCR mission revolves around The ARC’s

five core values:

Respect: The belief all people have the right to be

and feel respected. We show honor and esteem to all

people we come with whom we come in contact. This

is done with appreciation and dedication to their right

and privilege to be treated as someone of worth.

Self-Determination: Implement the principles of self

-determination: Freedom to make choices; Authority

over services & support; Responsibility for organiz-

ing resources; and Support necessary to live in the

community.

Inclusion: The belief everyone should have sup-

port to assist them to be involved in real life op-

portunities in places with others to the benefit of

all.

Responsiveness: Responding to internal and ex-

ternal customers, resource contributors, communi-

ty and each other in a timely manner.

Community Building: Meet customers' needs

through new and existing community partnerships

and creative use of resources.

The Arc NCR currently offers the following ser-

vices to individuals with intellectual and devel-

opmental disabilities and their families living in

Harford and Cecil Counties:

Family Support Services to individuals (age 0

through 21) and their families;

Treatment Foster Care Services to children

and their families;

Supported Employment Services to adults;

and

Supported Living and Individual Support Ser-

vices to adults.

Family Support Services (FSS)

Any Harford or Cecil family of a child with a

developmental disability between the ages of

birth to 21 is eligible for our services. FSS offers

families personalized services based on individu-

al needs and preferences. FSS teaches families

how to advocate and to obtain community re-

sources. FSS can offer resource information and

referrals. It provides sibling support programs

and family activities. Caring for a child with in-

tellectual or physical disabilities is hard work and

often families have no support from others so

FSS provides respite care resources and funding.

In addition, it can offer the family assistance in

obtaining funding resources to care for their

child.

Treatment Foster Care Services

Children served in this program have entered

foster care because of abuse and/or neglect and

are in need of a higher level of care than a child

in traditional foster care. After training, Treat-

ment Foster Parents become part of a treatment

team with biological parents, social workers,

therapists, Department of Social Services staff,

(Continued on page 3)

Edgewood Melting Pot Neighborhood Clean Up

on Brookside Drive

April 25th 9:30 am-noon

Meet at 9 am in front of Big Lots Go straight to Brookside Drive

Find more information at servefestmd.org

3

A Vessel of Support (Cont’d) receive only drop-in help with food shopping, bill

paying and activities in the community. Other indi-

viduals receive around the clock support and com-

plete personal care. The Staff at The Arc NCR are

trained to work with individuals to help them achieve

their personal goals, remain connected to family and

friends, build new friendships, and participate as ac-

tive members of their community.

Self-Advocacy

An individual with an intellectual or developmental

disability needs to learn how to obtain the services

they need thorough self-advocacy. People First, was

established as a non-profit citizen's advocacy group

by self-advocates in 1987 and believes that all per-

sons, regardless of disability, deserve a life of quali-

ty. People First has adopted and endorsed "The

Community Imperative" as our view that all persons

deserve lives as full members in their own commu-

nities. Our motto is "Achieving yesterday's dreams.

Building tomorrow's promise."

People First of Harford County contributes to

achieving full community membership by promot-

ing equal rights for all people, educating the com-

munity about issues affecting people with disabili-

ties and promoting inclusive social and recreational

activities for people with disabilities. People First of

Harford County meets every second Wednesday of

the month, from 5 - 7 PM at The Arc Northern

Chesapeake Region’s Administration offices. To

contact a representative of People First contact our

Adult Services Department at 410-836-7177.

To support the organization with a donation or by

becoming a member, please visit their website The

Arc Northern Chesapeake Region.

and other professionals who work together to

create a successful plan of services for each

child. The children in this program have a wide

range of special needs which can include learn-

ing disabilities, autism and other developmental

disabilities and delays, behavioral challenges, or

emotional and mental health issues. Given these

unique challenges, each child has a treatment

plan and Treatment Foster Parents have the re-

sponsibility, along with other members of the

team, to develop, implement, and evaluate that

plan.

Supported Employment Services

The Arc NCR's Employment Services currently

offers long-term community-based employment

support to adults with intellectual and develop-

mental disabilities. These services are offered in

integrated settings including individual job place-

ments and industrial, clerical and janitorial en-

claves in Harford and Cecil County businesses

and local and state agencies. Individuals are sup-

ported in seeking and maintaining employment

through job development, job coaching with fol-

low-along supports, case management and trans-

portation (where applicable). The Arc NCR rec-

ognizes a community need for job development,

job placement and retention, and short-term Job

Coaching and Community Based Assessments,

short-term services to referrals are provided from

The Division of Vocational Services.

Services for Transitioning Youth

An increasing number of students exiting Harford

County Public Schools at age 21 are requesting

vocational services. The Arc NCR's Transition

Coordinators works with the school system

throughout the year prior to graduation to support

students and their families in transitioning from

school to work.

Supported Living and

Individual Support Services

The Arc NCR believes all individuals regardless of

intellectual or developmental disabilities should

live typical adult lifestyles in their communities.

With this goal in mind, The Arc NCR provides cus-

tomized support services for adults with disabilities

in apartments, townhomes, or single-family homes.

Some individuals choose to live by themselves and

Harford Hills Bike Adventure

April 25, 2015

Cost: $45 per rider

Registration begins at 7:30 am

Rides begin at 8:00 am and 8:30 am

Chose between ad 30 mile or 62 mile ride

Towson University of Northeastern Maryland 510 Thomas Run Road

Bel Air, MD 21015

The Arc of Northern Chesapeake Region

4

Cooking up the Savings Rice Cooker. Allows you to make great rice and

not have to rely on the more expensive instant

variety. If you make rice often, this is another

item to have.

Food Processor. Reduces the food preparation

time, especially if you batch cook.

Blender. Lets you make those smoothies, drinks,

salad dressing, etc.

Food Storage Containers. Sturdy, air tight ones

are the best to store batch cooking or leftovers.

Coffee Maker. If you are a coffee drinker, this

machine can save you a lot.

Cookbooks. Cookbooks for lower cost, healthy

meals can provide ideas for meals.

As you are gathering your tools you should be think-

ing about and working on building your plan of at-

tack. First in the plan is to build up a pantry and the

next is developing a menu plan. These go hand in

hand. You want to make sure the items in your pan-

try match the men-us and meals you will be making.

Having a good size pantry makes sure you are not

running to the store every day, provides some securi-

ty if there is a loss of income or other emergency,

and al-lows you to help others if needed. You will

need to decide how much food you will store: 1

week, 2 weeks, a month, three months or more. This

will often depend on your storage space and your

comfort level. If you have more

food in the pantry, you have a

better cushion for emergencies.

Once you decide on how much

food to store, the next step is to

plan your menus. An easy way to

accomplish this is to write out all

of your family’s favorite meals and use this list at the

base for your pantry. If you are not sure how to start

a pantry, The Organized Home has a great article to

use as a guide to figure out the basics. To find others,

perform an internet search on “How to Build a Pan-

try.” Once you have the basics, take your meal plan

and figure out the ingredients you need above and

beyond the pantry basics to make the meals.

(Continued on page 5)

As mentioned in previous columns, the two main are-

as you have the most control over in order to save

money: utilities and food. We have already discussed

ways to save on your utilities. Let’s talk about saving

on your food bill. Eat out at all the time and have a

large food bill or prepare food at home and have a

smaller food bill, usually dramatically smaller.

Let’s have some fun with math. Let’s say you stop for

a coffee every morning on your way to work and pay

$4.00 for a large, 16 ounce cup. If you do the math it

is $20.00 a week and $80.00 a month. Now compare it

to making your coffee at home. A 12 ounce bag of

high end coffee sells for $7.48. A 12 ounce bag will

make 34 6 ounce cups, for a cost of $0.22 a cup. A 16

ounce mug would use 2.75 cups to fill up for a cost of

$0.61 cents. If you do the math it is $3.05 a week and

$12.20 for the month. This is a total savings of $67.80

a month by making just this one small change.

Imagine making these types of changes across every-

thing you do with food and food preparation, the

amount of money a family can save is huge. The

USDA publishes a Cost of Food at Home Food Plan.

As of February 2015, feeding a family of four is

$652.90 on a Thrifty Food Plan and $859.70 on a Low

-Cost Food Plan. There are two more plans with high-

er costs; click on the link to see them. Use these Plans

as a guide and see if you can spend less money. Make

it a game for the family to beat the costs on these

plans.

These plans tend to include a lot of convenience foods

such as pre-packaged side dishes, canned soups, or

frozen dinners. Having a few of these types of food in

the house is fine for having a quick meal on hand, but

using “real foods” and making most of your own

meals will save your money and health in the long

run. To start along this journey of saving money, you

need to have a plan of attack and some tools in your

kitchen. Here is list of some of these tools to have in

the kitchen to make your life easier.

Crockpot/Slow Cooker. This the

number one item to have! It is a life

saver for working or busy families.

Put a meal in the crock in the morn-

ing and come home to a hot meal

waiting to eat. Having one crockpot

is good, but you may find having

more than one is better.

5

When you start to stock the pantry, you still need to

stay within your grocery budget to feed your family

and stock the pantry. There are several ways to stretch

your dollar. Check the sales flyers for the local stores

and plan all your meals around the sales, take the sav-

ings and pick up pantry items. Aldi’s is a good place

to stock up on the basics since their prices tend to be

lower than grocery stores. Developing a price book

can help you track sales trends and know where and

when the best prices are available for the items you

use often. The Organized Home has an article on one

way to start a price book. Once again an inter-net

search can provide you many other ideas.

Another tool for saving on the food budget is batch

cooking, freezer cooking or once a month cooking.

Taking time once or twice a month to prepare meals

and have them in your freezer saves both time and

money. All you need to do is take the meal out of the

freezer, defrost it in the refrigerator and prepare it.

There are many resources available to help you along

this path to reduce your food budget. Internet searches

are a fun way to find hints, helps and recipes. Here are

a few ideas to get you started:

Cookbooks

More With Less

Family Feasts for $75 a Week

$7 a Meal Slow Cooker Cookbook

$5 Dinner Mom

Dining on a Dime

Miserly Meals

Healthy Meals for Less

Clara’s Kitchen

Once a Month Cooking Family Favorites

Don’t Panic, Dinner’s in the Freezer

Fast Slow Cooker Freezer Meals

Websites

365 Days of Slow Cooking

$5.00 Dinners

Budget Bytes

Good Cheap Eats

31 Crockpot Freezer Meals

A Month of Crockpot Freezer Meals

Organized Home is a great resource for learning

about frugal living. It has many free printable lists

and check-lists to help you meet your goals, both

financial and personal.

Check your library first to preview the books. If

you decide to purchase the book, look for used

ones to save money. Check out sites such as

half.com, abebooks.com or the used selections of

Amazon to get the best prices.

Upcoming Columns Emergency Fund. Who Needs It?

Getting That Snowball Rolling

How to Use a Meal Plan

Cooking up the Savings (Cont’d.)

Volunteers

Needed!!

The Edgewood Community is seeking your

help in planning and hosting two events we

believe help foster a positive image of our

community. We are seeking assistance from

the Harford County community to make

these events happen this year. We strongly

believe helping Edgewood greatly benefits

Harford County as a whole.

If you, or an organization you know are will-

ing to help please contact one or both of the

event coordinators listed below.

Edgewood Independence Day

Celebration Parade Coordinator

Veronica Black

410-868-2796

veronblack@hotmail.com

Edge WoodStock Coordinator

Jansen Robinson

410-258-4552

Jansen.robinson@hotmail.com

6

7

Anita C. Leight Estuary Center

Estuary Science Lab: Microscopy Techniques

04/17/2015 4:30-6:30 pm

Sunset Paddle Series: Canoe

04/17/2015 5:30-8:00 pm

Clean up the Creek Canoe

04/18/2015 9:30 am-12:30 pm

Ecology Video Game Programming Workshop

04/18/2015 10:00 am-1:00 pm

Children’s Gardening

04/18/2015 1:00-2:00 pm

Frog Fetchin’

04/18/2015 6:30-8:00 pm

Birding by Boat

04/19/2015 9:00-10:30 am

Pumping Up Pollinators

04/19/2015 2:00-4:00 pm

Ecology Video Game Programming Workshop

04/25/2015 10:00 am-1:00 pm

Plant a Tree Please

04/25/2015 12:00-1:00 pm

Camping by the Creek

04/25/2015 4:30 pm-10:30 am

Jazzy Pots and Plants

04/26/2015 1:00-2:00 pm

Abingdon Library

Boosting Morale: Art Out of Conflict Exhibit

04/09/2015 through 05/30/2105

Little LEAPERS 3.5: Digital Camp

04/20/2015 10:15-11:15 am

Innovate Cafe

04/20/2015 6:30-7:45 pm

Let’s Go to the Zoo Story Time

04/23/2015 1:30-2:15 pm

Explorer Club: Food Sleuth

04/24/2015 2:00-3:00 pm

Little LEAPERS 3.5: Digital Camp

4/27/2015 10:30-11:15 am

Edgewood Library

Little LEAPERS 3.5: Digital Camp

4/20/2015 10:30-11:15 am

Salsa Stories Family Writing Workshop

04/20/2015 6:00-8:00 pm

Awesome Afternoon at the Movies

04/25/2015 2:00-4:00 pm

Foreign Film Festival

04/27/2015 6:00-8:00 pm

Joppa Library

Knitting for Beginners and Advanced Beg.

Meets weekly on Wednesdays 6:30-8:30 pm

Crazy 8’s Preschool Math Club

Meets weekly on Tuesdays 10:30-11:30 am

Booked for Lunch

04/20/2015 12:00-1:00 pm

Computer Security

04/20/2015 6:30-8:00 pm

Family Swap Meet

4/26/2015 10:00 am-1:00 pm

Awesome Afternoon at the Movies

4/26/2015 2:00-4:00 pm

Job Search: Writing a Resume

4/28/2015 1:00-2:00 pm

Basics of Car Care

4/28/2015 6:00-7:00 pm

Around the District Happenings

8

House of Worship Events

Presbury United Methodist Church

Pit Beef BBQ April 18, 2015

806 Edgewood Road Edgewood, MD 21040

For more information Call: 410-676-3234 Visit: www.presburyumc org

Quarter Auction

April 24, 2015

$5.00 for 2 Paddles

Doors open at 6 pm Auction starts at 7 pm

Thirty-One, Origami Owl, Jamberry, Perfectly Posh, Mia Bells & It Works! are just some of the vendors

Prince of Peace 2600 Willoughby Beach Road

Edgewood, MD 410-612-5912

Copley Parish

Church of the Resurrection

May 9, 2015

Doors open at 5 pm

Event begins at 6 pm

One paddle for $2

Three paddles for $5

Refreshments will be sold

For more information:

700 Anchor Drive

Joppa MD 21085

410-679-8700

www.copleyparish.org

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Spotlight’s on:

ServeFest 2015

ServeFest is the result of a convergence of many different movements among the

Churches in the region. In the mid 2000s, there were several churches that had

caught a vision for being the hands and feet of Jesus and serving their community

in practical ways. In Howard County, Grace Community Church started a community impact ministry

called “Building Bridges.” Abundant Life Church in Anne Arundel County was coordinating a monthly

outreach, which they were calling “Servefest.” Apart from either of these initiatives, Mountain Christian

Church in Harford County launched “ServeFest” in 2004 as an all-church, day of service to the commu-

nity — in neighborhoods, schools, non-profit agencies, government organizations, and homes. The main

goal was for the church to be a blessing to the community and offer itself as a servant through simple, but

meaningful projects.

It became clear that ServeFest did not belong to any one church and that it was a vehicle for bringing

churches together. In 2007, ServeFest in Harford County engaged 3 churches. The next year there were

17 churches. The following year 41 churches partnered together as ServeFest extended beyond Harford

County to include Baltimore City and Baltimore County. In 2010, the Baltimore regional prayer network,

Partners for Transformation, endorsed ServeFest and the movement became truly “regional.” From that

point, a regional website and branding were developed, and ServeFest has grown to extend across five

counties and Baltimore City and has brought together over 4,000 people and 120 churches to serve their

communities.

This year’s ServeFest will be held on April 25th and will have a two-pronged focus: Serving our Com-

munity and Serving our Neighbors.

Serve OUR Community There will be many projects in the participating Counties and City - projects we can all join in to Serve

OUR Community. Projects which will include school beautifications, park clean-ups, home and facility

repairs, care-giving at assisted living facilities, general spring cleaning for non-profit organizations, pray-

er walks and more. There’s something for everyone -- young and old, skilled and unskilled. Each project

is led by a volunteer project manager in conjunction with the organization or people being served.

Serve OUR Neighbors ServeFest is aimed at igniting a movement of people who live a lifestyle of serving in Jesus’ name. Eve-

ryone should feel empowered and encouraged to Serve YOUR Neighbors in whatever way God is lead-

ing you. Individuals and families are encouraged to identify a way to serve neighbors -- whether they’re

next door or people seen all the time. You are encouraged to be creative, have fun, and build new rela-

tionships.

For more information on churches which are participating and currently planned projects, visit the

Harford County ServeFest website.