2007 Accomplishments 

Research

  • Research-based programs such as Effective Black Parenting and Trauma Focused Cognitive Therapy were added to the menu of interventions.

  • Workshops were presented at several state and national conferences, including: the National Child Abuse and Neglect Conference in Portland, Oregon, and the Children’s Defense Fund in Washington.

Innovation

  • A Prescription Refill Telephone Line was established to streamline the prescription refill process for families of students in the Early Childhood and Elementary Day Treatment programs.

Growth

  • New York State approval was granted for Crestwood to become a Clinic Plus provider in Monroe County and to open a satellite office at the Dundee Central School in Yates County.

  • Through a grant from the Feinbloom Foundation, Family Resource Centers of Crestwood was able to offer a summer pre-K program at two neighborhood city sites during the summers of 2006 and 2007.

2006  Accomplishments 

  • Implementation of Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports (PBIS) throughout Crestwood Children's Center's day treatment and residential programs received state and national recognition.

  • The first parent advocate was hired to work with families served in Crestwood's residential treatment facility.

  • Successful efforts to reduce the use of physical interventions in managing dangerous behavior continued across the entire agency with the number decreasing by 35% over the previous year.

  • Providing a forum for the voice of children at Crestwood, student councils were established in each of its day treatment and residential programs.

  • Crestwood Recreation Therapy Team established a relationship with St. Ann's Community, a senior living agency in Rochester. On at least a quarterly basis, children from Crestwood travel to St. Ann's to participate in activities with its residents.

  • The Peter Castle Family Resource Center of Crestwood successfully completed a Self-Assessment and Peer Review process conducted by the statewide network of Family Resource Centers under the New York State Children and Family Trust Fund (OCFS). The Peter Castle Center was commended as a vibrant center offering a comprehensive range of effective programs to families in a diverse neighborhood.

  • The Children of Crestwood's Early Childhood Center demonstrated their concern for the community by donating 346 pounds of food to FOODLINK and donation $100 for the Marine Corps "Toys for Tots" drive.

  • Crestwood's Outpatient Clinic staff completed a Quality Improvement Project to streamline intake processes so that the waiting time for services is reduced.

  • Crestwood clinicians received training in a number of evidenced-based models of service delivery, including Trauma Focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy.

  • The Family Resource Centers of Crestwood (FRC) collaborated with the University of Rochester's Department of Psychiatry in providing a training program to develop grandparents as mentors to other grandparents who are raising grandchildren through FRC's Skip Generation program.

2005  Accomplishments 

  • Celebrated our 120th Anniversary of providing services to children and families in 2005.

  • Family Resource Centers of Crestwood was awarded the 2005 Excellence in Child Abuse Prevention Program Award by the New York State Office of Children and Family Services in April 2005.

  • For the third consecutive year there was 0% turnover among our teaching staff. Turnover rates in the other major staffing disciplines also remained below industry averages.

  • Demonstrating their concern for the community, students from Crestwood’s Early Childhood Center sponsored the following projects:

•A soda can drive for the Red Cross’s Tsunami relief project
•Shoe collections for both Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) and the
 Adoption Resource Network
•Fundraiser for Foodlink, washing fire trucks at the East Henrietta Fire Department
•Made dog biscuits for the Rochester Animal Shelter
•Sang at a local nursing home•Students from the Secondary Education Center
 participated in a county-wide Youth Service Day by cleaning up parts of Charlotte
 Beach

  • Began discussions with the Family Resource Centers (FRC) of Rochester about a possible relationship in August 2004. Discussions developed into a management agreement established in January 2005and culminated in the acquisition of FRC programming by the end of fiscal year 2004–05.

  • Research evaluation of Family Resource Center’s curriculum “Parents as Primary Sexuality Educators” (now referred to as “Family Talk”) done by the University of Rochester in 2002 was published this year in a supplement of the Journal of Adolescent Health confirming the value of the curriculum in helping parents educate young children about sexuality.

  • A unified effort was undertaken to implement the evidenced-based Positive Behavior Interventions and Support (PBIS) model in all CCC’s residential and day treatment programs. As an HFA service affiliate, CCC was recognized at the New York State-PBIS Coaches Forum and the Monroe County Preventive Services Coalition Annual Conference for its implementation of PBIS.

  • A CCC staff team completed the Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) intensive training for this evidenced-based model and began to teach fellow staff DBT skills and run DBT groups in the Secondary Education program.

  • The Parents as Partners philosophy continued to grow at CCC with more parent and family involvement than ever. Parents now serve on key agency committees, subcommittees, and work groups, and the residential and day treatment programs sponsored a number of family events throughout the year that engaged family members with the Crestwood community.

  • Partnered with Hillside Children’s Center in providing In-Home PINS Diversion services to Monroe County families. Collaborating together, both Crestwood and Hillside Children’s Centers were able to realize administrative and financial efficiencies and offer improved service to families.

2004 Accomplishments 

  • Aiming to increase both our focus on families and partnership with parents, initiatives were implemented including cross-agency staff participation in “Family Sensitivity and Strength Based Services” training; development of an agency chapter of the Hillside Family of Agencies Parents as Partners Roundtable, and appointment of parent representatives to the CCC Board of Directors and key agency committees.

  • Efforts to reduce physical holds in day treatment and residential services resulted in a 25% decrease in residential care holds.

  • A collaboration of our staff with that of Hillside Children’s Center led to the development of school based solutions services, which place agency staff in school district settings in order to meet the needs of special education students without necessitating their removal from their home district.

  • We were reaccredited by the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Health Care Organizations in May with a positive review by our surveyors.

  • We worked with Hillside Children’s Center’s Service Integration Department to implement a referral process for secondary education day treatment services that enables families being referred to both affiliates to undergo only one intake process.

  • Major improvements were made to our Scottsville campus including: the addition of a new playground with state of the art equipment, the replacement of the  roof for the early childhood center, and the installation of a generator that has minimized program disruptions during power outages.

  • We were accepted into the New York State Education Department’s state-wide cohort for implementing Positive Behavioral Interventions and Support (PBIS), a strength-based model for working with students.

  • A satellite clinic of Crestwood Children’s Center was opened at Hillside Children’s Center’s East Main Street location, providing a city site for our outpatient services.

  • Nutritional screenings of all consumers served by the agency have been implemented to strengthen the link between food service delivery and treatment planning.

  • Crestwood Children’s Center and Hillside Children’s Center merged their preventive PINS diversion programs to allow for more effective service delivery and a reduction in administrative costs associated with service operations.

2003 Accomplishments 

  • A successful capital campaign raised $500,000 to replace the roof of the Early Childhood Center.  Work was completed in the summer of 2003.
  • Both the Office of Mental Health and the Office of Children and Family Services conducted audits of Crestwood Children’s Center and had high praise for the quality of care we offer to children and families.
  • Through the implementation of quality improvement activities, the number of therapeutic holds recorded throughout the agency was substantially reduced.
  • Staff turnover across the agency was reduced by 5%.
  • Customer satisfaction surveys completed post discharge reflected a high level of satisfaction (85-90%) by our consumers with the quality of services they received from Crestwood.
  • We joined the Hillside Family of Agencies’ Parents as Partners Roundtable and initiated a number of other activities to increase the level of parental participation in programs.
  • The “Child Only” demonstration project in Yates County earned high marks from county partners for its effectiveness.
  • Two “Increase the Peace” events were held in Elementary Education Center promoting the concept of internal peace, conflict resolution, and cooperation among our students.
  • We took strides toward achieving market-based compensation for 60% of staff in 2003, with the promise to achieve it agency wide by 2005.
  • A Middle Management Team was established in February 2003 to advance the notion of participatory management within the agency. 

2002 Accomplishments
  • A successful site visit review by the American Psychological Association Committee resulted in Crestwood’s Pre-Doctoral Psychology Internship Program's continued accreditation through 2006. The surveyors complimented Crestwood on providing interns with an intensive clinical training experience, sufficient supervision, and well-equipped newly renovated training rooms. It was noted that Crestwood’s program enjoys a client base representative of diverse groups and that training includes seminars and experiences geared to preparing interns for effective work with children, adolescents, and families representative of these groups.
  • The New York State Office of Mental Health (OMH) conducted a site visit of Crestwood's new clinics in Lockport and North Tonawanda and re-certified operations through 2003. Crestwood serves approximately 500 children and their families in these Niagara County sites. The Performance Report for Client Satisfaction for Lockport and North Tonawanda concluded that 98.3 percent of families surveyed were satisfied with the help they received, 100 percent would recommend Crestwood services to others, 93.4 percent felt their needs were met, and 100 percent believed quality services were provided.
  • Crestwood’s Center for Child and Family Therapy locations in both Honeoye Falls and Rochester received Tier I re-certifications by OMH for the maximum three-year period. This is an indication of strong partnerships between families and staff in these rural and urban settings to help children successfully maximize their potential.
  • Crestwood’s residential treatment programs received accolades from OMH and the New York State Office of Children and Family Services. The Residential Treatment Facility (RTF) was re-certified for the maximum two-year period. The site visitors were impressed by the children’s awareness of why they were in treatment and what issues they were working on, and that they felt safe at Crestwood. Parents commented positively about their involvement in the treatment process.
  •  An Inspection of Care survey also noted that Crestwood's children seemed aware of their goals and objectives. The surveyors noted that Crestwood’s treatment planning was comprehensive, goals and objectives were measurable, and treatment implementation was good and well documented.
  • Crestwood’s Bridger Program was instituted to help reduce the length of stay for children in the RTF program. The program, for which Crestwood hired two transition coordinators to help children re-adjust to the home and community when leaving residential care, was noted to be "well organized and doing for the children in RTF that which it was intended to do." OMH reviewers stated that Crestwood is the youngest, yet strongest, program reviewed to date, and records were well organized and easy to read. Staff was complimented for its commitment to the program as "true assets and self-starters." Administrative support and direction were clearly evident.
  • Crestwood staff actively participated in the 2002 United Way/Red Cross campaign "Take Care of Our Own." As a result of their generous giving, Crestwood Children’s Center received the United Way’s Award of Excellence Plus, which recognizes organizations that achieve a 100-percent giving level in accordance with the Employee Campaign Performance Worksheet and raise more than $500 with a participation level of 50 percent or more. Crestwood also hosted volunteers from Kodak and News 8 Now as part of the United Way Day of Caring. The volunteers participated in internal redesign and external landscaping projects.
  • Crestwood children and staff received visits from several local celebrities committed to improving the lives of the community's children, youth, and their families. Olympic gold medalist Diann Roffe visited the day before the 2002 Winter Olympics opening ceremony to encourage children to reach for their goals. Former Buffalo Bill Steve Tasker hosted the Crestwood golf tournament and told children that hard work in school and getting along with others would help them succeed with their life choices. Also part of the Crestwood community was Calvin Hubbard, the school's "artist in residence" for the year, who worked with students to create a mural celebrating citizenship. The mural now hangs in the school lobby.
  • Facility improvements and the purchase of new equipment continued at the Scottsville Road campus to enhance the environment for both children and staff. Cottage windows were replaced, bathrooms upgraded, medical and dietary equipment purchased. The Play Therapy Room wing was completed with video and sound equipment. Carpeting, HVAC, and landscaping projects completed this year’s focus on enhancement of the therapeutic environment.