New Friends and Contributors

City Access New York is always pleased to welcome new friends and contributors to our quarterly newsletter. Just below you’ll find information and links to advocacy and arts-in-education resources by Parent to Parent of New York State and Ten Penny Players. Please take a few moments to read about the invaluable work that they do, and be sure to visit their online resources. Happy holidays!

Parent to Parent of NYS

Parent to Parent of NYS is a statewide not for profit organization with a mission to support and connect families of individuals with special needs. We recognize the importance of emotional support and are a point of contact for many parents who are ‘getting started’ on their journey of parenting a child with developmental disabilities. 

A Support Parent Network of over 1200 parents is the backbone of the Parent Matching Program.  It puts parents in touch on a one to one basis with other parents who have a child with a similar chronic illness or disability. “Support Parents” are volunteer parents who have made the offer to speak one to one with “new” parents and share their experiences and to let them know they are not alone.  

The organization fields calls from professionals and parents of children with special needs looking for resources, services and information. Calls include requests for information about medical services, therapies and special education as well as information specific to an illness or disability. There is no charge for services.

There are three offices in the New York City area. The phone numbers are: NYC 212-741-5545, Staten Island 718-494-3462 and the Bronx 212-741-5545. 

A website is maintained to provide health care and disability related information and resources, as well as listings of events – www.parenttoparentnys.org. You can email Parent to Parent at siparent2parentnys@verizon.net  

“Reprising Joy” and the online presence of Ten Penny Players

Ten Penny Players is a forty year old arts in education program now based on Staten Island that instead of the stage or art gallery has allowed student creativity to flourish on the printed page.  Last summer, Barbara Fisher completed her work on a book length documentation of Ten Penny Players’ curriculum for the inclusive classroom “Reprising Joy”.  Using Barbara’s photographs of pets at play, learners were encouraged to respond with their own expressive writing and graphic art.  “Reprising Joy” inspired more than a hundred individual chapbooks and anthologies printed in very limited edition by Ten Penny Players’ small press. “Reprising Joy” was developed with funding support from the Staten Island Foundation.  It has been formatted and uploaded to Scribd, an online publishing site that does for the printed word what Youtube does for videos.  The book can be viewed at www.scribd.com/doc/19333773/Reprising-Joy-Ten-Penny-Players.  New teachers, administrators, and parents are encouraged to access it for free.

Since the publication of “Reprising Joy”, Ten Penny Players has uploaded almost 200 of its thousands of publications, which include service learning curricula, parenting manuals, and expressive writing by people of all ages and abilities.

'Tis the Season

Amazing, really, that 90% of all contributions made to charities are made by individuals – not foundations, or corporations – but by individuals like you. If you would like to make a tax-deductible contribution to City Access New York, it’s as simple as clicking here. And thank you!

City Access New York would also like to thank these sponsors for their generous support: