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"As a parent, I have learned so much from your dedicated staff and will be forever grateful for the part all you played in our lives"
Parent of Day Student
"I personally find it very gratifying to have the opportunity to work with the children here at St. Ann's."
Marcia Spates
Housekeeper
"I learned a lot.  I used to be a dictator with my children.  I learned to see things their way."
Family Outreach
Client
"I have learned how to work to control my anger and how to talk to staff when I am upset or frustrated instead of just getting angry."
Josie M,
St. Ann's Home Kid
"One of the most rewarding aspects of my job is watching the excitement and pride in a child's face when they learn to read their first words."
Marcia Strasnick,
Primary classroom teacher
"I personally find it very gratifying to have the opportunity to work with the children at St. Ann's."
Marcia Spates
Housekeeper

The St. Ann's Home & School Blog

Jun 26

Written by: John Rice
6/26/2009 8:46 AM 

Welcome to the new St. Ann’s Home & School Blog. We have been working to up-date and improve our web site to make it easier to use and easier to find for school systems, parents, families, caregivers and guardians looking for information on residential, day school, and other programs for a child or adolescent with and emotional, behavioral, or mental health disability. It’s a “work in progress”, so please stay tuned.

While I am new to “blogging”, I am not new to the areas of special education and developmental disabilities. You see, besides working here at St. Ann’s, I am also the father of a seventeen year old son with Aspergers Disorder, often described as “high-functioning Autism”, who attends a residential school here in Massachusetts. I am all too familiar with the stressors, emotions, and the trials and tribulations of raising a child with special needs. I can empathize with what parents, guardians, and their child, have to go through.

As the Director of Development here at St. Ann’s, my job is to direct a fund raising program to bring in funds to support the multitude of programs and services available here, on-campus, as well as through our community outreach programs. I think my life experiences only make me better at what I do.

St. Ann’s has been here in Methuen since opening its doors on Christmas Eve, 1925. Like any program or business with such a long history, we have gone through many changes through the years. Currently we provide highly specialized care and services to children and adolescents, some as young a five, and, with the upcoming opening of our latest project, we will have residents as old as twenty-two in our independent living program, helping them to learn the skills and behaviors necessary to move to the next step in life. Everyone is excited to see this project come to be.

It is my intent, in future blogs, to bring you up-dates and information about us… the kinds of services and programs that we have in place or under development; with help from my clinical colleagues, to provide you information about the many diagnosis’ we treat as well as resources available to assist parents, caregivers, guardians and families; and mostly to provide you with helpful information important and relevant to special needs children adolescents and their families.

I hope that you will find this blog interesting and helpful and will follow it as we go forward, and welcome your comments and feedback!

Yours truly,

John J. Rice
Director of Development

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1 comment(s) so far...

Re: The St. Ann's Home & School Blog

Looking forward to following!

By JJR on   7/1/2009 11:48 AM

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