News
April 29, 2020CAP COM Helps Crossroads Gain Needed Technology
CAP COM Federal Credit Union and the CAP COM Cares Foundation has supported Crossroads Center for Children with a grant to help the school achieve its final stages of a long-planned project to upgrade its technology and move from an on-site server to an online one.
CAP COM Cares Foundation’s mission is to “nurture our community by supporting large and small local organizations dedicated to improving the lives of families in New York’s Capital Region. Their support makes a $4,000,000 difference to local charities, with over 250 organizations receiving help. https://www.capcomfcu.org/community/our-mission.
Crossroads Center for Children is delighted and honored to be selected by CAP COM and to have this help to run this important program for our students. Kelly Young, Executive Director says, “During this current time of school closure due to COVID-19, this money is a God send to us, as it allows us to move forward with a project that is essential now more than ever. As we’ve had to move our entire service delivery to remote learning platforms for the time being, we are now able to move to the installation phase, which will be a huge help in us carrying out our mission.”
Crossroads Center for Children, of Schenectady, New York, is a nonprofit organization with a center-based school and a community based clinic. Young children with developmental special needs such as autism, learn and grow alongside peers with general education needs. The mission of Crossroads is to prepare individuals with and without developmental disabilities for life success within their family and community.
Since Crossroads opened in 1998 to serve just 5 children, the school has served increasing numbers of children with and without special needs, and they have increased the scope of our programs in order to meet the growing needs of the community. Their goal is to ensure that all of the students learn the functional, academic and social skills they need to be successful in their family, community and school classroom.
Although the school receives funding in the form of tuition payments, this money does not cover all of the costs of running a successful and effective educational program which is highly individualized for each and every students. In order to ensure that all learners acquire the skills they need to become fully productive citizens within their homes, schools and communities, Crossroads must rely on financial support from the community in the way of fundraising, donations, and grants.
Technology needs are great at an organization such as Crossroads. In this era, technology is tied into instruction and preparation inextricably. The technology development project’s objective is to help the students keep pace to some extent with what their counterparts in other settings are doing, to have similar opportunities for learning using technology, as well as learning to use technology, and to access new and effective programs, applications, and information when appropriate. The skills they learn help them to be able to succeed in other settings and to grow.
The school’s technology needs are many. Access to the internet, through a server, is a basic need to everything the organization does. The school has had an onsite server since inception, which they have outgrown. Computers are used by students and staff members in every classroom and instructional area, in their clinic and by offsite clinicians, as well as in all administrative and supportive areas of the program.
To donate or for more information, please visit http://crossroadcenter.org/, or call the school at (518) 280-0083 and ask to speak to Kelly Young, Executive Director.
