Carol and Lori

Leadership Message: July 2011

Two thousand eleven marks 85 years of service for AbilityFirst. Since our beginnings in 1926 as the Crippled Children’s Society of Southern California, formed by a committee of the Los Angeles Rotary Club, we have grown to a network of 24 locations in four counties serving nearly 2,000 children and adults with disabilities each year. 

We began our fiscal year last summer with a brand new business model for one of our oldest programs, Camp Paivika.  All State funding had been cut for camping services for people with developmental disabilities and more than 500 Camp Paivika campers were at risk of losing services.   

We responded with a new camp model based on private pay and camperships for those families with financial need. Thanks to the generosity of many wonderful donors our plan worked and 360 people attended camp last summer. We are so pleased that the camping program is still going strong and providing a much needed break for families while their campers make friends and enjoy a full camp experience. 

The 222 participants in our three Work Centers had high productivity and very little down-time this year due to the many corporate clients who retained us for assembly and packaging jobs and shredding. Through this program, adults with developmental disabilities earned a paycheck while gaining valuable workplace skills. We are also supporting 103 employees with developmental disabilities who are working in the community. 

The 467 children and adults at our seven community centers also were very busy this year achieving their personal goals including increasing and developing communication, appropriate social interaction, and basic life skills 

We begin our fiscal year 2011/2012 with two new members of our Board of Directors. We are pleased to welcome William Hawkins, Managing Director of Overton Partners and Jonathon Thomas, Chairman of the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine. 

The real accomplishments at AbilityFirst occur each day as children and adults with developmental disabilities triumph over adversity by learning new skills, making new friends or otherwise meeting personal goals. On behalf of all of them, we thank you for your on-going support. 

Best regards, 

Richard R. Frank
Board Chair 

Lori Gangemi
President and CEO