Upcoming Events for Autism Community Center of Asheville

Parent’s Time Off
Once per month, we invite you and your children to visit us at our brand new location at Westwood Baptist Church in west Asheville. Our professional staff will engage your child in sensory, recreation, and leisure activities, while you have some time off. Siblings are welcome too!
Date: Saturday, Feb 13th 2010 Time: 2-4:30pm Fee: $25/child


Workshops
Local Resources
This workshop quickly goes through the roles various agencies play in the autism community. Who does music therapy? Where can I find a good tutor? Is there a summer camp my child can go to? The first 45 minutes will be an overview of the resources in our area, followed by a question and answer period. The second part of the workshop breaks into two sessions: one regarding resources for adults, and the other will detail the process of obtaining state and federal services for children. Childcare is available upon request.
Date: Tuesday, Feb 16th 2010 Time: 5-8pm Fee: $35

Home Program Basics
This workshop begins with choosing individual household priorities regarding rules, healthy routines, and behavior, and then walks through the steps of creating a home-program that smoothes out the difficult parts of the day. Schedules, token economies, visual structure and sustainability will be covered in a refreshing, empowering format that allows parents to address issues specific to their home and their child in an organized and constructive manner. Childcare is available upon request.
Date: Tuesday, Feb 23rd 2010 Time: 5-8pm Fee: $35

Creative Programming
This workshop goes beyond basic schedule making and token economies. Come hear some new ideas about how to keep your home program refreshingly fun for all of you. We will discuss creative community involvement, fostering friendships, and early employment ideas. Childcare is available upon request.
Date: Tuesday, March 2nd 2010 Time: 5-8pm Fee: $35

Please register online or by phone.
www.autismcommunitycenter.com (828)458-0313

Comment on Case Manager Cuts - Let them hear from you!

Limiting case mgt to 3 hrs/month is irrational. Such a limit defeats the purpose of Person Centered services and prevents case mgrs from doing their jobs. Inform your consumers & families of this planned cut and the negative impact it will have on their services. Encourage them to make their feelings/opinions known to the state by using the e-mail address below. Notifying their legislators or copying them their e-mails will also be very helpful.



Go to state Mental Health, Developmental Disabilities, Substance Abuse website www.dhhs.state.nc.us/mhddsas/

Click Implementation Updates on right below Liza Wainwright photo

Click 1/5/10 Implementation Update #66

Very last article is "Limits for Medicaid CM Services" explaining that Targeted Case Mgt will be limited to 3 hrs/month effective March 1, 2010.

www.dhhs.state.nc.us/mhddsas/servicedefinitions/servdefupdates/update66/dmadmh66memo.pdf



At end of article is e-mail address for commenting:

"Unless noted otherwise, please email any questions related to this Implementation Update to ContactDMH@dhhs.nc.gov."



Consumers and families can send their concerns, comments, protests to the above e-mail address.

Great Opportunities for Teens with Autism

Here are some group and learning activities for persons with Autism. All groups will run for 6 weeks, and meet once per week. After 6 weeks, a new round of groups will start. The idea behind the groups is to facilitate activities that people truly enjoy, with enough structure and explanations that people know exactly what to do. Ideally, I would like people to come to these groups with an adult non-parent. If this is not possible, please contact me and we can negotiate.


TO REGISTER: email me at: sylvia@autismcommunitycenter.com

Include the name, and age of the potential group member, and a phone number where you can be reached. I will call you to finalize your registration and payment.

Autism Activity Groups for Winter 2010:

Writing and Illustrating for Teens:
This group is for teens. Each meeting will revolve around a theme, such as animals, travel, aliens, insects etc. Group members can write or illustrate (or both) about the theme, or do their own, non-thematic work. Structured collaboration on projects is encouraged and optional. We anticipate illustrations in a variety of themes, including cartooning, anime-style drawings, realism, and modern art. Group members who wish to share their work with the group may do so at the end of each meeting. Online publishing of writing and/or illustrations is optional.
Class fee: $120
Schedule: Tuesdays 4-5pm January 19th - Feb 23rd
Location: Westwood Baptist Church 150 Westwood Place Asheville, NC 28806


Writing and Illustrating for Adults:
For adults. Each meeting will revolve around a theme, such as family, jokes, music, foods etc. Group members can write or illustrate (or both) about the theme, or do their own, non-thematic work. Structured collaboration on projects is encouraged and optional. We anticipate illustrations in a variety of themes, including cartooning, anime-style drawings, realism, and modern art. Group members who wish to share their work with the group may do so at the end of each meeting. Online publishing of writing and/or illustrations is optional.
Class fee: $120
Tuesdays 2-3pm January 19th - Feb 23rd
Location: Westwood Baptist Church 150 Westwood Place Asheville, NC 28806


Recreation:
For youth. This group will participate in creative, active games each week. Weather permitting, we will hike or play games outside, like disc golf, or lightning. If it is too cold, we will play games indoors, like no-outs dodgeball, or obstacle course building.
Class fee: $120
Schedule: Mondays 4-5pm Jan 25th - March 1st.
Location: Fosters 7th Day Adventist Church Gym 375 Hendersonville Road Asheville, NC 28803


Gamers Group
For people older youth and teens. This group will play Nintendo Wii games together. Appropriate procedures for winning, losing, and waiting will be addressed and practiced.
Class fee: $120
Schedule: Fridays 4-5pm Jan 22-Feb 26
Location: West Asheville Recreation Center 970 Haywood Road Asheville, NC 28806