The entire Foundation Board is committed to help ensure that many important programs are supplemented with charitable dollars so NHS can continue to serve some of the most challenging and vulnerable consumers in our communities.
- Michael J. Mitchell, Chairman, NHS Human Services Foundation - Annual Report 2002 -
THE PILLARS OF OUR SUCCESS
A Collection of Successes Thanks to Our Generous Supporters
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Therapeutic Rewards are Harvested at the Jack Mitchell Memorial Garden
The taste of home grown tomatoes. The feel of earth between the fingers. The fresh aroma of marigolds. The warmth of the sun.
Smiles are blooming at the NHS Woodhaven Center. In May, the Adult Training Facility (ATF) planted its first Sensory Garden - a garden planted, maintained and harvested by NHS consumers with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD). It is a place of both calm and activity. The lush garden, full of life offers consumers and their families a restful retreat. Individuals of all ages buzz by, planting, watering, enjoying being outside, with therapists, and direct care staff always by their sides.
“The consumers enjoy working in the garden. They helped plant the seedlings, and cared for them by watering, picking off the dead leaves and harvesting the vegetables,” Kelly Jelus, director of the Adult Training Facility (ATF) at the NHS Woodhaven Center.
Currently, more than 88 ATF participants are growing tomatoes, basil, watermelon, cucumbers, pumpkins, lettuce, green peppers, hot peppers, green beans, turnips and flowers. Every Tuesday and Thursday with assistance from Suburban Garden, the consumers harvest the ripe vegetables.
"They love to help walk along the rows in the garden to keep the weeds down and pick the vegetables, but they especially love when employees from NHS Human Services come into the classroom to buy our produce," said Jelus. Where else can you get two homegrown, fresh tomatoes for a dollar? The garden offers a whole new set of tools for our consumers, including an increase in social skills, by interacting with the Suburban Garden representative, sharing in responsibilities and taking turns. Adaptive planters, just the right height for wheelchair accessibility, make it possible for everyone to tend to seedlings and herbs. In the classroom, organizing batches, bagging and tagging items teach consumers skills for school, life and work. Finally, selling the fruits of their labor gives consumers the opportunity to interact with customers, count change and properly manage money.
"Sensory gardens help to link the residents to the environments around them, increase their skill repertoire, reduce their self-injurious behaviors and improve their communication skills." The NHS's Sensory Gardens have become a center of activity that allows the 4,155 individuals with IDD in our care a place that will appeal to every visitor and provide them with a meaningful experience through exploration of many beautiful aspects of nature. The gardens include a variety of special plants chosen specifically to ignite each of the five senses. Flowers and plants with strong scents, unique textures, vibrant colors, and even edible herbs inhabit the garden.
Thanks to the NHS Human Services Foundation and a generous grant from the Jack Mitchel Memorial Fund and Woodhaven Parents Association for making the garden a reality for the residents at NHS Woodhaven Center. NHS consumers will learn from the social and educational aspect that the garden brings, along with the therapeutic rewards harvested from this new venture.
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Independence Blue Cross
Partnering with NHS on Duty to Protect Training Initiative
Throughout NHS Human Services, we touch the lives of thousands of vulnerable individuals, children, adults and seniors. The NHS core values structure is built around our responsibility to these individuals. At NHS we pride ourselves on having one of the most comprehensive compliance and integrity programs in the country. As a national leader in our field, it is important to hold ourselves to the highest standards and to constantly evaluate our policies, procedures and trainings so that we are confident that the NHS culture continues to display our conviction that nothing is more important than those lives which are entrusted to our care.
We are NHS and we are committed to protecting the rights of the most vulnerable lives in our care. During this training campaign, all staff will learn the five most important steps in our duty to protect: Recognize, Assess, Disclose, Assist and Record.
We are honored that the President and CEO, Dan Hilferty and Independence Blue Cross has partnered with us and have chosen to underwrite this important initiative. As always Independence Blue Cross is always there for us all.
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Children's Services
Where Fun is Priority ONE!
Have you ever seen a child walk onto a playground and not run? I didn’t think so… Or have you ever passed a playground full of kids and not heard the screams of excitement and laughter? Doesn’t happen…
The playground is the place where all children get along, burn off energy, learn about what excites them and sometimes, what scares them. It’s the place where a smile from ear to ear can be seen as the sliding board propels children faster than they can run. Climbing, jumping, swinging and balancing can turn any four-year-old into an explorer as they learn about themselves, special awareness, and physical limitations.
Every child deserves the right to feel the fresh air in their face as they go higher and higher on the swing. But not all children live in a place where this is possible. Many of the children at our behavioral health clinic in Philadelphia do not have this simple necessity.
Thanks to the good friends of NHS, their facility now has a very special playground where no one walks through an outside door to get to the playground. It is a place of intense laughter and displays of endless energy, stimulated by a colorful, challenging play area where “Fun is Priority One!”
Copyright © 2013 NHS Human Services, Inc. All Rights Reserved.