An Open House event on Thursday, October 26, officially launched Hillside’s new Family Opportunity Center at the Hillside offices located 215 Wyoming Street, Syracuse 13204.

The Family Opportunity Center (FOC) is a site-based, drop-in program where enrolled families can benefit from supports including a wide range of parent education resources; short-term, on-site mental health counseling; and informed guidance on accessing supplemental services in the community. Children are always welcome at the Center, with play and homework spaces available with parental supervision.

Eligibility is open to caregivers of children up to 21 years of age, regardless of insurance status. There is no charge for these services, which are funded by the New York State Office of Children and Family Services (OCFS).

Among those present at the Syracuse Open House event were Elizabeth Nolan, Hillside Chief Operating Officer; Jean Galle, Hillside Vice President for Community-Based and Developmental Opportunities Services; Kim Kromer Murphy, FOC Program Manager; and Charlene Griffin, Program Manager for the OCFS Bureau of Program and Community Development.

“Parents and families can face challenges caused by a wide range of behavioral, social, mental health and even economic factors, and addressing those challenges early helps prevent them from becoming more serious,” Galle said. “The Family Opportunity Center is an important interventional resource that will provide essential supports for families in need. We’re excited to bring this to the community, as another way of helping families heal and thrive.”

Once enrolled in the program, families can drop in without an appointment during regular FOC business hours of 11am to 5pm Tuesdays through Fridays. The Center is also open by appointment from 5pm to 7pm Tuesdays and Thursdays, and one Saturday per month from 9am to 1pm.

A second Center is planned to open at Hillside’s Mustard Street location in Rochester.

For specific times, to make an appointment, or for enrollment information, call Hillside at 888-514-4455 or 315-703-8700.

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Hillside teams were among the organizations earning honors in the 2023 Greater Rochester Quality Council (GRQC) Performance Excellence Awards. The annual ceremony was held Wednesday, October 11, at Locust Hill Country Club in Rochester.

The agency was lauded with two Gold Awards for Team Excellence: for the project “Improving Program Scorecard Process,” led by Jeremy Webster (pictured, left), Manager of Therapuetic Foster Care services in Hillside’s Central New York Region; and for the project “Improving Compliance with EMR Security Audits,” led by Sharon Gruttadauro, Quality Manager for Hillside’s Quality and Risk Management team.

The GRQC Performance Excellence Award Program helps organizations in all sectors of the economy gain valuable insights into strategic areas of their operations, connect with like-minded leaders in high performing organizations, and earn formal recognition for achieving excellence through continuous improvement methodologies.

In addition to Team Excellence, awards are also presented in the categories of Organizational Excellence and Customer Experience.

“Greater Rochester Quality Council is a champion for the highest standards of operational quality and process improvement that can benefit any organization,” said Darlene Ryan, Hillside’s Chief Performance Officer. “A GRQC award is a significant honor, and we’re delighted to see our teams recognized with two such awards this year. Our commitment to continuous improvement helps ensure that Hillside delivers programs of the highest possible quality to those we serve.”

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Michele remembers the first day when she and her family used TeleCare videoconferencing services to connect virtually with Hillside’s Kristin Pusey. “It took some getting used to,” mom Michele recalls of the initial online meetings between her family and Pusey, a Clinician in Hillside’s General Prevent program. “There were some complications at first— COVID made everything more complicated, really. But we figured it out with Kristin.” Today, she says, “everybody’s gotten up to speed. We all know what to do.” When it’s time for a regularly scheduled appointment, the family gathers around their laptop computer on a living room table to talk with Pusey. This makes connecting easy, and most of all safe and convenient. For Michele and her husband, Hector, those criteria—particularly safety—have been top of mind. Pusey has been working with their kids on a range of behavioral issues, even as physical health concerns have left some family members immunocompromised. This has required caution in arranging sessions with Pusey during the COVID-19 pandemic: Face-to-face when possible, but when not, TeleCare bridges the gap. That assistive technology “has really made a huge difference” in her work with this family, Pusey says—and the same can be said throughout Hillside. Even during the pandemic’s worst days, this secure, encrypted tool has allowed essential connections to be maintained. These include families meeting with Hillside clinicians; youth in residential treatment engaging with their own families; and teachers leading remote learning when in-person classes were not in session. Demand for this HIPAA-compliant technology skyrocketed with the arrival of COVID-19, and has remained strong: TeleCare visits across Hillside numbered approximately 2 per day, pre-pandemic, compared to more than 300 per day today. Thanks to TeleCare and the adaptive partnership between Pusey and Michele and Hector’s family, their children—Angel, 16; Wyatt, 13; Alex, 12; and Ellie, 4—are getting the support they need during a challenging time. “Kristin is great to work with, and it’s great not having to miss sessions when an in-person meeting won’t work,” Michele says. “It’s good for the kids to have her to talk to. It really helps.” Thank you to all our donors for the support that makes TeleCare and other technology investments possible. Support Hillside today.