Continue to do the good work you do. Together we do make a difference.

In this E-newsletter:

• What’s Up With RSCs
• Best Practices In New Hampshire
• How Do You Deal With…?
• Did You Know?
• Save The Date!
• New Hampshire Housing News
• How To Contact Us
• Archived Newsletters

 

Goodbyes and Welcomes: In October we said goodbye to Mandy Deshaies and Cheyne Foreman. In November we welcome two new RSCs in Manchester: Shayne Marshall at the E.J. Roy Apartments and Marjorie Zych at the Varney School.

RSC Vacancies: If you know someone who is looking for part-time work please contact Meredith Walker for Rush Square in Henniker (603-883-2942), and Sue Colwell for Bagdad Woods in Durham (603-641-2163).

NHAPSC’s annual meeting on September 11 elected the following slate of officers and committee chairs:

• Judy Vallari, President (Kearsarge Elderly Housing) – re-elected
• Lorraine Jost, Vice-President ( Parkhurst Place)
• Claire Lemay, Treasurer ( Laconia Housing Authority) – re-elected
• Anastra Madden, Secretary ( Cocheco Park)
• Carla Billingham, Education Chair ( Salem Housing Authority) – re-elected
• Emily Keith, Nominating Chair (Northern Community Management Corporation)
• Anda Tubalkain, Membership Chair ( New Hampshire Housing) – re-elected

Join NHAPSC or renew your membership by December 31st by using this 2008 form. Your state resident service coordination organization needs you!

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RSCs deal with many challenging behaviors and situations in housing. Sometimes a resident who needs help agrees to a referral to a REAP Counselor, but when that doesn’t happen you can try another approach to help the person that both educates and benefits others as well. Ask your REAP counselor to do a presentation on a topic that addresses the problem you’ve identified.

REAP Counselors offer a broad range of topics such as gossip, how to survive the holidays, depression and others. Click here for a list of topics offered. Even if the individual doesn’t attend, their neighbors may pass the information along to them. You can also give handouts to residents who don’t attend and offer to go over it or have the REAP Counselor come back and talk with them. REAP Counselors will also help you find a way to introduce them to residents in need of help.

At the request of Barbara Silverstone, RSC at Dearborn House, a REAP Counselor recently did a presentation on conflict resolution to a group of residents entitled, Accent the Positive, Eliminate the Negative. She used pertinent examples and humor to describe the toxic effect conflict can have on a community and taught simple helpful techniques to change the negative response. As a result, many residents reconciled with one another after not having spoken to each other in a year. Would something similar work for your complex? For a list of REAP counselors, go to the following links: REAP Counselors by region and REAP Counselor list).

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Another approach to managing difficult behaviors was discussed at the September RSC Roundtable held in Lincoln. This scenario involves a longtime resident who no longer takes part in activities because all her old friends are now gone and she isn’t welcomed by the newer residents because she insists that everything be done the way it was done when she was first living there. Does this sound familiar to some of you?

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Here’s a mental health resource for your residents. The National Alliance on Mental Illness NH (NAMI-NH) is offering a free eight week educational program for parents and primary caregivers of children and adolescents with serious emotional disorders. The curriculum will provide tools, strategies and information to help parents meet the challenges of parenting a child with emotional and behavioral disorders and to navigate and advocate for their child’s mental health needs. This program is taught by parents who have both knowledge and personal experience, and are specially trained in the program. The programs are ongoing and held in various locations throughout the state. Call Claudia at NAMI-NH to learn more: 1-800-242-6264 x 13 or go to http://www.naminh.org/ParentsMeetingtheChallenge.php.

Confused about the various groups available to you for networking and education? This may help:

NHAPSC (New Hampshire Association of Professional Service Coordinators) is your state professional organization and is run by RSCs from throughout the state. They meet four times a year and elections for officers and committee chairs take place annually. There are By-laws and a Code of Ethics. Meetings offer an educational component that can help you meet HUD training requirements as well as the opportunity to network with your peers.

The RSC Roundtable is facilitated by New Hampshire Housing. The Roundtable meets in various locations throughout the state four times a year and is about brainstorming around service coordination-related problems and dilemmas that RSCs bring to the table. Everyone is invited and you come when you can. An RSVP is requested for planning purposes.

The Housing Services annual training series is offered by New Hampshire Housing to enable RSCs and housing-related professionals to further their knowledge and skills and to meet HUD RSC training requirements. The 2008 annual series brochure is now available. You can register for the whole series or individual workshops.

The New England Resident Service Coordinators, Inc. (NERSC) mission is to expand and enhance the profession of Resident Service Coordinator throughout New England. NERSC holds a conference every year, rotating throughout the New England states. In 2008 it will be held May 6-9 th at the Grand Hotel in North Conway, NH! You won’t want to miss it. There were over 400 attendees last year and it got great reviews for the quality and variety of the education sessions.

The American Association of Service Coordinators, Inc. (AASC) is a national organization based in Washington, DC that provides education to service coordinators and advocates with Congress on behalf of RSCs. To learn more about the education opportunities and services they offer or to become a member, go to their website www.servicecoordinator.org.

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November 2007

• Thursday November 29 in Franklin: RSC Roundtable; 9:30am-12 noon with light lunch following. Discussion: Dealing with grief and loss in a community, and resident enrichment programs. Please RSVP to Pam Smart psmart@nhhfa.org by November 15. Click here for Roundtable flyer.

December 2007

• Tuesday December 4: NHAPSC holiday meeting and lunch at the Country Spirit in Henniker; 11:30-2:30 pm. Invitations will be forthcoming. For more information contact Judy Vallari: 603-456-3398.

January 2008

• Wednesday January 9: New Hampshire Housing’s first 2008 Training Series Workshop: Transitions: Loss, Grief and End of Life Challenges; 9:30am-12:30 pm at the Derryfield, Manchester. Go to training series brochure.

May 2008

• Tuesday-Friday May 6-9: NERSC ( New England Resident Service Coordinators) 10 th Annual Conference is in our state!
• Grand Summit Hotel in North Conway
• “10 Years and Still Moving Mountains!”
• www.nerscinc.org

• Thursday May 29: Annual Aging Conference at the Radisson Hotel in Manchester.

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New Hampshire Housing received a grant from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) to continue to support our Housing Counseling Activities , including the First-Time Home Buyer Seminars and the Housing Choice Voucher Homeownership Counseling Program. The grant will also help support the “Don’t Borrow Trouble NH” campaign.

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