What is your favorite thing about having your child at the CDP?
The teachers are fantastic. My daughter graduated through three different classrooms. They seem very well equipped for little kids. They are real age specific with toys and equipment like the bathroom facilities.
At my daughter’s level they have lesson plans so she is getting an education as well. They send home monthly letters with lunch menus and lesson plans --what they will be discussing that month as well as “My Day” sheets which report what she did through the day. I also have other friends who have kids in daycare and when they saw the “My Day” sheets they wished they had something like that – she was impressed with how much information they gave you about what your child did through the day.
Also they have yearly parent teacher conferences where they go over a milestone checklist with you. So if you did have a kid with disabilities they do a really good job at monitoring their day to day activities.
~ Deb Tan, parent
Current Articles (choose link to jump to full text)
New! Donation Drop Off Locations NOW OPEN
David Wunderlin to Leave Northwest Center
Interview with Client Michael Sims
Our Donors Really Support Our Mission!
Thank You to The Norcliffe Foundation!
Our Wheels Won't Go 'Round...
Remembering Bill Ellison
New Donation Drop Off Locations NOW OPEN
Got donations? You can now drop off your re-usable clothing and household items at your new local neighborhood donation station. Look for “The Big Blue Truck” in the parking lot. Our new locations are at:
Auburn White River Junction Albertsons
Lake Stevens Market Place Albertsons
Woodinville Cottage Lake Near Safeway
We are open weekends, Sat & Sun 9:00am to 5:00pm. Donations are tax deductible and support our mission. Visit www.bigbluetruck.org for alist of acceptable donations.
Donate Today...and receive a $3 off coupon to our partner Value Village
David Wunderlin to Leave Northwest Center
After more than nine years of strong organizational leadership, David Wunderlin, President/CEO, has decided to leave Northwest Center. Below is an excerpt of his announcement to the organization:
“It is with a mixture of pride and sadness that I announce my decision to leave Northwest Center after nine wonderful years of leading this important community service organization.
The pride comes from the incredible growth, advancement and development the organization has gone through over the past decade. We’ve all contributed to these substantial changes. The organization is serving substantially greater numbers of kids and adults, in programs that are recognized to be among the best in the nation. The organization is financially solid and poised for a bright future… there is also sadness at the prospect of leaving…. It will be difficult to find something as meaningful and rewarding as Northwest Center, a difficult yardstick to measure anything by.”
The past several years have been a time of growth and change for Northwest Center. Much of our organizational success is due to his influence. We have made huge strides in our ability to deliver quality services to the adults and children with disabilities whom we serve, and our businesses continue to grow and thrive, providing support for our programs and our operations.
Over the next few months, the Board will focus on finding the right individual to lead Northwest Center. In the intervening period, Thomas Everill, Past Board Chair, will act as the Interim President/CEO and will work with the staff to ensure a smooth transition.
We thank David for nine years of service and for the growth, passion, strategic vision, and talent he brought to Northwest Center. Our opportunity is to honor David’s contribution by continuing to build on his strong foundation.
Interview with Client Michael Sims
Michael Sims is non-verbal so his job coach James Ludwig answered our questions below in terms of what he sees from a subjective point of view as Michael’s primary staff.
How has Northwest Center helped you? Because Mike is non-verbal, he is at risk for exploitation in the community. Northwest Center provides him with a safe supervised place of employment that assists him with learning new skills at his own pace with special consideration for his communication needs. A communication board was developed for Mike to use.
What is your job at Northwest Center and how long have you been doing this job? Mike has worked in Assembly and Packaging for almost two years on a number of different contracts. He regularly assembles three ring binders and Coinstar cleaning kits. He has also done many other short term assembly projects.
What skills have you learned in doing this job? Mike has learned how to use an electric screwdriver, a tape gun and how to follow directions sequentially.
What do you like best about your job? Mike is very well liked by staff and friends. He loves interacting with them through sign and sounds. He loves to play practical jokes on staff.
What are your goals that you are working toward? Mike is working on goals to increase his limited communication skills and ensure his safety.
Our Donors Really Support Our Mission!
Our amazing supporters have donated over $120,000 in just the first half of 2008! We really want to thank all of you who have shown your support of programs for adults and kids with disabilities. View the complete list of our 2008 supporters.
Thank You to The Norcliffe Foundation!
We are pleased to announce that, thanks to support from The Norcliffe Foundation, we will be able to start development on a new database that will allow us to combine several different client databases so we can confidentially store and efficiently retrieve client information.
The web-accessible database will allow us to consolidate each department’s information into a single record, accessible only to those staff members who are working with the client. Staff can get the most up-to-date information on an individual’s progress in other departments as well as their own. Information will be current, accurate, and enable us to provide better service to each individual in our program. We will be able to recognize trends more quickly and compile comprehensive reports more efficiently to gauge the effectiveness of our programs. Overall, this will make us better at serving each person in our program as well as the group as a whole. Thank you to the Norcliffe Foundation for helping us get this project off the ground.
We still need your help to see this project through. Please consider helping by making a gift to our database project.