Dear North East Participants and Families:

Beginning January 1st, 2010, North East will be converting the majority of our programs to hourly waiver respite programs funded through Medicaid. This conversion has been imposed on our agency by OMRDD (Office of Mental Retardation and Developmental Disabilities) due to the budget issues in New York State.

Under Medicaid regulations, we are only able to charge fees for a portion of the expenses incurred by our agency. This mandate will actually benefit you since the program fees for most programs will be much less than in the past. The bad news for us is that we will no longer be reimbursed for the majority of our expenses. We will be losing over $100,000.00 in revenue.

For 2010, this revenue shortage will result in us not filling the vacant Recreation Therapist position, some additional trimming of our budget and the need to increase our fundraising and grant writing effort. We are hopeful that our families and friends will continue to support our gala, which will take place on October 16th, 2010, our golf outing on September 20th, 2010, and some of the new initiatives that we will be putting in place. If these strategies lead to positive results in 2010, this conversion will not result in the slashing of programs and services for you and your family in 2011.

Please see "Champions for North East" for information about an annual campaign that we will be launching immediately. This is one of the new strategies that we will be implementing to make up our loss of revenue and allow us to continue to provide quality programming for our constituents. The program is titled; "Champions For North East" and it will function like a booster club. We have three levels of giving and benefits associated with each level. Participation in North East programs is not contingent on your involvement in this campaign, however the future of North East may, in part, be determined by the success of this campaign. All contributions are tax deductible and you will receive a thank you letter to use for IRS purposes. Please encourage your family and friends to be supporters as well.

Thank you in advance for your attention to this letter. I am hopeful that we will weather this storm and emerge more successful than before. I do believe, however, that we all need to be vigilant in our efforts to direct funds to North East and support the fundraising events in place to enhance their performance.

Sincerely,

Janet Riley
Executive Director