Join Our Research Project: YAS Aftercare

Young adults who are transitioning to adult services, including those in the Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services (DMHAS)-funded Young Adult Services (YAS) program, face tremendous challenges as they become more independent. They are more likely to experience unemployment, unplanned pregnancies, substance abuse, and involvement with the criminal justice system. They have more difficulty accessing primary care and mental health services, and they often discontinue treatment. They are at high risk for becoming homeless. There are resources for developing crisis services and temporary shelters that could provide short-term help, but there isn’t much information about long-term solutions that could permanently reduce these risks.

Marrakech, Inc. wants to change that. In response to our strategic planning process in the Fall of 2013, we have established a YAS Aftercare Committee, a coalition of local service providers that is leading the effort to develop opportunities for young adults with mental illness in the Greater New Haven area. Our first step? Hearing from you.

With support from Fordham University, we’re conducting a needs and asset assessment with current and past YAS consumers and YAS providers. We want to give young adults a voice in developing programs and services that recognize their independence, build supports, and meet their needs. We also want to let providers offer honest feedback about their experiences in providing services, including budget restrictions and agency policies. Survey responses are anonymous, and participation in this project is voluntary—it will not affect your relationship with Marrakech, Inc., YAS, or any other service provider.

To take the CONSUMER survey, visit: www.surveymonkey.com/s/YASconsumer

To take the PROVIDER survey, visit: www.surveymonkey.com/s/YASprovider

To learn more about this research project, please e-mail Meredith Campbell Britton at mbritton@marrakechinc.org.

Together we can make a positive impact on the lives of young adults with mental illness.

Introducing Assistant Case Manager, Wesley Ronczka!

As we celebrate Brain Injury Awareness Month, we'd like you to meet our Acquired Brain Injury Services Management Team!

Six Things You May Not Know About Wesley Ronczka!

1. He grew up going to stock car races at Stafford Motor Speedway and Riverside Park with his family!

2. He can’t wait to purchase his own home someday (hopefully he will utilize Marrakech’s employee benefit, the “Home Ownership Program” to help with that)!

3. Music from the 1950’s always puts Wes in a good mood!

4. He is afraid of heights, but would love to be able to fly!

5. He misses his first car dearly, which was a 1978 Chevrolet Malibu classic with a 305 v8 that, growing up, he helped his dad work on!

6. Loves working in the ABI program because even though there is always a lot going on, his team is still able to do a great job handling any situation that comes up!

"R" You Aware?

Don’t be a retard. That’s so retarded. The R-word has become part of our everyday slang. Most of us probably don’t even think twice about it when we hear it. But we should. Using the R-word is hurtful and offensive to the millions of people with intellectual and developmental disabilities. It is just as hurtful as other derogatory language that we have worked hard as a society to eliminate from our everyday language. People with intellectual disabilities deserve that same respect.

As human beings, we all want to be treated with dignity. People with intellectual disabilities are no different and are no less human. Stand up and join us in the campaign to Spread the Word to END the Word. Together, we can be part of the movement that ends the stigma associated with intellectual disabilities and we can start by taking the pledge to stop the use of the R-Word now.

Visit www.r-word.org to take the pledge and find out more on how you can take action to END the word. Stay tuned to Marrakech’s Facebook page on and leading up to Wednesday, March 5th for more updates, links and photos.

Spread the Word to End the Word was created by youth with and without intellectual disabilities who participated in the Special Olympics Global Youth Activation Summit at the 2009 Special Olympics World Winter Games. The motivation for the campaign was driven by a united passion to promote the positive contributions people with intellectual disabilities make to communities around the world combined with a simple call to action – a pledge to stop using a word – that also symbolizes positive attitude change and a commitment to make the world a more accepting place for all people.

Celebrate Black History Month With Us Honoring This New Haven Native

Edward Alexander Bouchet was born in 1852 in New Haven, Connecticut. At that time there were only three schools in New Haven open to Black children. Bouchet was enrolled in the Artisan Street Colored School which had only one teacher and she nurtured Bouchet's academic abilities. He attended the New Haven High School from 1866 to 1868 and then Hopkins School from 1868 to 1870 where he was named valedictorian (after graduating first in his class). Bouchet was the first African American to graduate from Yale University in 1874. He completed his dissertation in Yale's Ph.D. program in 1876 becoming the first African American to receive a Ph.D. (in any subject). His area of study was Physics. Bouchet was also the first African American to be elected to Phi Beta Kappa. Bouchet was unable to find a university teaching position after college.

He moved to Philadelphia in 1876 and took a position at the Institute for Colored Youth (ICY). He taught physics and chemistry at the ICY for 26 years. The ICY was later renamed Cheyney University. He resigned in 1902 at the height of the W. E. B. Du Bois-Booker T. Washington controversy over the need for an industrial vs. collegiate education for Black students. Bouchet spent the next 14 years holding a variety of jobs around the country. Between 1905 and 1908, Bouchet was director of academics at St. Paul's Normal and Industrial School in Lawrenceville, Virginia (presently, St. Paul's College). He was then principal and teacher at Lincoln High School in Gallipolis, Ohio from 1908 to 1913. He joined the faculty of Bishop College in Marshall, Texas in 1913. Illness finally forced him to retire in 1916 and he moved back to New Haven. He died there, in his childhood home, in 1918, at age of 66.

The American Physical Society confers the Edward A. Bouchet Award on some of the nation's outstanding physicists for their contribution to physics. In 2005, Yale and Howard universities founded the Edward A. Bouchet Graduate Honor Society in his name.

Join Us in celebrating Edward Alexander Bouchet today in honor of Black History Month!