CHOICES Spring 2014

Community Options, Inc. Rings the Closing Bell at the New York Stock Exchange.

 

Community Options, Inc. invites you to our 8th Annual iMatter Conference at the Nassau Inn in Princeton, New Jersey.

This year’s conference focuses on quality services provided to individuals with disabilities. The iMatter Conference will get underway on Tuesday at 6 p.m. with a welcome reception. There will be several notable speakers on May 7 and 8. Sue Swenson, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Special Education and Rehabilitative Services; Jennifer Velez, Commissioner New Jersey Department of Human Services; Michael DuHaime, Partner Mercury Public Strategy & Maggie Moran, President & CEO of M Public Affairs; John Crowley, President and CEO of Amicus will be speaking at the conference.

For more information please email: lisa.smith@comop.org, or to download a form for registration, please visit: www.comop.org and click the events page.

 

8th Annual iMatter Conference Keynote Speakers

Sue Swenson, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Special Education and Rehabilitative Services

Sue Swenson is deputy assistant secretary for the U.S. Department of Education Office on Special Education and Rehabilitative Services. Swenson previously served as CEO of The Arc of the United States, as executive director of the Kennedy Foundation, and as U.S. commissioner for developmental disabilities in the Clinton administration. Swenson was educated in interdisciplinary humanities at the University of Chicago and holds an MBA from the University of Minnesota. She is the mother of an adult son who has complex disabilities.

Secretary Swenson will discuss proven effective practices, as well as what is new in special education. She will walk the audience through her life as a parent of a person with significant disabilities and her various roles in government.

 

Jennifer Velez, Esq. Commissioner New Jersey Department of Human Services

Jennifer Velez was confirmed as Commissioner of the NJ Department of Human Services in 2007; re-nominated by Governor Chris Christie and re-confirmed in March 2010. She served as one of the Department’s Deputy Commissioners from January 2006 until her nomination.

DHS has the largest budget in state government, with over 15,000 employees – approximately 75-percent of them serving as direct care workers in the state-run developmental centers and psychiatric hospitals. About one in six New Jersey residents is impacted by the work of DHS.

Commissioner Velez works in partnership with the Administration on initiatives including: Medicaid reform; advancing supported placement of individuals with developmental disabilities and mental illness in the community; creating employment opportunities for people with disabilities; and sustaining the safety-net of services made available for the state’s older population, and individuals and families with low income.

Velez was named First Assistant Child Advocate in the Office of the Child Advocate when it was created in September 2003. Previous to that role, she served as Senior Associate Counsel and Assembly Liaison in the Office of Governor’s Counsel for three Administrations.

 

John Crowley, President and CEO of Amicus

John Crowley became president and CEO of Amicus in January 2005, having served as a director since 2004. Previously he was founding president and CEO of Orexigen Therapeutics. Preceding Orexigen, Mr. Crowley was senior vice president at Genzyme Therapeutics, a position he assumed after overseeing the sale of Novazyme Pharmaceuticals to Genzyme in September 2001. Mr. Crowley was the founding president and CEO of Novazyme that was developing a novel treatment for Pompe disease. He previously served in several senior management roles with the Bristol-Myers Squibb Company (BMS), including director of the Executive Committee for the U.S. Medicines Group, director of Business Strategy for the U.S. Pharmaceuticals Group, and director of U.S. Area Marketing for the Neuroscience and Infectious Disease Division.

Mr. Crowley is involved with several charitable and community organizations, including serving as president of the National Tay-Sachs and Allied Diseases Association. He is also on the Research Advisory Board of the national Muscular Dystrophy Association and the Board of Directors of St. Peter’s University Hospital. Mr. Crowley’s involvement with biotechnology stems from the 1998 diagnosis of two of his children with Pompe disease – a fatal neuromuscular disorder. Mr. Crowley and his family have been featured on the cover of The Wall Street Journal, The Today Show, CNBC and The Paula Zahn Show.

The Harrison Ford movie, Extraordinary Measures is based on Crowley family’s quest to save their children.

Mr. Crowley earned his B.S. degree in Foreign Service from Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service, his J.D. from the University of Notre Dame Law School and his M.B.A. from Harvard Business School.

 

Coca Cola presented the Community Service Check to Community Options in Columbia, South Carolina.

Every year, Coca Cola holds a National Day of Service to reach out and help communities in need. On February 22, the staff of Community Options’ Columbia, SC office, COBAC members along with individuals supported and their families signed up and participated in “Serve Your City Day”. Nearly 40 individuals worked together to complete a cleaning and organizing project at the Columbia office. Out of three agencies, Community Options totaled the top number of volunteers. As a result, Coca Cola awarded a $2,5000 check to COI. Bryant Sumter, Sales Support Manager for Coca Cola, presented the award.

 

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Please join us as we celebrate our 25th Anniversary honoring New Jersey’s 48th Governor Thomas H. Kean Thursday, the eighth of May two-thousand fourteen at six o’clock in the evening Morven Museum & Garden 55 Stockton Street, Princeton, New Jersey.

Governor Thomas H. Kean was rated among America’s five most effective state leaders by Newsweek magazine; noted for tax cuts that spurred 750,000 new jobs; a federally replicated welfare reform program, landmark environmental policies, and over 30 education reforms. During the Governor’s tenure, many of us witnessed him signing legislation expanding the Division of Mental Retardation to support persons with Autism, Cerebral Palsy, Epilepsy, Spina Bifida, Traumatic Brain Injuries and other neurological disabilities. He created the Governor’s Office on Prevention of Mental Retardation and supported the reduction of institutional care of 8,100 people with disabilities to less than 4,200 people, thereby creating the largest development of community based supports in the history of New Jersey.

Morven Museum & Garden is located in the beautiful town of Princeton, New Jersey. This former home of a signer of the Declaration of Independence also served as New Jersey’s first Governor’s Mansion. Morven is the “people’s” place: a National Historic Landmark owned by the State of New Jersey and operated by the non-profit, Historic Morven, Inc.

Community Options is delighted to celebrate its 25th year of service to people with disabilities at this historic home and is honored that such a prestigious elder statesman will celebrate with us on our silver anniversary. The net proceeds of these donations will be applied to the purchase of new homes.

Please join us as we celebrate our 25th Anniversary honoring New Jersey’s 48th Governor Thomas H. Kean

Thursday, the eighth of May two-thousand fourteen at six o’clock in the evening

Morven Museum & Garden
55 Stockton Street, Princeton, New Jersey 08540

For more information regarding the 25th Anniversary Gala, please contact:

Megan Fielder, Director of Special Events
Phone: 609-951-9900
Email: megan.fielder@comop.org

To purchase your tickets or to sponsor the event, please visit the following link: www.comop.org

25th Anniversary Gala Committee

• Susan Doctorian Kyrillos
  Chair
• Tom Bracken
  NJ Chamber of Commerce
• John Crowley
  Amicus Therapeutics
• Delia Donahue, Esq.
  Pepper Hamilton LLP
• Caren Franzini
  Franzini Consulting LLC
• Gail Gordon, Esq.
  Florio Perrucci Steinhardt & Fader LLC
• Beth Hegberg
  Mendham, NJ
• David Norcross, Esq.
  Alexandria, VA
• William Rue
  Rue Insurance
• Robert Stack
  Community Options, Inc.
• Steven B. Vitale
  Valley National Bank
• Dr. Clarence N. York
  Community Options, Inc.

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Mother’s Day – Sunday May 11, 2014

Need Mother’s Day ideas? Look no further than Vaseful – we have flowers for Mother’s Day that will suit any style and we offer Mother’s Day flower delivery nationwide! Wish her a Happy Mother’s Day with a beautiful bouquet of flowers, the perfect Mother’s Day gift!

Vaseful Flowers and Gifts, a Community Options Enterprise, is a charming flower shop that offers high quality floral services and delivery to anywhere in the world. While working at Vaseful, employees with and without disabilities learn valuable retail skills such as credit card processing, dictating phone orders, retrieving and processing of orders received through our website, shipping and distribution, inventory management, and of course, floral processing and arranging. We are committed to serving our customers with the finest floral arrangements and gifts, backed by our 24-hour guarantee.

1877- VASEFUL

WWW.VASEFUL.COM

 

25 for 25

25for25 is a campaign to raise $25,000 for our 25th year anniversary. This will help support individuals with disabilities and create an employment center. Please check out the following link! We greatly appreciate your support!