Recently JCCA’s CEO Ronald E. Richter visited some of the boys living at our Edenwald Center on our beautiful campus in Westchester. The pool is open, the kids are spending lots of time outdoors and Ron wanted to hear from our clients and our staff.
Edenwald serves children with emotional difficulties, as well intellectual challenges, autism and other developmental disorders. They live in homelike cottages with specially tailored, highly supportive programs that help our young people learn daily living skills such as how to socialize and interact with peers, teachers and adults.
Here’s what Ron said about his visit:
“I had a wonderful time getting to know some of the boys at Edenwald. They are sweet kids (11-13 years old) with warmth and senses of humor. They really appreciate positive attention.
They were totally motivating. You can see from the photos that we had fun. Talk about resilience and brightness! They are a smart, charming, engaging group. It was touching to see that each young person was eager to support the other, helping them finish each other’s sentences, as they answered my barrage of questions about their birthdays, their favorite foods and best field trips. They all love basketball and, eventually, they got me to shoot a few hoops. Like I said, they are a motivating group! Then we shared ice cream and some laughs. I can see that our residents are benefitting from our warm, homelike environment and our wonderful staff. I was touched by the staff’s knowledge of each boy’s unique needs and specific challenges, and how they used a “strengths based” approach, encouraging kids when they did well, no matter how small the achievement.”
Adds Traci Iorio, Resident Supervisor, “I enjoyed seeing how he took time to get to know each individual. We hope Mr. Richter can come again soon.”