The Outreach Report
Welcome to The Outreach Report monthly staff e-news!
Save the Date!
- Nomination Deadline for TCA’s 2024 Richard Pruss Professional Development Scholarship for Direct Service Staff, August 23, 2024. (Please see details below).
- Islip Goes Purple Kick Off (to Recovery Month) & Fun Run, Friday, September 4, 2024 at the Islip Town Hall, Islip, NY – Registration at 3:00 PM, Kick-Off at 4:00 PM for more info, please visit: www.islipgoespurple.com.
- 9th Annual John Brower Jr. Memorial 5K Walk, Saturday, September 14 (see details below).
- Payroll Calendar for August – September 2024
August 9th, August 23, September 7, and September 20
- Early Fall OTI Professional Development Opportunities: (free to all Outreach staff!) To register, click here by stated deadlines below:
- Assessing and Addressing Intersectional Stigmatization: Strategies for Health Professionals (3 Hours), Tuesday, September 10, 2024, 2:00 PM – 5:00 PM
Registration Deadline: September 3, 2024 - Bringing Evidence Based Practices Into the Service Setting (3 Hours), Tuesday, September 11, 2024, 2:00 PM – 5:00 PM
Registration Deadline: September 4, 2024 - Prescription & Over the Counter Drug Misuse (3 Hours), Tuesday, September 17, 2024, 2:00 PM – 5:00 PM
Registration Deadline: September 10, 2024
- Assessing and Addressing Intersectional Stigmatization: Strategies for Health Professionals (3 Hours), Tuesday, September 10, 2024, 2:00 PM – 5:00 PM
Click this link to register for any of the other trainings listed above. Please be sure to only register for courses that you are eligible to participate in: https://forms.gle/qbMmFLMZTuK9s9Cw8
Best wishes to staff who celebrate Birthdays in July and August
Cathy Ahlgren, Brentwood Islip Outpatient Services
Alexis Attardi, Outreach House II
Stephanie Allison Aviles, Outreach House II
Maria Bak, Greenpoint Outpatient Services
Joanne Bauman, Brentwood Women’s Residential
Francisco Bejerano, IT
Donna Bornfriend, Brentwood Islip Outpatient Services
Charles Bunge, Long Island Street Outreach
Marilyn M. Clarke, Outreach House II
Cristine Contreras, Bellport Evening Outpatient Services
Nya Cort, Brentwood Islip Outpatient Services
Annamarie DiMarco, Outreach House I
Ayanna Y Dorsett, Outreach Community Residence
Chelsa Forstel, Bellport Evening Outpatient Services
Ulysseus Gillian-Smith, Outreach House II
Katie E. Gilligan, Bellport Day Rehab Services
Markeeda Goodwin, Outreach House II
Ouida Harry, Brentwood Women’s Residential
Mia Ivancovich, Brentwood Islip Outpatient Services
Shuron Jackson, Outreach Community Residence
Allison Jacoutot, Bellport Day Rehab Services
Frances Johnson, Bellport Day Rehab Services,
Michael Judge, Outreach Community Residence
Pawandeep Kaur, Quality Assurance & Improve Services
Hannah J. Knox, Outreach House I
Danielle Laurenti, Bellport Day Rehab Services
Leila Lubin, Methadone Opioid Treatment Services
Yvonne Mann, EQuITY
Christy Mathurin, Greenpoint Outpatient Services
Dalvis Medrano, Maintenance and Porter
Malik Miller, Outreach House I
Delores Moore, Brentwood Women’s Residential
Aquiles Mouthon, Richmond Hill
Jadeline Mallol Nunez, Outreach House I
Courtney Palermo, Bellport Day Rehab Services
Gabriella Panetta, Outreach House II
Debra Pantin, CEO
Steven F. Paul, Outreach Community Residence
Vanessa Phillips, Outreach House I
Shownea Quarles, Outreach House II
Gail Raghubar, Outreach House I
Rose Ramos, Greenpoint Outpatient Services
Mohammad Rehman, IT
Keith A. Ritchie, Outreach House I
Leticia Rivera, Outreach House II
Keleyna Romoleroux, Outreach House II
Gloria E. Rosa, Finance
Giovanni Jose Santiago, Outreach House II
Cassidy Rose Schultz, Outreach House II
Ana Maria Maria Scola, Outreach REACT Center
Christine Selario, Outreach Community Residence
Neil Sheehan, CEO Office
Ashley Simon, Richmond Hill OTI
Michael Simonds, Outreach House I
Bernadette Acosta Singh, Outreach Recovery Center
Jillian Southall, Outreach House I
Kizzy Dinelle Springer, Outreach House I
Bobby Staley, Richmond Hill
Zachary Stamp, Outreach House I
Khadijah Steele, Outreach House I
Przemyslaw Szkiladz, Maintence and Porter
Cassin Taylor, Outreach House I
Dakchyata Thapa, Quality Assurance & Improve Services
Karla Celeste Tovar, IT
Sarah Triola, Outreach House II
Maia Tupaz, IT
Asha Vereen, Finance
Donna Winding, Brentwood Islip Outpatient Services
David Youngblood, Outreach House I
Welcome to New Employees hired between June 16th – August 1st
MaryEllen Adams, Brentwood Women’s Residential
George Aviles, Outreach House II
Nelson Ayala, Richmond Hill
Amanda K. Ballan, Brentwood Women’s Residential
Alvaro Chavarriaga-Monsalve, Outreach House I
Robert Dandrea, Outreach Community Residence
Kimberly Dunn, Outreach House II
Tiana Farmer, Richmond Hill
Joshua Fernandez, SOR Queens
Stacy Ann Hunt, Brentwood Islip Outpatient Services
Lauren Irizarry, Outreach House II
Tiara Jones, Bellport Day Rehab Services
Elliot Kloper, Human Resources
Cassandra Lehman, Outreach House II
Ashley Mack, Brentwood Women’s Residential
Alexandra Mason, Methadone Opioid Treatment Services
Ora Nusbaum, Richmond Hill
Courtney Palermo, Bellport Day Rehab Services
Angel Peay, Outreach House I
Darlene Ritter, Outreach House I
Priya Roy, Outreach House I
Erica Esmeralda Ruiz, Outreach REACT Center
Alexander Salce, Outreach House I
Giovanni Jose Santiago, Outreach House II
Cassidy Rose Schultz, Outreach House II
Kalisha Smith, Richmond Hill OTI
Julianne Smith, Outreach House II
Zachary Stamp, Outreach House I
Khadijah Steele, Outreach House I
Congratulations Employees of the Month
We salute staff members who were selected by their colleagues and leaders as their program’s Employees of the Month! Congratulations and thank you for your dedicated service to Outreach and its mission to help build healthy lives!
Patrick Bonacum, Suffolk Ave
Samantha Rauch, Suffolk Ave
Jordan Schietinger, Outreach House I
Ashley Simon, OTI
Michael Stewart, Richmond Hill
Rynell Wells, REACT Center
Best Wishes and Congratulations
to Communications Manager Michael Stewart and his new bride Shaina Zimmerman who married on July 25, 2024, in Westchester County. Congratulations also to Michael’s mother Executive Administrator Beverley Stewart as she officially welcomes Shaina into their family.
Welcome, congratulations and much joy
to the family of Senior Vice President and Chief Compliance Officer Mary Brite on the birth of their first grandchild! Kieran Shawn Brite arrived on July 9, 2024, weighing a healthy 8lbs. and 6oz.
Surprise!
Debbie Pantin, who celebrated a birthday recently, and new grandmother Mary Brite were thrown a surprise joint birthday party/baby shower at Richmond Hill.
Staff Profiles: Meet the EQuITY Team!
In 2021, OASAS selected Outreach as the provider for a five-year federal SAMHSA EQuITY grant. The aim of this grant is to enhance services for transitional aged youth between the ages of 12-25 years old, who have substance use and co-occurring mental health disorders, and their families/caregivers, throughout New York’s Queens, Suffolk, and Nassau counties. The purpose of this study is to aid in the development of more effective policies and strategies for preventing and treating addiction and to better address the needs of youth and young adults in treatment. An emphasis of this work is to address health disparities by increasing access for women and girls, and other underserved, and often overlooked, racially and ethnically diverse populations.
Through EQuITY, Outreach is ensuring that that youth and young adults in treatment have access to much needed early education, intervention, recovery, and wraparound services. They are doing this by strengthening relationships with referral sources such as local probation, parole, and juvenile justice programs, OASAS youth clubhouses, OASAS recovery centers, school districts, primary care physicians and pediatricians, mental health service providers and other community support services, as needed. The EQuITY team is comprised of three staff members who are based out of Outreach Recovery Center in Brentwood, Long Island, but are often out in the field meeting and connecting with young people and their families to the programs and services they need.
Meet The Team!
(From left to right: Melissa Hermann, Thanh Pham, and Yvonne Mann)
Melissa Hermann, EQuITY Project Director
What is your full name (first and last), suffixes, and pronouns
Melissa Herrmann, LMSW
When did you join Outreach?
I started at Outreach in March of 2024
Where did you work before coming here?
I came from Concern Housing and I’m still working there part-time.
What is your title and your position’s scope of responsibilities?
I’m the Equity Project Director, and my role as the project director is to oversee all aspects of a SAMHSA grant. It is my responsibility to build and maintain relationships with federal and state funders as well as other medical and community-based agencies amongst many other things.
Where are you from (and/or living now)?
I’m from Suffolk County, NY.
What do you enjoy most about working at Outreach and the EQuITY program?
I enjoy the team here at Outreach and I really enjoy the collaboration with outside providers and being able to train more staff in different evidence-based practice clinical approaches.
What is something fun you are doing this summer?
Something fun I will be doing this summer is traveling with my friends and family and spending time with my children.
Yvonne Mann
What is your full name (first and last), suffixes, and pronouns
Yvonne Mann
When did you join Outreach?
2022
What is your title and your position’s scope of responsibilities?
I am a Community Outreach Specialist. I shake hands and kiss babies. I go out into the community to provide information about our programs and services and cultivate new relationships and those we’ve already established, and also to obtain new referrals.
Where are you from (and/or living now)?
From Alabama but have lived on Long Island for the last 50 years. I love Long Island because I get both the City and the county all in one here.
Where did you work before coming here?
I worked at the Long Island Coalition for the Homeless before coming to Outreach. But I met with Krista long before I came here. Everywhere I worked there was always a connection to Outreach. So, coming here was a natural transition.
What do you enjoy most about working at Outreach and the EQuITY program?
It gives me the opportunity to inform the community about how important it is to understand that there is a stigma regarding substance use and mental health. The time to dismantle that stigma is now. We’re in a crisis. We need to understand that it affects all of us, no matter your race, your economic status, or your religious affiliation.
What is something fun you are doing this summer?
I do stand up and spoken word performances. Already this summer I’ve done a few. I’m planning a few more before summer ends.
Thanh Pham, EQuITY Community Specialist
What is your full name (first and last), suffixes, and pronouns
Thanh Pham (she/her)
When did you join Outreach?
September 2023
Where did you work before coming here?
I worked at Hofstra University before coming to Outreach.
What is your title and your position’s scope of responsibilities?
Community Specialist for the EQuITY Team. Responsibilities include but not limited to connecting individuals to services and resources as it pertains to substance and mental health, offering and providing Narcan training, engaging with community-based organizations and the community at large to build partnerships.
Where are you from (and/or living now)?
I live in Suffolk County, NY. Born and raised in New England.
What do you enjoy most about working at Outreach and the EQuITY program?
I enjoy the collaborative efforts amongst the colleagues I work with. I enjoy working with the community and being able to connect people to resources and explain information in a way that is reachable, tangible, and actionable.
What is something fun you are doing this summer?
Soaking up the sun at the beach
Summer Hours Benefit is Back!
All full-time employees can take up to 14 “Summer” hours off (with their supervisor’s prior approval) between now and August 30th. But remember, if you don’t use the hours by August 30th, you lose them! You can use the 14 hours in a variety of ways by either taking two full days off, by taking one day off and using the remaining hours to leave work early on other days or by using all 14 hours to leave work early across several days.
While you can choose when and how you’d like to use the 14 hours, the time must be approved in advance by your supervisor to ensure that a work schedule update can be made in Timeforce and that there is appropriate coverage in your department. Participation is voluntary and only available to full-time staff hired prior to August 2, 2024. Any Summer Hours not unused by August 30th cannot be carried over. A summer hour pay (SHP) code was created in Timeforce by payroll for staff to identify use of this special benefit. Feel free to contact HR@opiny.org if you have any questions. Enjoy!
Outreach is Hiring!
Full-time and part-time career opportunities are available throughout the organization. If you are interested in any position, please speak with your immediate supervisor, and/or feel free to apply directly to the position by linking here: ADP Workforce Now – Career Center or, here: www.opiny.org/careers. If you have any challenges in applying for open positions listed on Workforcenow, please call the HR Department at ext. 2230 or email HR@opiny.org.
New JIRA Ticketing System for All Facilities and IT Requests
Effective now all maintenance and IT requests must be submitted through the JIRA ticketing system portal. Verbal or email requests to Facilities and IT will no longer be accepted. These new ticketing systems live alongside the existing AVATAR and HR desks, and are designed to streamline the agency’s ticketing processes, ensuring more efficient resolution of issues, and allowing the Facilities and IT teams to better prioritize and address your needs. To get started, please visit the JIRA ticketing system portal at https://bit.ly/OutreachJira, select the desired ticketing system, and follow the instructions to submit your request/s.
New Benefits for Outreach Cigna Users
For staff utilizing Outreach’s Cigna Health Insurance there are two new (no-cost) benefit programs now available for your use: The RecoveryOne® app, a virtual physical therapy platform that combines personalized, online exercise programs with physical therapist support and 1-on-1 health coaching to help customers recover from new injuries, chronic pain or surgery; and the Cigna Healthy Pregnancy® app is designed to help you and your baby stay healthy during pregnancy. For more information on these benefits, please visit ADP Workforce for more information or reach out to HR@opiny.org.
Outreach Staff Offered Special Discounted Registration for September 14 Annual Brower 5K Walk
Join fellow staff and community members for the 9th Annual John Brower Jr. Memorial 5K Walk on Saturday, September 14th, 10:00 AM at Jones Beach! Outreach staff receive a special discounted registration fee of $15. To take advantage of this special rate, please send your registration forms to marsharadulov@opiny.org by no later than September 12th. Registrations received after that date will be at the full price of $25. To learn more, download registration materials, and pay registration fee online, please visit the event webpage here: https://opiny.org/donate/brower-walk. Questions? Please contact Marsha Radulov at 718-847-9233 ext. 2310 or at marsharadulov@opiny.org. Let’s Walk Together – to Raise Awareness – to Support One Another – to Stamp Out Substance Abuse.
TCA Accepting Nominations for Scholarships for Direct-Service Staff Until August 23
Treatment Communities of America (TCA) is offering its annual Richard Pruss Professional Development Scholarship to one or more direct-service staff person(s) in the SUD field to assist them in furthering their education and professional development. Scholarships will be provided based on need and qualifications. Each award will be up to $1,500.00 and will be given out each year at TCA’s Fall reception (location TBD). Please note that the award cannot be used for course work completed prior to completing the Nomination forms. To learn more about this program and to access the nomination guidelines and forms please visit: https://www.treatmentcommunitiesofamerica.org/richard-pruss. Outreach’s Taisha Milord was a 2023 Scholarship Recipient!
Outreach Chosen as a Beneficiary of Buffalo Exchange’s Tokens for Bags® Program!
Outreach is to proud announce that our agency has been selected as a recipient of the Buffalo Exchange Tokens for Bags® program from now through December 2024. People can donate to Outreach just by shopping at Buffalo Exchange’s Williamsburg Store (link here). Buffalo Exchange buys, sells and trades lightly used vintage clothing at its 40 different locations across the United States. Instead of a plastic bag, the Tokens for Bags® program offers customers to make a purchase of one “token” valued at five cents (the cost to produce a bag) to donate to one of several local charities selected by each of their stores. To date, the program has generated over $962,840 for hundreds of local nonprofit organizations since 1994 and has saved over 19.25 million plastic bags from the landfill.
Outreach Annual Staff BBQ at OH II
A little rain at this annual Staff Summer BBQ didn’t stop everyone from having a wonderful day together. Held at Outreach House II once again, this year’s event included our intrepid COO in the dunking booth, hilarious pictures taken in photo booth, lots of games, delicious gelato, healthy smoothies provided by our partners at Cigna, and all the excellent and yummy food prepared our wonderful cooks. An important highlight was the annual Building Healthy Lives Awards, which this year honored 24 staff who were selected by their peers for demonstrating our agency’s core values, and the winners of this year’s Cigna Fitness Challenge. Congratulations to all this year’s winners (see list below) and many thanks to everyone who helped to make this year’s Staff BBQ so special.
2024 Building Healthy Lives Award Winners (listed in alphabetical order):
Sorany Acosta, OH II
Alexis Attardi, OH II
Areeba Babar, Bellport Outpatient Services
Marshee Barclift, REACT Center
Nikki Beirne, Bellport Outpatient Services
Oscar Bejarano, Men’s Community Residence
Natesha Blanchard, Richmond Hill CCBHC
Chelsea Forstel, Bellport Outpatient
Jennifer Iglesias, Suffolk Avenue Outpatient Services
Susana Maruy, Finance Department
Christy Mathurin, Greepoint Outpatient Services
Catherine Maguire, OH II
Dane McCarthy, ORC Outpatient Services
Alyse McCullough, OH II
Malik Miller, OH I
Thomas Olivo, ORC Outpatient Services
Takiyah Preston, Richmond Hill CCBHC
Barbara Rentz, Women’s Recovery Residence
Vanessa Saunders, Men’s Community Residence
Denise Schellenberg, Administration
Melvin Swain, OH I
Karla Tovar, IT Department
Amin Villaran, OH I
Donna Winding, Suffolk Avenue Outpatient Services
2024 Cigna Fitness Challenge Winners:
Kathleen Norman- Edwards- 1st (Bellport)
Christopher Baisely – 2nd (OH2)
Marsha Radulov- 3rd (Richmond Hill)
Outreach Fun Fact
Outreach House II, where this year’s staff BBQ was held, was first opened in 1991 in Brentwood, Long Island, to provide residential services for adolescents ages 12 to 17 from Nassau and Suffolk Counties.