Message from Executive Director

Members and Friends of CIDA,

Amidst the continuing challenging times due to the CoronaVirus, autumn has already arrived at our doorstep. Despite the tough times, CIDA is preparing for autumn. We were able to successfully host our big events, such as the Drama Club and Town Hall Meeting thanks to everyone’s help. This year’s Town Hall event was hosted in collaboration with New York Senator John Liu, in which more than 300 participants registered. The event was also featured by Keynote speaker, Dr. Yoon Joo Lee, Professor at CUNY, and Joanne LaCross, the Director of Special Education from the New York State Education Department participated as a panel. For more information, please refer to the news below.

In September, we will be resuming our mask distribution program, parent special education workshops, support groups, and adult and child family gatherings. Please refer to the event announcement below for participation. We are also recruiting new participants for our transitional programs and the Drama Club for young adults with developmental disabilities, so please contact us if you are interested.

I hope that all of you are in good health until we can meet again in person.

Thank you.

Young Seh Bae, Executive Director

Policy News

A quarter of NYC students opt out of school buildings this fall, while 736,000 are set to return — for now
Source: https://ny.chalkbeat.org/

Mayor Bill de Blasio announced that more than a quarter of families in NewYork City plan to start the 2020-2021 public school year full remote. Around 264,000 students have opted out of school buildings whereas around 736,000 students will be part of a hybrid schedule. This hybrid schedule combines one to three days of in-person instruction with the rest of the week being learn-at-home. About 120,000 other students who attend charter schools, have created their fall schedules with some of these students being fully remote, and others prioritizing younger ages or students with disabilities for in-school education.

Millions Awarded In Rental Assistance For People With Disabilities
Source: https://www.disabilityscoop.com

Millions of dollars in rental assistance are being sent by federal officials for people with disabilities in a dozen states. As stated by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, $74 million will be distributed to state housing finance agencies to support around 2,400 housing units for up to five years. Officials say that this rental assistance is towards extremely low-income individuals with disabilities which is being provided through a program called the agency’s Section 811 Supportive Housing for Persons with Disabilities program.

NYC DOE School Reopening Updates – Key Points Guideline

With NYC DOE schools reopening, we have a made a guideline with key points which you can read here: See PDF

What’s Up at CIDA

Virtual Town Hall – Equality & Inclusion

On August 6th, CIDA and Senator John Liu, Chairman of New York City Education Committee, co-hosted a legislative town hall meeting to discuss equality and inclusion of students and adults with disabilities. CIDA would like to thank the 200+ attendees for our first ever Virtual Town Hall meeting being a huge success. Thanks to the virtual town hall meeting, we as a community were able to take a huge step forward for equality and inclusion of the disability community. The town hall summary and recording have been sent to all CIDA families and registered town hall guests.

CIDA Drama Club

Throughout our summer months, CIDA held a Drama Club, a special COVID-19 project for youth with disabilities. Our Drama Club was led by Q Lim, a talented Broadway actress, along with nine volunteers. Through this program, our students were able to learn more about acting through various warm-up exercises, scene study worksheets, and partner scene readings. Throughout the Drama Club, the students showed great improvement in social skills, speech dictation, expressing different emotions, and confidence. During the final performance, students presented their scenes in front of an audience through Zoom and Facebook live. We would like to thank Q Lim, our volunteers, and students for making our first ever Drama Club a huge success!

Events

Due to the ongoing COVID-19 epidemic, all events are now online. Please check our event calendar for event details and registration information.

– Mask Distribution Day (Reservation is required): September 5, between 10 am – 2pm

– Workshop & Support Group (Korean, Age 0- middle school): Development and Learning Characteristics of Children with disabilities or developmental delay: September 8 at 3:30pm

– Housing Lottery Seminar (Mandarin): September 14 at 8pm

– Workshop & Support Group (Korean, Adults with Disabilities and Their Parents): Disability Service Navigator Intro: September 17 at 8pm

– Housing Lottery Seminar (Korean): September 28 at 8pm

– PEP Community Workshop (K-12 Special Education): Learning Characteristics of Children with DD/ID (Mandarin) September 30 at 8pm